As a young man who enjoyed performing, Andy Kaufman became a fan of professional wrestling and an admirer of professional wrestlers and the performance end of their craft. In the fall of 1977, Andy got the idea for a performance piece that would incorporate professional wrestling theatrics. Because of his small size, Andy knew that if he involved men in his wrestling piece, there was a real possibility that Andy could get hurt, so Andy decided that he should work with women to minimize the chance of injury.

Andy’s idea was that he would go town to town, like the old days of wrestling when it was a carnival attraction, and offer $1,000 to any woman who could defeat him in a wrestling match. Kaufman declared himself the World Inter-Gender Wrestling Champion and he would draw on his years of watching professional wrestling as he played the prototypical heel character. Kaufman would cut scathing promos where he would insult women to the point where there were scores of women who wanted to silence the big-mouthed IG champion.

Over the next 3 1/2 years, Kaufman successfully defended his title in over 400 matches either on a mat, in a ring or in a mud pit. His only defeat came in a non-title match at Chippendale’s in Los Angeles, California in a 6-on-1 handicap match. During this time, Kaufman began approaching professional wrestling promoters across the country, including Vince McMahon, Sr., with the idea of working an angle with a legitimate male wrestler. Not one of the promoters that Andy spoke with wanted any part of Kaufman’s story line because they felt that an actor pretending to be a wrestler would detract from the perceived legitimacy of the man who actually worked in the profession. The only promoter to show some interest in Andy’s idea was Memphis, Tennessee star Jerry “The King” Lawler, who was the booker for the Continental Wrestling Association. The two men met and began a relationship that would result in one of professional wrestling’s most memorable story lines.

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