[2000-04-01-MCW-TV] Jerry Lawler vs Bull Pain

[Loss]

Dundee is the referee. This is probably the best Lawler MCW match so far. Bull got most of the offense and did some solid brawling. It's a shame the booking really sucked. I don't mind restarts and outside interference and all of that, but the manager (I'm tired of typing his stupid name, and I only typed it once) was horrible at interfering in his ref distraction spots, and doing a restart in a match that only gets five minutes is stupid. There is good work in this, but the match isn't even something I'd call fun because of all the crap it's drowning in.

[soup23]

Bull Pain is always going to be a bruiser character and we see that here in the five minute match with Lawler. I like people getting physical vs Jerry and this has the added wrinkle of Dundee being special guest referee. The dismay that Lance Russel’s voice has when Bull uses a beer can is humorous. The end is shitty with run ins, ref bumps, a Todd Morton chain and a pin for Bull. *3/4

[GSR]

This was the final of the Southern Heavyweight title tournament. Pain had advanced over Steven Regal via an incredibly lame DQ earlier in the show, and Lawler had defeated Masked Man #1 after a piledriver. Commissioner Bruce Prichard is absent and Guy Coffey can’t believe he’s missing the most important night in the company’s history so far. He therefore declares himself ‘acting’ Commissioner and as his first duty appoints Bill Dundee as the special referee for the tournament final.

 

Pain sneak attacks Lawler on the outside before he even makes it to the ring. When they get inside Lawler starts to fire back with some rights but Bill Dundee is in to warn him about using a closed fist. Bull with a headbutt and when ‘The King’ rolls to the floor, double axe handle from the apron on to him. Pain rams him into the ringpost and then cracks him over the head with a can of beer that Al K. Holic had given him. Lance Russell is getting more frustrated with Pain’s tactics and Dundee not enforcing the rules “this is a championship match and let’s have some championship reffing!” Sit down legdrop and Lawler gets his foot over the ropes to break up the pin. Al K. passes Bull some camera cable and he ties that around ‘The King’s’ neck and drags him across the ring. Instead of trying to put a stop to this, Dundee exits the ring and chases after Al K. Headbutt to the groin and as Dundee has words with Pain, Al is choking Lawler behind his back. Lance seemingly tries to get Dundee’s attention “Hey Bill, look at this guy!”, while David Jett tells him to stay out of the match as he’s supposed to be objective and impartial. He then accuses him of just being another of ‘The King’s’ buddies and wonders if this is Jerry Lawler’s birthday party? Dundee gets bumped after Lawler reverses an Irish whip and whips Bull into him, although even though he sees ‘The Superstar’ go down, he covers Pain! With the referee out of it, Todd Morton is down and decks ‘The King’ with a chain. He rolls Pain on top of him and a groggy Dundee counts the three. As Dundee is about to hand Bull the belt, acting Commissioner Coffey points out Todd Morton on the floor, explains what happened and ‘the Superstar’ restarts the match. Bull goes back to working over Lawler, but he telegraphs a backdrop and ‘the King’ counters with a piledriver. Morton is in to break up the count and Dundee calls for the bell disqualifying Pain due to the interference. Yup, they crowned their first champion on a DQ finish! After Dundee hands Lawler the belt, the three KAW guys attack them both as the show goes off the air.

 

I actually watched this one twice. First of all I’m not convinced that the venue is conducive for wrestling in the first place as the crowd always seems so quiet (don’t know whether they are or whether it’s the acoustics). As I was watching the opening brawl (which wasn’t bad), I kept thinking how this would come across better in the Memphis studios that Power Pro Wrestling use. From the moment Pain started to choke Lawler using the cable though, the match quickly went down the pan. Why did Dundee just leave the ring to chase aftrer Al K.? Why didn’t he DQ Pain? Lawler is a smart guy so why did he cover Bull when he knew the referee was down? I’m not a huge fan of restarts because more often than not the match is over soon after it’s been restarted (and that was the case here). The finish was beyond awful, especially as it was to crown the companies first champion. Lawler should’ve just got the pin after the piledriver and then been attacked by the Kick Ass crew. Worth watching for Lance Russell’s commentating and seeing him slowly get more and more annoyed with things, but that’s it.

[Moonsault Marvin]

I miss eye rakes on the ropes. You don't see that much anymore. I liked the brawling, and they used the weapons well. Dundee was surprisingly wimpy with his pin counts. The ending stunk with the restart and Lawler winning the title by disqualification. They should have left Bull Pain as champion after the pinfall. Average match.

[Lee Benaka]

I was much more forgiving of this match than other commenters. I didn't know this was the final of a tournament to crown a first champion. If I had known that, I might have been more critical. I thought this was a fun, chaotic match with a nasty beer can and chair shot early on. Lance Russell was awesome, as has been mentioned. Dundee did a weird ref job, but I was starting to think that this was part of an angle, especially when he had to see Morton in the ring and still counted Lawler to give Bull the initial win. I was happy to see the restart, and I thought the interference set up a good follow-up tag match. The manager was garbage for sure. I think the highlight was when the match threatened to turn into an Extension Cord Match. I was almost thinking the money mark behind this promotion owned a hardware store. **1/2

[jasch]

Add me to the list of those who enjoyed Lance. The match was OK, nothing we haven't seen a million times from Lawler.

[Edwin]

This did nothing for me as many other MCW matches have done nothing for me. They have all be sub 10 matches and unfortunately some of them end up like this — overbooked with interferances.

 

Dundee not selling Bull Pain’s strikes until he had handed Lawler the title was unintentional comedy.