Jerry Lawler vs. Bill Dundee CWA 8/22/77 - EPIC
PAS: Arguably the greatest one on one rivalry in wrestling history, this is another in their endless matchup. It is great whenever it happens, I saw them live when they were both in their sixties and it was awesome. This is one of their earlier matchups with a ton of stips (Lawler is putting up his Cadillac, the AWA Southern Title and his manager's hair, and Dundee is wagering his hair) and is one of the few we have with Dundee as a face and Lawler as a heel. We get classic slow starter Lawler, with both guys a little hesitant to engage early. Dundee works over Lawler's knee, with a clip, and a series of indian deathlock attempts. After that early section we get into the punching, which is what we bought a ticket for. Lawler uses a chain to open up Dundee and he just demolishes him in the corner with huge combos. The NWA rep at ringside stops the match because Dundee wasn't defending himself, and it felt like the kind of stoppage you would see in a classic boxing match. Dundee is able to convince the ref and NWA rep to restart the match, and is able to take back control after an initial fantastic Lawler swarm. We get a classic Lawler vs. Dundee slugfest, until Lawler misses a second rope elbow and Dundee lays an arm over for the pin. Didn't love the finish, a match this incredible needs a better climax, but still this is Dundee vs. Lawler in their primes and that is as advertised.
ER: I celebrate the entire wrestling feud and history of these men, two guys who routinely challenge for the best match of the year any time they meet, and this is them in their prime. It's the much rarer heel Lawler/face Dundee pairing (sadly we don't have any late 80s Miami Vice heel Lawler vs. face Dundee), and it has the great wrestling execution and build that you'd expect from them. I don't totally understand the stipulations, as Dundee is the guy challenging for Lawler's AWA Southern Title, and puts up his excellent head of hair. But Lawler - the champ - has his belt, his Cadillac, and manager Mickey Poole's hair on the line. What would make the heel champion put more on the line than the face challenger? Isn't that weird? Is Dundee's head of hair that valuable? Few heads of hair look more valuable, I admit. 1977 Dundee had the finest Prince Valiant. He looked like a jacked of Davy Jones.
The match had a nice slow build, some nice leg work from Dundee, building to throwing hard forearm shots to the chest, and then really peaking with Lawler throwing every single punch he knows at Dundee's head and torso. The match could have had nothing else of value and still been incredibly memorable if it had only contained this punch sequence. Lawler builds and builds to such a crushing wave of punches, nearly 40 unanswered shots that play as the ultimate worked punch clinic. It's one of the most amazing displays, Lawler showing off 7 or 8 different worked punch angles and variations, thrown better than any other wrestler in history. In the middle of Lawler beating Dundee senseless in the corner, showing off jabs that look like he's punching Dundee right in the bridge of the nose, Lance Russell proclaiming "I don't what's even holding Dundee up at this point, other than Lawler," the match is stopped by a ringside official. It's a great stoppage as it really does look like Dundee can't defend himself and is just eating increasingly worse shots from Lawler. Most matches that do worked stoppage finishes never end on something that actually looks like it should have stopped the match, but this really looked like Lawler was mercilessly beating a side of beef.
And that's why I didn't love the restart. Dundee argues his way into getting the match restarted, worried more about losing his hair than not winning the title, and runs right back into a Lawler pounding. Lawler's post-restart punch flurry is arguably the better half of his long punch sequence, as he goes off FAST on Dundee and eventually throws an incredible style of mounted punch that I don't think a single other wrestler could pull off: He throws free swinging left-rights down at Dundee's face, relying on the pinpoint accuracy and landing of his punches thrown from an angle with no net. Mounted punches are already the hardest punch to work, and Lawler takes away the one cheat by not holding the back of Dundee's head with one hand and throwing with the other. Just left-right downward combos thrown without the worked benefit of your opponent being able to whip his head back to absorb.
But I don't love how easily Dundee comes back, and how it really only takes a couple of well timed Dundee punches to completely derail Lawler. Other than those punches, Dundee doesn't get any offense in on his way to winning the title, and there's some awkwardness around them seemingly redoing the finish after the ref just stops counting at 2. Redone finishing range from unfortunate to really dumb, and this was more dumb, because they redid a really bad finish. Dundee wins when Lawler misses an elbowdrop. The first time Lawler misses a jumping elbow and that's when the ref stops at 2. So, Lawler gets up and misses one from the middle buckle, Dundee lies on the mat for an eternity, and then drapes the arm over Lawler. Lawler punched Dundee in the mouth for 3 minutes, but got put down by missing an elbowdrop. I am a fan of match restarts, but the finish after the restart actually needs to be good to make the restart good, and this was a bad finish. Dundee came back too easily and Lawler didn't take anywhere near enough damage to lose as he did. Dundee needed to have a strap down moment, not come back and work like Mikey Whipwreck without the height.
Verdict:
PAS: This was incredible stuff, and maybe with a better finish I could see it as a real contender, but Funk vs. Race is a strong contender for Match of the Decade and will be really hard to unseat.
ER: Race/Funk retains, but everyone should watch this match just to see the kind of magic Lawler can make with his fists. You're never going to see better worked punches. As an entire match, Race/Funk is the more complete war. But this Memphis crowd reacts to this one like it was the best match of 1977, and that's a win on its own.
Labels: All Time MOTY, Bill Dundee, Jerry Lawler, Memphis
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