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Post by philschneider on Sept 1, 2018 22:04:05 GMT -5
On paper very few things are more exiting then a previously unseen Dundee vs. Lawler stips match. I love this match up enough to fly to Nashville to watch them wrestle each other when they were both in their sixties, so an uncut in their prime battle is pretty much wrestling Christmas. This was a straight classic too, both guys at the height of their genius.
Dundee was such a killer in this match, he attacks early and often and never lets up. I cannot think of a wrestler in history with more swag then Dundee and he was at his apex in this match. Dundee on this night was Jimi at Woodstock, Steve McQueen in Bullet, Pimp C in the International Players Anthem video, he was at his peak. Pounding Lawler all around the ring with huge shots, sending Lawler flying into violent bumps, grabbing the ring stantion and kidney shotting Lawler with it, double stomping Lawler right in his gut, strutting around the ring basking in his glory. I loved him using the no DQ stip to potshot Lawler little high school buddy Jerry Calhoun, "I am going to kick your ass, and your tag along pal's ass too".
The highlight of the match for me, is after all of Dundee's onslaught, about 15 minutes in, we see Dundee landing lefts and rights and Lawler starts to stiffen, he drops the strap, like he did hundreds of times before, and hundreds of times after. Today though was not the day for that, and Dundee just flattens him with a left hook and starts stomping Lawler. Just a perfect inversion of a tremendous wrestling trope. I didn't mind the finish, as it felt like a comeuppance for all of the abuse Calhoun had taken all match, and left Dundee perfectly justified to send Lawler packing the next week.
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Post by elliott on Sept 2, 2018 23:08:27 GMT -5
Where is this???
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Post by jetlag on Oct 30, 2018 9:23:52 GMT -5
2nd
This is Lawlers wifes hair vs. Dundees Southern Title. It's 80s territory wrestling baby! I love coming home late at night and discovering a previously unseen match in what is arguably the greatest matchup in US wrestling ever has been uploaded. And this is another fucking classic in the pantheon. And it's a great showcase for Bill Dundee as he is basically an unstoppable killing machine here as he beats the shit out of Lawler and Calhoun for +20 minutes. Dundee has about a dozen great punch variations and he makes Lawler his punching bag. Nearly the entire match is Dundee kicking ass and while it can be hard to make a 10 minute control section compelling it is no problem for a wrestling master like Bill Dundee. His demeanor along with Lance Russell commentary made you believe that this short australian psycho would damn well beat the shit out of every single person in that arena. He beats Lawler so bad Lawler can't even make a strap drop comeback. I can't remember that happening in any other match. Arena environment comes into play with Dundee using those chain bareers and steel posts in painful ways. It's Lawler/Dundee so you get some big Lawler bumps (including Lawler getting launched into the ringside announce table), a great hope spot, clever transition and the greatest damn punches you've ever seen. The finish worked as a perfect payoff too and considering these two would produce another super classic a week later there's nothing to grief over. |
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Post by gramsci on Jul 9, 2022 5:18:27 GMT -5
Anyone has a link for this match?
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Post by KB8 on Nov 7, 2023 11:44:21 GMT -5
The greatest matchup in US wrestling history produces yet again. We're all absolutely stunned, I'm sure. I remember when this was unearthed and a bunch of us on PWO did a bulk buy of the Memphis TV discs, eager one and all for a brand new Lawler v Dundee match, unedited and in pristine quality. How it's taken me damn near 10 years to watch the thing I'm not sure, but it was worth the wait. As an aside, this iteration of the Lawler/Dundee feud is my favourite. The build up from the October angle on TV to the first blowoff a week after this is just magic pro wrestling, then they keep Lawler off TV for three months and he comes back with a vengeance and they have the full blowoff in July '86. That October angle might be the best bit of TV wrestling ever produced. Dundee trying to goad the Fabs into a match against him and Lawler by saying he and Lawler are the best team in the world despite the Fabs having the tag belts, Lawler trying to diffuse the situation, Dundee then calling him a chicken because he's not interested, Lawler saying he doesn't want to be Dundee's partner anymore and Dundee clocking him; it was brilliant. Then on the same show Dundee - who was absolutely incredible through the whole thing - convinces Lawler to put the belt on the line right there on TV, which leads to Dundee winning the thing by hitting Lawler in the eye with a chain-wrapped fist. The post-match angle with Lawler asking for a title shot and then threatening to smash Dundee's car to bits with a baseball bat if he doesn't accept was also brilliant.
