Two Rare Pairings from WWA 1/10/92

I had no idea this show even existed, and it has two nearly exclusive pairings that are right up my alley! Murdoch isn't a guy I believe I've ever seen in a singles match against Kamala, and I know I've never seen a Lawler/Backlund match. Now, I suppose it's possible that I didn't know about these two specific matches because they are terrible, and there's good reason I haven't seen them spoken about. I'll know in about an hour! Also, I think it's amusing that while I'm excited for these two pairings, it's probably the least exciting pairing of these four guys. Lawler vs. Kamala is a proven banger, Murdoch vs. Lawler is a dream match that I don't think ever happened, Backlund vs. Kamala sounds insanely fun (picture Backlund lifting Kamala!), and Backlund vs. Murdoch could just be them making silly faces at each other and doing silly walks and it would be legendary. So we are left with arguably the least intriguing use of these men, but I am still into what we've been given.

Dick Murdoch vs. Kamala

ER: This was what I wanted to see from these two. Kamala throwing chops to the head, Murdoch punching Kamala in the face, Kamala locking on axillary nerve holds while Murdoch stomps on his bare feet to escape, all of it the best. Murdoch grabs Kamala by the beard and punches him in the nose, Kamala hits his mule kick in the ropes, Kamala jumps around great whenever Murdoch stomps those feet...and possibly the best part of this is that whomever is playing Kim Chee is at most 5 feet tall and at least 270 lb. This is the shortest roundest Kim Chee I have ever seen. If the match had taken place around 2008 I would have assumed this was Taz. Kamala chops ref Scott Dickinson, Murdoch adds a punch when Dickinson wanders back, and these two legends just punch and chop away. 10 year old me would have been in awe sitting in this crowd watching these two.


Jerry Lawler vs. Bob Backlund

ER: I already know this rules, because Lawler comes out in periwinkle tights with a magenta top singlet (matching socks and wrist tape too, my god), a combination I have never seen the King sport, another in a long line of gorgeously garish gear that Lawler sported in '88-'92. Those were the years Lawler discovered pastels, neon, and dayglo, and it ruled. Backlund appears to give a motivational talk to a 6 year old on the way to the ring, like actually kneeling in front of the kid and talking in serious but fatherly tones, tapping him on the chest approvingly. Then Lawler makes fun of him for it. This is already a classic. This file length is 40 minutes, and they squaring up at around 9, so I assume this is going long. But I love Lawler matches where he really takes his time, and the feeling out process here is great. They do some go behinds, couple body slams, Lawler goes for a couple single legs and just eats a bunch of mat, it's the best. Lawler missing those single legs was some of the funniest shtick I've seen, Backlund easily dodging out of the way while Lawler comically piles up on his face, like Wile E. Coyote winding up in a heap after coming up with an armful of Roadrunner's dust cloud. Our first strike comes six minutes in, Lawler pops him in the corner and Backlund levels him with an elbow, Lawler flying 5 feet and sprawling.

So Lawler finally grabs onto Backlund's arm, and we go into a long arm section. And Lawler and Backlund are two guys who are great at milking very simple arm work for nearly 14 minutes. Does 14 minutes of working an arm sound boring? Probably. It doesn't sound like something that would excite me either, if I read about it. But these two are such masters of micro reactions that I was not bored for a second. Lawler simply grabs the arm and wrenches it in the crook of his arm, Backlund always threatening to power out, Lawler punching him in the face when he gets close to doing so, it's great long play stuff. Backlund starts slapping at his dead arm and hand, the one Lawler is working over, wiggling his fingers to try and get circulation going. The visual of Backlund, arm tied up, using his free arm to slap his other hand, as if his entire arm was dead asleep, was such a fun thought and something that played great. I don't recall ever seeing someone do that before. And the longer armlock went, the more I wanted the tables turned, to see how Lawler would respond to having his arm yanked around. And brother, I got my wish. Lawler is such a great backpeddler, such a fun bumper, someone who will let all sides of a gymnasium see him react a different way. The ways he tries to scramble and get out of Backlund's grasp are classic, his near tantrums when he gets a foot close to the ropes only for Backlund to grab onto his other arm and drag him away from the ropes. I dig that old Backlund arm work, the kind where he fully extends his legs into his opponent, sitting there as if he just completed a leg press, and I love the visual of guys standing up out of that leg press arm bar. Lawler, unsurprisingly, has shtick that he can work around that. I love Lawler standing out of the armbar, arm extended, Backlund's feet pressing into him so that he can't straighten, reaching the ropes unseen by the ref, before getting leg pressed back to the mat.

We get a few close escapes, one almost leading to a Lawler piledriver, but Backlund backdrops him and hits a fantastic piledriver of his own. I've said before that while Lawler's piledriver is the best, he is actually even better at taking and selling piledrivers of others. He is a man who knows the piledriver frontwards and backwards, someone who understands everything about the move. His piledriver bumps are the best, always looking like he takes it right on his hairline and always looks like his head might snap off as he whips forward onto his stomach. When Lawler finally does go back on offense, he unleashes all the punches you want to see: his jab, his big haymaker, his standing fistdrop, his headlock punch, his fistdrop off the middle buckle (flying well past the halfway mark of a very large ring), all of the great Lawler punches on display. And if there's a flaw to the match, it's the sudden finish. For a match to go slow burn for 21 of its 23 minutes - and to work an engaging slow burn, the kind that felt like they were really squaring up for an epic - the finish they went with was more of an "oh, it's over?" reaction than a big earned babyface comeback. Basically, Lawler started punching the hell out of Backlund, hit that middle buckle fistdrop, picked him up after a pin attempt...and then Backlund ran him into the ropes and pinned him with an O'Connor roll and that was that. The O'Connor roll was nothing short of textbook, but it didn't really feel like it belonged as the finish to the match they had established. Overall though, I loved it. I have seen a huge quantity of Lawler matches, and this one was a unique standout, worked in a way that is very different than much of his output. It felt much more like a Backlund match, but with the expert flash of Lawler. A super satisfying combo.