Lawler Don't Want to See You Now

Jerry Lawler vs. Gregory Helms WWE New Years Revolution 1/8/06 - GREAT

ER: Man I do not remember this happening. Lawler and a heel Helms getting 10 minutes on a PPV? Huh? I think this might be the only other Lawler WWE match to get 10 minutes (the other being the awesome Miz title match). Every other match of his seems to get cut to around the 5 minute mark so this was a treat. I don't know any of the build to this since I have no memory the match. I know Helms was the cruiserweight champ through a lot of 2006, so maybe this was him transitioning to facing heavyweights? Either way, give Lawler 10 minutes with a capable opponent and it's gonna work. Helms is a good foil for Lawler and he gets a long control segment. I love Lawler's fistdrop to Helms' nose here as I remember Helms had that broken nose face mask for awhile around this time. What's cool is a that spot is used as a throwback throughout the match as Lawler has Helms prone on his back early and hits the fistdrop, and later throughout Helms gets Lawler in similar positions, hitting a nice leg drop, knee drop and stomping his face. Lawler takes a gigantic bump to the floor that overshines even his own ring post bump, and if someone told you in 1999 that Lawler would be outbumping an OMEGA guy in 2006 you'd probably be pretty incredulous. Lawler going over clean sure wasn't what I expected, and I'm sure Helms didn't want to hear that either. Real fun hidden gem (that's oddly totally skipped over in each guy's Wiki page).

PAS: I didn't remember heel Helms or this feud, but I think Lawler going over clean was a sign that the rocket train to the top might have sputtered. I loved heel Helms in OMEGA, but I though he was a little bland on offense here, could have used a little variety. Lawler clearly was amped to be going long on PPV as he was working and bumping hard. It is weird to find hidden gems on WWE PPV's but this was a match that seemed truly unremarked upon before now.