And then eventually we come to this, with Dundee's southern title on the line against Lawler and his wife Paula's hair. Dundee was a terror here, possibly even more so than a week later where he spent about 60% of the match punching Lawler in his partially blinded eye. Lawler wasn't blinded at this point but Dundee took even more of the match. This was like 90% Dundee; by far the most I've seen him take against the King. Luckily Bill Dundee beating the brakes off someone works a treat and just about everything he did here looked amazing. Obviously the punches were spectacular, but there were little vicious moments on top of the punches that elevated this to another level. At one point he hit a running double stomp that looked fucking brutal, and then later he hit one off the middle rope that I thought ruptured Lawler's spleen. Anything Lawler tried in response was promptly shut down and once or twice Dundee did it by doing the exact same thing Lawler had originally tried, only better and with more venom behind it. Lawler goes for an armbar early in the match and Dundee immediately reverses it into a hammerlock, then gets Lawler on the mat and repeatedly stomps on the arm. Lawler finds himself standing on the apron after Dundee had chucked him over the ropes a minute earlier, so Dundee just runs over and bounces him off, Lawler flying into the announce desk and ringing the bell with his forehead. Dundee tries to choke the life out of Lawler with the security rope, throws him sternum-first into the stanchions that hold those security ropes in place, then picks one of them up and smashes it into Lawler's kidneys. Dundee even takes a second to climb the turnbuckles and do his little jig on the top rope, then as Lawler climbs back in the ring Dundee walks along the top rope like a trapeze artist before dropping down and clobbering Lawler yet again. While Lawler was woozy on the mat Dundee even took the opportunity to stomp on his fingers. Every chance he had to inflict some sort of punishment he took it.
With Dundee taking so much of the match on offence it naturally meant Lawler spent the majority of it selling and bumping and absorbing all of that offence. If it wasn't for his performance a week later it might've been my favourite Lawler on the back foot performance ever. He was getting rocked from word one, selling the beatdown even in those fleeting moments where he was able to mount something resembling a comeback. When he hit the piledriver he couldn't even capitalise, had to take a beat just to gather himself before covering, and by then Dundee had recovered. It was practically Lawler's first serious offence in the whole match so it made sense that Dundee wouldn't stay down for long, and shortly after that Dundee was back to cleaning his clock. The way they flipped the big Lawler comeback was amazing and maybe the best part of the match. Lawler had gotten next to nothing so when he whips down the strap you think things are going a different route. But then Dundee fucking drills him with a haymaker and Lawler's right back on the canvas. He wrestles about half the match with the strap down getting pummelled. When he tries his next big comeback towards the end, strap already down, Dundee reverses it again and dumps him over the top rope.
I guess I could go either way on the finish, but taken in context, given what they were building to a week later, I think it works. Dundee had taken multiple swipes at referee Jerry Calhoun throughout the match and Calhoun had taken his licks like a trooper. When Lawler finally builds up a little steam Dundee tries to get ahead of it, pulling a chain out of his trunks, knowing that even a little momentum for Lawler could go from snowball to avalanche. He comes flying out the corner to hit Lawler, but Calhoun grabs the arm mid-punch and that allows Lawler to roll Dundee up for the 3. I guess it was a banana peel, but at least there was a nice bit of comeuppance leading to it. It's about as close to payback as you'll get for a referee without them going full Gene Kiniski.
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