[1993-12-20-USWA-Mid South Coliseum] Jerry Lawler vs Jeff Jarrett

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Really, really, really fun match. Heel Jeff Jarrett does his best Heel Jerry Lawler performance in a 27 minute match. Lots of stalling early, grabbing the mic and making threats to audience members and such -- this is pretty important if anyone wants to go back and look at good Jeff Jarrett performances. Lawler is good here too when the action gets heated, but this is a Jarrett performance through and through. Nice piledrivers and slugfests. Those who love Memphis will love this. It's not a great match, but it's definitely worth seeing, and is as good or better than much of the really pimped Memphis matches.

[Matt D]

Heel Jarrett is actually a massive breath of fresh air after how stale face Jarrett had gotten.

[Kevin Ridge]

Jarrett has the Double J theme entrance and moniker in Memphis. Wanted to like this more with the amount that aired but still a good one. Jarrett hell turn is refreshing and he has fully embraced it with the stalling, getting on the mic and repeatedly insulting the fans. I thought Lawler was more of a passenger just going around in cruise control until he pulls down the strap. Jarrett pulls down his own strap and backs Lawler into the corner with punches. But then Jerry one ups him!

[PeteF3]

Jarrett is now in Double J mode, going by that name while coming out to his WWF theme that I've always hated. After all the talk about Heel Champion Lawler's style, I'm pretty over Jarrett's stalling and constantly going to work the mic at this point. After the initial time-wasting, the action here is pretty good, and in some ways Jarrett carries himself as a heel champ better than Lawler did--no chains, and when Jarrett declares that he's now ready to fight instead of wrestle, he actually acts on it and starts kicking Lawler's ass. All the punch exchanges were good, and so was Lawler's multiple-piledriver payback even if *two* ref bumps are pretty ridiculous. Lawler dropping a fist on Frank Morrell so he could give Jarrett another piledriver got a legit laugh from me, though. Worth watching to see Jarrett adapt to the heel style after six years as being nothing but a babyface.

[garretta]

I'm of two minds about this one. I realize that Jeff needed to show the Memphis fans that he really was a heel now, but the constant stalling didn't do anything for me at all. It may be that he'll get better at it as he finds and hones his heel persona, but right now it feels like he does it just to fill time. Once he made the "I came to fight" speech, things picked up exponentially.

 

Another thing I could have done without were the two nearly-identical ref bump sequences. I know Frank Morrell used to be a wrestler, but any match with two ref bumps has one too many, especially when as I said the sequences were nearly identical, with each man hitting two piledrivers. Since Lawler was winning the title back, I would have eliminated the sequence he controlled and kept Jeff's.

 

Lawler seemed a bit off his game, like he wasn't really sure how to work with Jeff as a heel. He got back in the ballgame toward the end of the match, though, and it's a shame that this series didn't contunue, because once they found their stride fully, it would have been a classic.

 

I wonder what kind of promo the Double J character was in Memphis, and how they explained his sudden desire to become a country singer, if they even bothered to try. Also, since Lawler and Vince were still on the outs for obvious reasons, I'm wondering if Jeff used the Double J gimmick here with or without Vince's blessing. It certainly looked like Vince was on board (how else would the MSC have had a copy of Jeff's WWF theme music ready and waiting?), but I'd like to know for sure.

 

Corey wasn't nearly as annoying as usual, but the constant time calls were a bit much toward the end. He made up for it with a classic call: "Life's all peaches and cream! Lawler wins!" That call alone is almost enough to make me forget how clueless he's sounded over the past few years. Almost​.

[soup23]

Fun Memphis style brawling match that was used to put over Jarrett as a heel threat. He stalled and pulled out all the greatest hits and shortcuts. I think the match being so drawn out actually was helpful as it didn’t cheapen the match and the finish with Lawler winning felt more satisfactory. ***1/2 (7.1)