Top 30 Thursday - Memphis #30. Jerry Lawler vs. Crusher Blackwell, 5/14/81

ER: Lawler vs. Monster is one of the all-time classic Lawler formulas, and the monsters don't come much better than Blackwell. I actually didn't remember this match placing this high. This seems like the kind of match that I throw in my top 10 and everybody else has bottom 50 (because they don't like fatties). But fatness always seems to just make matches float to the top of my ballot.

Crusher might be the fastest morbidly obese man I have ever seen. My dad was/is fat but nowhere near this fat (like 300), and one time when I was 11 we played in a father/son softball tournament and he turned a triple into a single. Not a fast man. I couldn't ever imagine him gaining 100 lb. and doing any of the stuff Blackwell does here. Right from the get-go we get Crusher hitting a great dropkick and then just sprinting across the ring for a corner splash. Dude is just crazy agile and everything he does has such awesome impact. Lawler takes a huge beating here, taking tons of splashes and suplexes and holy LORD Blackwell's punches in the corner saw him out punching Jerry! I mean, it helped that Lawler leaned chin first into all of them but fuck those punches. Also, Blackwell threw the mother of all fist drops here. I'm a man who loves even the worst fist drops, and this one was just a thing of beauty. And good lord the elbow drops!! Each one nastier than the last!!

But also, Lawler. Lawler Lawler'd like only Lawler can Lawler. The punches, the selling (his missed fist drop sell off the middle rope was an all-time great Lawler sell. It felt like MY hand was fucking broken, the way he limply was holding it and just...ouch). Finish was logical and maybe Lawler took TOO much of a beating, but who cares. This was great and one of the all-time Lawler/Monster matches. I'm glad others loved it as much as I did.

P.S. Lance Russell was great here too. Short version of this post could have been "Match was great and stuff looked painful".


PAS: In many ways this match reminded me of the John Cena v. Brock Lesnar match earlier in the year. Local babyface comes across an impossibly athletic monster who just overwhelms him. Lawler is a notorious slow starter (which is a great Lance Russell line) and he gets blitzed by Blackwell who just looks amazing. Little by little he finds his moments though, and is able to squeak out a victory using guile and guts. Blackwell is great here allowing little breaks in his facade while still feeling like a steamroller. Really enjoyed rewatching this and it got me very excited for all of the AWA set Blackwell.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE JERRY LAWLER

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