All Night Long the King was Howling

Jerry Lawler v. Tazz WWF 9/24/00- GREAT

ER: We already reviewed the first match between these two and that was an awesome brawl with great build-up. This is the follow-up strap match and starts out just as awesome. Tazz ambushes Lawler right when Lawler's strap is secure, trips him up, dumps him with a cool suplex, chokes him in ways that look legitimae enough that it makes me tug my shirt collar away from my throat. Out to the floor and Tazz starts berating JR, just like in the last match. And just like that match it allows Lawler to take over and start whipping Tazz. The shots land great, all over Tazz' back and head, and I'm way into the match at this point. Back in and Lawler teases the piledriver and I'm sure it will get reversed, but he nails it...and Tazz no sells it. Just pops right back up. Another piledriver, Tazz pops back up. A third piledriver and Tazz pops back up. I'm pretty far into "fuck off" territority at this point, even when Tazz eventually sells the third one by doing a delayed faceplant. Raven debuts after that and DDTs Lawler ("That's Raven! He doesn't have a contract here!"). I guess if somebody had to no sell a bunch of piledrivers it might as well be a guy who has no neck. Match ends with the Tazmission which is confusing as I thought it was "touch the corners" strap rules. Great first 4 with a flat final 90 seconds. Like if Breaking Bad had ended with a resurrected Mike killing Walt.

PAS: This is a surprisingly great feud, might be the best in ring stuff of Tazz's career. Tazz was a viscous fuck early, just choking the hell of Lawler, and his shit talking was pretty great. I like how the bully let his mouth run and it cost him as Lawler times a comeback better then anyone in wrestling history. I actually didn't have a problem with the piledriver no-sell which is usual a spot I hate. Tazz never went back on offense and it looked less like a Hawk no sell then a stubborn guy not knowing when to stay down, if there isn't a faceplant it would kill the match, but I kind of liked the spot with it. Finish was Raveny which is always worse then Ravenless. First match was better because of the satisfying finish, but this was really worth watching.

Jerry Lawler/Chris Jericho v. Tazz/Raven, WWF 9/26/00 -FUN

ER: Pretty typical 99-01 TV match. All the guys work hard for 2 minutes, Lawler and Tazz roll to the floor causing everybody in the crowd to look up the ramp, X-Pac runs in confirming their run-in suspicions, whiffs his first kick so much that Jericho doesn't realize he was supposed to sell a kick, Raven wins after the interference. Lawler got to blast Tazz with a great middle rope fist drop, Raven had a surprisingly cool roaring elbow, and an even cooler roaring back elbow. Harmless, fine, not memorable.

PS: I liked this more then Eric, sure it was a throwaway 4 minute TV tag, but it had a fair amount of energy and I liked all four guys in this, and Lawler is the only guy I normally like. Really felt more like a short Nitro match then a short Smackdown match as they really went a workrate go-go style. Raven's Misawa tribute was pretty weird (and how the fuck is Raven alive and Misawa dead?) and I liked how he snuck in a DDT at the end. Lawler is a guy who knows how to work a short TV match and make it compelling and he brought the energy.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE KING