DON'T Let Lawler Walk You Home from School, DON'T Let Him Meet You at the Pool

Jerry Lawler vs. Tazz WWF 8/27/00 - GREAT

ER: I don't remember this feud at all. This was right in the middle of my college years, so there were plenty of weeks where I was worried about doing things other than watch pro wrestling. Believe me, I still watched plenty of pro wrestling (and probably mentioned that too often to girls), but it's not like I set my schedule of classes up so that I could still watch Raw and Smackdown live (or I actually almost always did that). Either way, I don't remember this feud.

So the hype video alone for this is enough to make me go "GREAT" on this. I really loved Tazz egging on JR, JR slapping him and Tazz asking him for more, and then Lawler bursting through with one of the greatest punches man has ever seen. Tazz sold it great, too, sprawling out into camera men. The rest of the build up looked super fun as well, with Tazz shattering a window with a pipe (right next to where JR was sitting! Jesus!) and Lawler hilariously ambushing Tazz by jumping off some shelves covered in cardboard boxes and punching him, and Tazz hitting Lawler with a headset (with Lawler getting awesome color from it!).

Match itself is exactly what I wanted (except for a moment or two, although one of them was a MAJOR moment). Lawler jumps Tazz while Tazz is shit talking JR, and Lawler's run of offense to start is really well set up. Lead with a dozen punches, dropkick Tazz into the turnbuckles, and hit your awesome falling clothesline after he's stumbling back from the turnbuckles. Tazz' offense aged mostly pretty well, and 2000 Tazz may be worth some revisiting. His best looking move was his thrust kicks to a fallen Lawler. Now they were helped by Lawler leaning cheekbone first into them, but I loved how they looked, painful with a strong hint of condescension. Also I loved how every time Lawler transitioned back to offense it was because Tazz was talking shit to JR.

Tazz was real great at shit talking and JR was great doing it back to him. [as he's clubbing Lawler] "Look at him JR, you scumbag!" to which JR responds, "Yeah, I see him." He was like a high end Barry Darsow with the shit talking. Overall Tazz aged better than I thought he would, even pulling weird things out of his hat like a crazy missed swanton.

Then he had to go and no sell a piledriver like all of us expected he would. That was lousy. It COULD have derailed the match, but thankfully it did not. JR got involved in a way that perfectly wrapped everything up and this whole thing was just wonderful.

PAS: I am going to second the love for the build up, I vaguely remember this feud but don't remember it being this great. Lawler has the greatest sneak punch in wrestling, that shot on Tazz in the set up was as good as his 2011 Ted DiBiase jaw jacker. Man even seeing blood in WWF 2000 (not exactly 1986 NWA) really makes you miss it in the current action.

I was really surprised to see how much 2000 Tazz was bumping, I remember the whole shooter gimmick being a work around that Paul E. created because his neck was fucked up. So it is really weird to see him working the WWF up and down bumping style and even missing a top rope flip senton. The no-sell of the piledriver was gross, but I guess it set up the finish. Still reminded me why I used to hate Tazz after liking him for lots of this match. Ross smashing the water glass on Tazz's head was a great call back finish, and this is a perfect example of how to work this kind of blow off match, and another example of how badly they shit the bed with Wrestlemania.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE JERRY LAWLER