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[1991-01-05-USWA Texas] Jerry Lawler vs Terry Funk


Loss

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  • 3 weeks later...

This match has a questionable structure and Funk no sells three consecutive piledrivers, but this is still an awesome spectacle in spite of all of that. Funk just creates such a scene at the Sportatorium and gets the crowd riled up into such a frenzy that I still think the positives overcome the flaws. This is probably on par with their 1981 stuff. This is a hate-filled brawl that really feels dangerous for anyone who gets too close to the action, which is an element you don't really see much anymore.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Wow this started out hot. One thing about Funk that makes him so special is you believe in the character that he is portraying. It could be crazy Terry Funk, Kind Uncle Terry, Terry the bounty hunter, Hero of Amarillo, Hardcore Legend, etc. Here he is as Terry Funk meniacle Terry Funk . You believe he is one dangerous SOB. The brawling in the crowd with those stiff ass punches. This was going great as a brawl like it was heading toward MOTY stuff. The 3 piledrivers were what they were but I got over it. Just the finishing sequence came out of left field and kept the match from being ass great as it could have.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Funk threw great punches against everybody, but he seemed to take them to another level against Lawler. Maybe I just prefer his offense in psycho mode to his babyface offense. This felt like 2/3 of a match, which is the only reason I'd put it below their 1981 outing in Memphis. But it was a great scene.

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Wild spectacle of a match with Funk doing his show and Lawler acting more like the base. The spot Lawler took into the ropes and poles for the fans was nasty. Funk also took some sick table bumps. One thing I will say is that I thing Craig Johnson has improved a lot since 1990.

 

It is hard to believe this is a week removed from the year I just finished watching. Everything feels so revitalized as December 1990 felt a lot like a reset month to me.

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Total war, with Funk throwing more incredible punches and both guys flinging themselves into the ringside table and posts, and Lawler breaking a particle board over Funk's head which makes a lovely popping sound. This is one of the stiffest matches in the history of a building that, while it's had a multitude of frenzied brawls, I don't really think of as a house of stiffness. Funk clotheslines Tony Falk and that draws a DQ. Sort of an '80s Japan structure where guys use weapons with impunity but abusing a ref ends the match. I'm just fine with that.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Scotty the Body hanging out ringside scouting the match. Bad time to go into a commercial break as Lawler was choking Funk with the barricade rope. Well he uses the microphone cord later to make sure us fans get to see it. Funk keeps trying to bring weapons into the ring but Lawler gets the better of it including breaking a board over Terry’s head. I can’t right off think of a time I seen an referee get irish whipped into the ropes, runs the ropes and then gets clotheslined. That gets Terry disqualified but he keeps the title.

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  • 2 months later...

I enjoyed this as a spectacle still and it is crazy Funk at his finest but also at his worst. The three piledriver no sell spot really annoyed me here and I didn't have a problem with him putting his foot on the rope to break the pin because it seemed natural with his staggered selling but there he was choking Lawler 20 seconds later. Good spectacle match but whereas on first watch I had this right behind Gilbert/Jarrett, I now have Gilbert/Jarrett firmly ahead of this match.

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  • 2 months later...

However many times I see them I never get tired of a Terry Funk punch. I thought this was a fantastic brawl, with Funk acting like an out of control madman. It's odd that it wasn't just considered a no DQ match for the sake of consistency. Most of what I have seen of Lawler is his comedy routine stuff in WWF. However many hardcore brawls they have in wrestling today, it just doesn't feel as real as this.

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  • 1 year later...

This was probably the best American brawl I've seen on the Yearbook series so far. If there was a weapon handy, these two used it, and they punched the living hell out of each other to boot. Everyone harps on the three consecutive piledrivers that Funk practically no-sold, but I can't think of one move by either man other than Terry's sleeper that was sold for more than five seconds, even the shot Lawler gave Terry with the board. Hell, I think Tony Falk did the best selling job of the whole bout with the bump he took off of the clothesline that got Terry DQed. For someone who supposedly hated hardcore wrestling, Lawler proved in this bout that he could more than hold his own in a match that was based mostly on weapon use.

 

The thing that really got to me was that the whole "technical loss" thing wasn't even paid lip service to. I guess that was used mostly for Memphis TV purposes to begin with, but if ever there was a blatant DQ by a champion to save a title, it was here. The thing was, they probably could have stood to do it in this case, since Terry was barely wrestling in the territory at all by now; if it wasn't for him being the mastermind of the whole bounty thing, there wouldn't even be a need to mention him on Memphis TV, and I doubt he did much more for Dallas. This just shows once again that no belt was as important as the physical presence of Jerry Lawler. Whatever the Kingfish happened to be doing was the main event, period. Sometimes I wonder why Jarrett even bothered with the Unified title, or indeed any title, in the first place.

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  • 1 year later...

One of the best things about Funk is his unpredictability. There's just no way of knowing what he's going to do next, and he creates a sense of chaos maybe better than anyone. The piledriver stuff was a shame, but I don't know, it kind of added to the match for me. Like Funk will just do whatever he wants and no one can stop him. Scotty the Body showing up was unexpected.

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  • 10 months later...

Loved this match overall - like someone else said, the first half is like MOTYC territory, but then it sort of goes off the rails. I still loved it, a lot due to the personalities involved. Crazy funk and the punching of both guys is always something I'm going to enjoy. Really digging this territory/promotion the most in the early portion of the year.

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  • 4 months later...
  • GSR changed the title to [1991-01-05-USWA Texas] Jerry Lawler vs Terry Funk
  • 1 year later...

Exactly what you can expect of these two. Great punches and even greater selling! This is a wild brawl with an enraged Funk going all over the place like lunatic. Lawler chokes out Funk with some wires, but the referee shows some leniency. This has a screwy DQ finish, but I thought that it worked for a TV match.  

★★★★

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