On Brand Segunda Caida: Duke "The Dumpster" Droese

Duke Droese vs. Jeff Jarrett WWF Superstars 8/27/94

ER: This wasn't much of a match - the match itself ended fairly quick with a feet on the ropes JJ schoolboy - but the whole thing made for pretty great theater. Jarrett attacks Droese during his entrance and controls in ring, hitting a nice dropkick and axehandle and letting the larger Droese run into things as he dodges. Droese really worked like a guy used to wearing a back support lift belt, so he was really good at selling a stiff back. I worked at FedEx and he moved exactly like a couple of the drivers who were on lift restrictions, only able to lift 25 lb. and getting the driver next to them on the line to load heavy Dell computers into their truck for them. Droese does get a nice straight right but Jarrett wins with the feet on the ropes. And then the amount of energy put into the postmatch of a 2 minute match is charming and really made it feel like things mattered. Oscar comes out to let the refs know what happened, the second ref comes out to reverse the call and the triumphant announcement goes out that the match WILL be restarted and the crowd explodes over the fact that Duke Droese has another chance to beat Jeff Jarrett. Jarrett disagrees with the decision and leaves in a huff down the aisle, shoving Oscar off the apron in the process (and Oscar takes a nice bump to the floor) only to be met by Mabel in the entrance area. As Mabel and Droese close in, Jarrett opts to run away through the crowd, up the stairs and out of the arena. This was literally 2 minutes of match in a 6 minute segment, but the entire thing was super entertaining to me. Jarrett totally made the postmatch reversal work, flipping out and refusing to play ball. The fans really went wild for Droese, too. This would not have worked or have been interesting if the fans hadn't cared about him getting wronged. The only thing I disliked was this tease of a Mabel/Droese team that I don't think ever happened once. Have Jarrett start an uneasy alliance with Bigelow, and Bigelow/Jarrett vs. Droese/Mabel is a tag I would be so down for.

Duke Droese vs. Jerry Lawler WWF Raw 9/19/94

ER: Once I saw that the two best punchers in 1994 WWF faced off against each other, I couldn't watch this match fast enough. And it ruled. Obviously it ruled. Droese is no stiff, but Lawler made a career out of being the best worker in history against big immobile stiffs. So if Lawler is a master at working big immobile stiffs, clearly him working a big mobile guy was going to rule. The first half of the match is classic heel Lawler, grabbing Duke in a side headlock only for Duke to pick him up and just toss him across the ring. Lawler's facials during spots like that are perfection, as are the claims of a dual hair pull/tights pull. Lawler stalls around and bumps big for Duke (going down super fast for a Duke right hand, big hard backdrop bump, and takes a big spill to the floor, eats 10 punches in the corner and faceplants), and really milks every one of these moments. He bails to the floor after each big bump and spot, really works the crowd up into a lather by stumbling around ringside. He finally turns things around with a hidden weapon right hand, suckering Duke into a knucklelock and then clocking him with the right. From there it's all Lawler punches, a bunch of fast impactful left jabs, left right combos, and a big fistdrop from the middle rope. He even sticks Duke with an awesome piledriver, which leads us to our era-specific finish. Lawler wants to shove Droese into his trashcan - how humiliating, to shove a garbage collector into his own personal trash receptacle - but you guessed it, Dink is in that trashcan. Dink squirts Lawler with a squirt gun, and Lawler sells a squirt gun shot as well as anyone could. Even more impressive is he manages to chase Dink without catching him while also looking like he's really running. We get some comedy with Duke tripping Lawler, Doink coming out, Lawler getting counted out, etc. This was Droese's first feud (this match had been built up seemingly for months) and he really could have used an actual pinfall on Lawler. There were ways to do it that would give Duke the pin, and still protect Lawler. I think that pinfall visual would have really helped him, as opposed to eating a piledriver (and selling a piledriver really great, holding his neck with both hands and rolling around like he had learned to sell a piledriver from Tenryu) and triumphantly winning after Lawler got chased by a small clown.