Lawler Saw You Breathing, Saw You Staring Out in Space

Jerry Lawler v. Steven Richards WWF 2/25/01 - GREAT

ER: This was during Stevie's Right To Censor stint, and I'm pretty sure he feuded with the King because The Kat wanted to get naked all the time, or something like that. I know it shouldn't be shocking that people were juicing in 2001 WWF, but jeez when Stevie Richards is looking bulky then we have a problem. Both sides look great as Stevie in his short sleeves and tie/Ivory in her ankle length skirt look like Jehovah's Witnesses who knocked on the wrong neighborhood house and got creepy swinger couple Lawler and Kat in their leopard print bodysuit and silk robe. Lawler gets derided by people who don't know what they're talking about as having no offense, but Stevie is one of my all time favorite wrestlers with no offense. And predictably this is all Lawler and it's great, with him throwing all sorts of great punches that most wrestlers can't make look good (kneeling from the mount, standing 10 punches in the corner), as well as one of the nastier fistdrops I've seen him hit. Stevie bumps all over the place and is really good as a guy going into impotent rages every time he gets one-upped. Lawler even gets to throw a real bulldog (I thought WWF guys could only do those wimpy hand on back of head ones) and some nice DDTs. Ending is clunky as Lawler tried to get at Ivory for what seemed like WAY too long, allowing Stevie to recover, but then Lawler just ends up losing from a missed belt shot by Kat. Still, Stevie is a guy who feels like he would have fit real well into 80s Memphis, so this worked for me.

PAS: I really liked this, it wasn't long or anything but it was a very Memphis match. Stevie bumped around crazily as did Lawler, including one of his legendary post shots. All of the nonsense was really well timed, Ivory made a fine Nate the Rat, running in and interfering and the Kat's revenge spots always came exactly when they should. We always talk about Lawler's punches but he may be the greatest mounted punches in the corner puncher of all time. That is a spot that is almost always bad looking, but Lawler looks like he is killing people.  Also don't remember Lawler as the master of the DDT, but man did his DDT's look nasty. The kind of thing which would get built up for a couple of weeks on WMC and blown off on a Mid-South Coliseum card with a really strong Fabs match to really sell the tickets.


Jerry Lawler vs. Kamala JAPW 1/18/03 - EPIC

ER: Kamala was one of my favorites as a kid, but that was mainly because I always got suckered into freakshow wrestlers. I genuinely thought that Kamala was the toughest guy in his cannibalistic Ugandan village, and WWF had shipped him here in some sort of crate to compete with the world's best. And to this day I still like fatties and giants and freakshow workers, and there's nobody that works better matches against fatties and giants and freakshows (although Cena is in the conversation). What's crazy is this may be the best Kamala singles match ever. There was a really great Hogan match, and a Coliseum Video Bret Hart match that I remember digging, but this was notable for not only being a really awesome Kamala singles match, but a really awesome singles match with Kamala in his 50s! The opening cat and mouse stuff is fun with Lawler hitting his nice dropkick and Kamala flipping out. But it's when we go into the Kamala control segment that this gets really good, as we don't get the 5 minute nerve hold that grinds most Kamala singles matches to a halt, instead it's him breaking out a bunch of different cool strikes that Lawler flies around for. Lawler gives a master class in selling and bumping here, from stumbling and dropping onto his butt after a mule kick, to dangerously flying over the top rope to the rampway after a big Kamala chop. Lawler really makes Kamala feel dangerous here and Kamala mixing up his strikes gave him a new dimension. The Lawler comeback is as good as you knew it would be, with Kamala missing Air Africa (with Lawler timing it great as he really sits up at the last second), the strap comes down, he fakes Kamala out with punches (distracts with right, lands with great left jabs). The end is epic as he's about to land the 2nd rop fist drop, hesitates...and then goes to the top to land a top rope fist drop! I probably say this like every Lawler match, but the top rope fist drop here may have been his greatest fist drop of all time. Such an awesome match.

PAS: This was incredible. This was a nostalgia match in front of an audience who wouldn't be nostalgic for this match, this wasn't in Tupelo, this was a Jersey Indy crowd the worst of all the people and they were still able to captivate them. Kamala is a really fun character who rarely ever got it together for a great match, but this makes me want to see ever time he faced Lawler, because the King had this match formula down pat. This is Kamala in his 50's and his blood sugar was so high his sweat must have tasted like cake frosting, how is possible for this to be this good.The early comedy was great, Lawler took some insane bumps for an old man to get over the killer and the end was an awesome Lawler ending. Man why didn't I go to this match?

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE KING