Happy 71, Lawler!

Jerry Lawler vs. Shawn Michaels WWF Raw 8/14/95 - GREAT

ER: This wasn't a super common pairing, and I wish we had more of these two against each other. There were a couple Rockers vs. Lawler/Dundee matches from the late 80s, some Lawler/Michaels USWA stuff from '93, and most of that doesn't exist on tape. They have two Raw matches a few months apart, and this is the first of those. I'd really like to see the 1993 matches just because it would be face Lawler/heel Michaels and the Raw matches are obviously heel Lawler/face Michaels. Face Michaels during this era (and most eras) is pretty unbearable, because usually one of the things you really want from your babyface is for them to actually be likable. 1995 Shawn Michaels is the opposite of likable, but luckily the Raw crowds always reacted super strongly to Lawler as a heel, and he knew exactly how to play these 2,000-4,000 size venues. 

Lawler bumps around for Michaels and gets befuddled by quickness, and we get an excellent Lawler gag that I don't think I've ever seen. This was a Raw crowd, so of course they were loudly chanting Burger King (I don't know who or how that chant ever started, but what a godsend for a heel, and I have to believe Vince tried to set up some kind of sponsorship deal) while Lawler stewed. He gets Michaels on the ropes and rears back for a punch, yelling to the crowd "How's THIS for a Whopper!?" before of course missing the punch. He takes a big back drop bump, eats jabs from Michaels (nice ones), and there's a cool piledriver reversal where Michaels falls forward as Lawler drops to his butt (so Michaels lands on his feet as Lawler sits down) and then pops Lawler with a shot to the jaw. Lawler misses more offense than he hits (he gets a nice vertical suplex and a fistdrop), but his missed offense always looks so great. The way he gets thrown off balance by a missed clothesline is body movement that every wrestler should seriously study. He takes big back bumps on every piece of Michaels offense, and down the home stretch he misses a superfly splash in super painful fashion. Sid runs in for the DQ so no finish, but these two worked a hot match with the great chemistry you'd expect.

PAS: This was really good, true 90's battle of the mullets. I really liked Lawler's pratfalling early, as Michaels just dumped him on his butt or face multiple times. The piledriver counter was really crazy, kind of thing which you might see in a reversal heavy indy match theses days and scoff at, but was pretty unique here. Some of the Lawler beat down was during the commercial, which was a shame because what we got was cool, that Lawler fistdrop is always totally clutch. This had a real pace to it, you don't think of Lawler as a workrate sprint wrestler, but he can push pace with the best of them.  The finish was a bit deflating, but I would have loved to see what these two could do with more time and in a different setting. 

 Jerry Lawler vs. Flash Flanagan USA Championship Wrestling 11/26/20 - FUN

ER: It doesn't get more Pro Wrestling than a man in his early 70s shaking hands with dozens of people in the middle of a viral pandemic while on his way to the ring to wrestle Thanksgiving night on a memorial show for his deceased son. Flash Flanagan gets on the mic and - bless him - brings up a 23 year old grudge, blaming Lawler's interference for his loss to Brian Christopher in the quarterfinals of the 1997 WWF Light Heavyweight Title tournament. 2020 Flash looks more like Bull Pain than anyone who was ever considered a Light Heavyweight, and I am totally fine with that as wrestling needs Bull Pains more than it needs Light Heavyweights. The match itself is probably the most disappointing Lawler performance we have on tape. He slaps Flash, takes a lot of punches, and hits his Stunner - an undying relic and the worst thing Lawler ever added to his arsenal - for the win. But viewed as an overall piece we get a real nice Flash showing, as he throws plenty of great jabs to set up right hands, and I'm honestly not sure why we didn't just get 8 minutes of them throwing jabs at each other. Now, Lawler being a man in his early 70s likely is the reason why, but it has to take more energy to throw a Stunner than to throw a punch, so who knows. There is some gold to be found after the match (small amounts of gold, maybe dental gold?) when Flash throws the ref around, beats Lawler around the ring, we get a Lawler strap removal spot after Flash swings and misses with a broomstick, and Flash gets punched to the floor. It's time for me to stop expecting actual matches from Lawler, a legend who really should have stopped booking gigs after his heart attack, but I will still senselessly be expecting 80 year old Lawler to be having good matches against 85 year old Bill Dundee, because I have dumb wrestling fan brain. 

PAS: Jerry turns 71 today, and he finally kind of seems 71. Most of the run time of this match is mic work and stalling. Flash gets a couple of minutes of great looking punches to Lawler, and they were really great looking. Flanagan felt like a classic 70s-90s Memphis worker. Even in his dotage Lawler can still sell punches as good as anyone. He does his strap drop hulk up and then just hits a stunner and pins Flash. I think bumps and moves may be in the rearview mirror for Jerry, but I imagine he can still do timing and punches until he is 90. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE KING