| Brian Lawler | |
|---|---|
| Ring name(s) | Brian Christopher[1] Brian Lawler[1] El Unico[1] Grand Master Sexay[1] |
| Billed height | 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)[1] |
| Billed weight | 213 lb (97 kg)[1] |
| Born | January 10, 1972 [1] Memphis, Tennessee[1] |
| Trained by | Jerry Lawler[1] |
| Debut | 1988[1] |
Brian Christopher Lawler[1] (born January 10, 1972)[1] is a professional wrestler. He is the son of color commentator and professional wrestler Jerry "The King" Lawler[1] and brother of wrestling referee Kevin Christian.[2] He is perhaps best known for his career in World Wrestling Entertainment, where he performed as Grand Master Sexay as part of the tag team Too Cool with Scotty 2 Hotty and Rikishi.
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Lawler began his career as one half of the masked tag team "The Twilight Zone" with Tony Williams under the individual ring names of Nebula (Lawler) and Quasar (Williams). They both soon unmasked, Brian continued to wrestle in the United States Wrestling Association under the name "Too Sexy" Brian Christopher. He was used as a top fan favorite as well as making his mark as one of the promotion's top villains. There, he feuded with wrestlers such as Jeff Jarrett, Bill Dundee, Tom Prichard, and the Moondogs, and even his father Jerry Lawler. Among his partners were Tony Williams (as the New Kids), Doug Gilbert, Scotty Flamingo, and "Hot Stuff" Eddie Gilbert.
Brian joined the World Wrestling Entertainment in 1997, still known as Brian Christopher, and began to compete in the fledgling light heavyweight division. Taka Michinoku defeated him in the finals of a tournament for the Light Heavyweight Championship. In mid 1998, he started teaming up with Scott "Too Hot" Taylor to form the tag team of Too Much. For a while, he and Scott Taylor played up a quasi-homosexual angle that involved them speeding around on scooters/mopeds and culminated with Too Much riding off on the back of the Disciples of Apocalypse's motorcycles.
For a while, when Brian was known as Brian Christopher, his father Jerry Lawler didn't publicly acknowledge that Brian was his son, although after Paul Heyman revealed that fact on RAW, Jim Ross (Jerry's broadcast partner) always hinted at it. A notable example of this was during the Light Heavyweight Championship match at Judgement Day 1998 between Taka Michinoku and Christian, when Jerry Lawler reveals that he wants to see more of Brian Christopher - to which Ross replies "Haven't you got some baby photos?".
In late 1999, Brian and Scott adopted the ring names Grandmaster Sexay and Scotty 2 Hotty, returning after a hiatus, and later becoming faces. Their tag team was renamed Too Cool, and were later joined by Rikishi, becoming three of the company's top fan favorites. They enjoyed an immensely popular run as Too Cool, as well as success in the tag team division, defeating Edge and Christian in May 2000 on Raw to become the Tag Team Champions. They were even occasionally involved with top-card feuds, notably being enemies to the McMahon-Helmsley Faction and their associates, such as The Radicalz, Edge and Christian, and T & A. The trio's run ended in late 2000 when Rikishi was revealed as the man behind the wheel of the car that hit Stone Cold Steve Austin at Survivor Series. Shortly after, Rikishi turned heel and turned on his teammates.
While Scotty was sidelined in 2001 with a broken ankle, Lawler formed a short-lived tag team with Steve Blackman and was later released from the company for illegally conveying drugs across the Canada–United States border.[3]
On February 24, 2002, at the second WWA pay per view in Las Vegas, Lawler wrestled WWA Heavyweight Champion Jeff Jarrett for the title, but lost. In April 2002, Lawler wrestled in a fatal-four way match for the WWA World Heavyweight Championship at a house show for World Wrestling All-Stars but lost to Nathan Jones, Scott Steiner and Jeff Jarrett.
From June 2002 until April 2004, he worked for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling as Brian Lawler. He formed a group called Next Generation with fellow second generation stars David Flair and Erik Watts. They were involved in a rivalry with Dusty Rhodes and harassed him with a replica of the NWA World Title belt that he wore when he was champion.
In April 2004, Lawler was signed back to the WWE roster as Jim Ross's last act as WWE talent scout. He only appeared in 4 matches, one against Kane, one against Wavell Starr, one against Christian, and the last one against Garrison Cade. He was later released after only one month with the company. Prior to his release, Lawler was scheduled to take part in a Battle Royal for the number one contender for the World Heavyweight Championship, but he was replaced by Maven.
Since his departure from WWE, Lawler currently wrestles for several independent promotions, including Memphis Wrestling and UWF Live. While in UWF Live, Lawler reunited with Scott Garland and they reformed Too Cool as Grandmaster Sexay and Scotty 2 Hotty respectively. On November 21, 2009, Lawler reunited with Rikishi, and the duo defeated Orlando Jordan and Umaga in a tag team match on the Hulkamania Tour of Australia in Melbourne. He also has appeared for Nashville based promotion SAW in 2010.
On the March 14, 2011 episode of Raw, Lawler returned to the WWE as a heel in a segment between Michael Cole and his father, Jerry Lawler, where Brian would side with Cole, saying that he felt that Jerry never cared for him and that he was ashamed to be his son. Lawler indirectly agreed, telling Brian that he was a bigger screw-up than Charlie Sheen. Lawler also told Brian in the following exact words "just the fact that you would associate yourself with a jackass like Michael Cole tells everybody here tonight what kind of a person you are".
Lawler was arrested in February 2009 for disorderly conduct.[4] On June 26, 2009, Lawler was arrested for public intoxication just before 3 am. According to the police report, Lawler "became very belligerent" once in custody, and threatened the police officer who arrested him.[4] On July 13, 2009, Lawler was jailed for 30 days after failing to attend an in-patient treatment center as part of his plea agreement.[5]