[1990-08-31-USWA Texas] Jerry Lawler & Bill Dundee vs Gary Young & John Tatum

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Really fun match. Tatum sells a kick to the nuts like nobody's business (which I guess it isn't). Lawler and Dundee are really in their element as a babyface tag team here. I love the punch in the test of strength spot. Anyone who liked the Lawler/Dundee vs OMX match from the AWA set should really check this out, as it's very similar. Tatum is really the perfect guy to feed these types of spots, and Young holds up his own end fine. I've noticed that babyface Lawler never sells in Texas.

[PeteF3]

Tessa appears to be gone entirely. Hopefully the business didn't fuck her up too much in her short time in it. Akbar is also absent, having been crotched by Lawler earlier, and like the eye-based psych after the blinding of Jeff Jarrett, groin shots play a role throughout this.

 

"Tatum KNOWS he has more strength in his whole body than Dundee has in his little finger!" --Verbatim commentary from Pringle that may or may not have been intentional.

 

Somehow they work a hot tag despite this match being heel-in-peril literally the entire way. But the shtick is so good and Tatum and to a lesser degree Young are such brilliant stooges that it doesn't matter. Rod Price does a clumsy run-in and allows Tatum to steal a pinfall on Dundee.

[soup23]

I had never really seen the test of strength spot before but it was great. Another real schtick oriented match from Texas but super entertaining. Lawler/Dundee are slowly making a claim to the best tag team of 1990.

[Kevin Ridge]

Dundee takes Jarrett’s place as Jeff didn’t get medical approval. Dundee and Lawler run through a bunch of comedy spots. Not what I was expecting but they do them well. But with no Jarrett and Akbar around I guess you can lighten things up a bit. Heels finally get Dundee down but before they can do serious work Lawler is able to tag in. Rod Price drops a knee on Dundee Tatum/Young win.

[goodhelmet]

Jerry Lawler & Bill Dundee vs. Gary Young & John Tatum

 

- Great stuff early on with Young selling both Dundee’s and Lawler’s super punches. The tease of racking Young and crotching him on the ring post early on is really well done. I fucking love the way Young escapes the crotching thanks to Tatum bailing him out only for Lawler to come around crotch him and level him to the floor right before the break. Fucking awesome!!! When we come back ,Dundee does a crotch stomp on Tatum and he sells it like death and they try to crotch him on the ring post! Tatum regroups and as he stands there, Dundee just levels Young with a punch while he is on the apron. Dundee dares Tatum to a test of strength and Tatum is just laughing at him. During the test of strength, Lawler comes in between the two and punches Tatum in the face and he sells it like death. Fuck yeah! With Young back in, he wants a test of strength, and in a sweet spot, both Young and Tatum get punched in the face by Lawler and Dundee after Tatum tries to pull a Lawler and get in the test but Lawler meets him there. At this point, things pick up in a big way with Lawler and Dundee working great as a team but eventually Dundee gets caught in the heel corner. Back from the break, Dundee plays FIP and the heels work him over. Dundee gets a hot tag and Lawler is the legal man but as he is brawling outside, Rod Price knocks Dundee out and Tatum gets a pin on Dundee who is not the legal man. The finish was dogshit but the match was fucking great while it lasted. The comedic elements were funny but the psychology was sound early on. These guys probably had a MOTYC in them if this was the Mid South Coliseum. I need to show this to Phil. He would love this as much as I did.

[garretta]

There's really not a lot to analyze here. Lawler and Dundee control the whole way and make Devastation Inc. look like total jobbers. Ak couildn't have been too happy to find his stable so marginalized after years of running the scariest heel group in Texas, but so far he's been making chicken salad out of chicken droppings. At any rate, the heels have the advantage for only a few seconds and don't get it again until Rod Price's run-in allows a nearly unconscious Tatum to get the pin on Dundee. I guess they wanted to make sure there was life left in the feud when Jarrett came back to action, but this is another match where the finish doesn't negate what came before it. Lawler and whoever his partner may be are shown as demonstrably superior to any combination that the General may choose to put together.

 

Is it just me or was Percy at his most annoying here? Doing the whole match in his Paul Bearer falsetto doesn't help, and neither do his overly nitpicky criticisms of every move the faces make. If you're going to be that unobjective, you'd better be a first-rate comic talent like Bobby Heenan, and Percy isn't, not even close. His approach forces Craig into Vince McMahon-on-SNME levels of babyface cheerleading, which is just as annoying.

 

I like the constant teasing of crotch shots, since Lawler crotching Ak is what led to Ak's absence from the match in the first place (though we don't actually get to see video of the incident).

 

I notice that Percy mentioned Tessa, but the mention was no-sold by Craig. I guess she's gone for good, and maybe not on the best of terms.

 

Since I've already seen the mixed tag, I'm officially finished with USWA Texas for this year in terms of matches. I count four segments in the first two weeks of September, then it's adios until January of '91.

[dawho5]

Fun tag match with Lawler and Dundee working in their comedy spots really well. I have to agree that Tatum was perfect for this kind of thing.