Jerry Lawler vs Bill Dundee (LLT v Hair - CWA - 12/30/1985)

I actually hadn't watched this since the DVDVR Memphis project, which was a whole ass 15 fucking years ago now. When I last submitted a ballot (2020) I tried to only include matches I'd seen within the previous 10 years, but this was so vivid in my memory that I still had it top 10 without the re-watch. I wanted to do it justice this time, though.

And motherfucker what a match. Right now it's almost certainly going to be one of my three highest ranked matches from the US, and possibly the highest. Just a pair on unbelievable performances, possibly (probably?) the best of both men's careers and the bar on that is HIGH. Dundee's onslaught in the first half is absolutely incredible stuff. Maybe the best punches ever, but everything else he did looked sensational as well. The way he fuckin headbutted Lawler in the face as a cut-off was amazing, he was throwing sharp elbows, booting him right in the face, hitting top rope fist drops, and all of it was zeroed in on Lawler's eye. He was ducking and dodging, circling a half-blind Lawler, peppering him over and over, the perfect shark smelling blood in the water. Then he'd showboat and strut and at one point made the finger gun gesture and pulled the "trigger" as Lawler was lying flat on his back. It might be the greatest heat segment ever and it resembled the first fall of a bloody lucha apestas match, where the technico essentially gets nothing. Lawler's selling was of course spectacular. It might not just be HIS greatest sell job, but the greatest sell job of anyone ever. The way he was staggering around, throwing wild misses, absorbing shots from the literal blind side, taking punches while falling, trying and failing miserably to get a foothold, it was basically perfect. I think he got two punches in during that first 10 minutes and one was an absolute corker from a kneeling position, but not nearly enough to swing the tide.

Obviously the clip in the middle is infuriating. Still, the music video at the end allows us to fill in some of the blanks and at least piece together where they went narratively. We see Dundee getting more and more frustrated, even going for the top rope whoopie cushion. Then we see how Lawler managed to drag himself back into the fight and of course it was with the piledriver. Plus, while it sucks that we missed a Lawler comeback, when we join the action again he still has the strap up, so we sleep well in the knowledge that we never missed THE Lawler comeback. Dundee getting yeeted face-first into that table was fucking amazing and then they end up on the stairs after Dundee tries to hightail it with his wife. Lawler taking that bump over the rail was total Puerto Rico, the sort of thing where you're thinking "he won't actually take a bump off that" and then he fucking does. Dundee basically pleading with Calhoun to count Lawler out while Lawler stumbles back to the ring was a great moment, and then they build to the comeback of all comebacks and the last couple minutes are off the charts with them fucking annihilating each other with punches. Even if you think the finish is a bit of an anti-climax given everything else they'd unleashed on each other, I still love the idea that Dundee brought it home by throwing something in that bad eye.

micro said on the previous page that this is the pinnacle of the minimalist Memphis style and I'm inclined to agree. I mean I love Memphis anyway, so the very best of Memphis is obviously going to rank high for me. What a phenomenal wrestling match.