Jerry Lawler participated in the 2012 Royal Rumble match but was eliminated by Cody Rhodes after just 43 seconds. Fellow commentators, Michael Cole and Booker T also competed with Rhodes eliminating Booker and them both eliminating Cole. On the April 30th episode of Raw, Lawler competed in a Beat The Clock challenge but was beaten in the finals by Daniel Bryan who earned a WWE Championship match at Over The Limit. On the July 9th episode of Raw he was granted his rematch with Cole and won but the GM overuled the decision and Santino Marella revealed the Anonymous GM to be Hornswoggle. On July 23rd during Raw 1000, CM Punk attacked The Rock and Lawler proclaiméd that Punk had turned his back on the WWE Universe. The following week, Punk defended this and was involved in a confrontation with Lawler and Jerry apologised. On the August 30th episode of Raw after John Cena refused to say that Punk was the 'Best in the World' seeing as Punk had been WWE Champion for almost a year, Punk told Jerry to come in the ring and say it. When Jerry refused, Punk attacked him. On the September 3rd episode of Raw, Lawler asked Punk for an apology but after Punk mocked him, they faced off in a steel cage match that night with Punk winning and beating Jerry down after the match until John Cena made the save. The following week on Raw, Jerry teamed with Randy Orton to face CM Punk and Dolph Ziggler and won. However, later in the show Jerry suffered a legit heart attack on commentary during a tag team match between Kane and Daniel Bryan and Darren Young and Titus O'Neill. He was taken to hospital and his life was saved. He returned to WWE on the November 12th episode of Raw but his return was interrupted by CM Punk and Paul Heyman who mocked his heart attack.