Lawler Thinks He's a Mystery to All

Jerry Lawler vs. Jackie Fargo CWA 7/2/74 - GREAT

PAS: This is a Southern Championship match with the ring surrounded by a mesh barbed wire fence with the ringposts wrapped in barbed wire. I am pretty sure we get the vast majority of this and it is a true treat. Lawler is full on heel champ with Sam Bass at ringside passing in a foreign object and choking Fargo against the wire when the ref was distracted. This was a match of pretty much nothing but punches, wire shots and chokes, but man these are a pair of guys who can work a chokes, wire shots and punches match. Fargo may be the only wrestler in the world who can out perform Lawler in a punch off, and he was awesome here, the finish run is pretty much a wild exciting boxing match with both guys using combos, feints and head movement, just electric stuff. I didn't love the end as it felt like we were building to a classic crescendo and we didn't really get it, but man I am happy this surfaced.

ER: Is there any other wrestler other than Lawler who can boast really great matches 38 years apart? I guess probably Funk, but we don't really have a fair amount of mid 1960s Funk to judge. This is a barbed wire match worked in a way I prefer these type of matches worked: No time wasted on "I'm struggling to push your face into the wire while you're struggling to avoid having your face pushed into the wire". This is just two guys fighting and punching each other hard while leaving the barbed wire to the seconds or to gravity. Lawler punches Fargo and he falls into the wire ropes? Awesome. Gives more of a focus to actual face punching with the wire as more of a stimulus to get back out there and fight. Lawler looks like such a rough ass here, with his shaggy hair, sideburns and mustache. He looks like a guy who kicked the shit out of the drummer from Molly Hatchet at a backyard barbeque. People in attendance still talk about that BBQ! Lawler's punches are so perfect here that it made me wonder if there was ever any stage where he had weaker strikes and had to refine them. I wish I knew what they looked like on his first day of training. A great thing about Lawler is how he sells a punch the way he'd expect a punch to be sold for him. His falls for some of Jackie's blows were tremendous. At one point toward the end when he's just hammering Fargo with jabs, Jackie swings wild and connects, and Lawler goes down like Nate Quarry. I didn't actually see Jackie's punch coming at that point, and the way Lawler sold it made it look so great and genuine. *I* didn't see it coming, but Lawler was flawless in conveying that *he* didn't see it coming either. This match was such a treat.

Jerry Lawler vs. Kamala IWC 12/3/05 - FUN

ER: This was a shorter, lesser version of the awesome match these two had a couple years prior in Jersey All Pro. This still has its moments, just way less of them. Previous match had Lawler bumping big all over for a bunch of different Kamala strikes, this one has a much shorter Kamala control segment and much less big bumps. The cat and mouse stuff and comedy from the beginning of the last match is cut down to practically nothing as we get the foot stomp spot but none of the early Lawler stick and move spots. This felt like much more of a touring house show match that they could have in their sleep, as opposed to the other one feeling like a major Memphis arena main event. Throw in tons of unbearable open-mic-at-Yukz Larry Sweeney commentary and that probably doesn't help things.

PAS: It probably isn't fair to judge this in comparison to the JAPW match, but it is difficult to avoid. If we hadn't seen that match I imagine I would have been impressed Lawler could work a match around an old Kamala, but after seeing that match I am much more aware of what isn't there then what is. Lawler takes over after a missed avalanche rather then a missed big splash, Lawler with a second rope fistdrop rather then a top rope one. I imagine the crowd enjoyed this, and Kamala was older at this point, but this was more of a tease of something then something substantial.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE KING