Kaufman was very talented, and very unusual. However, challenging pro wrestlers was foolish. They may be choreographed, but what they do requires real fitness, strength, and training.
Welles himself crossed lines and blurred boundaries: Witness how much Citizen Kane was a one-man creation.
He narrated the original version of Tales of Mystery and Imagination by Edgar Allen Poe, by The Alan Parsons Project.
That recording did not appear in 1976, but was released in 1986.
The Kaufman wrestling thing was all a gag. He and Lawler had worked it out. He did enough training, and practice. He never got hurt. It was 100% kayfabe. Kaufman requested the ambulance from the mat, he paid for it. He and Lawler were. All an act. An act that made wrestling national and Vince McMahon rich. But an act all the same.