[1984-04-09-CWA-Lexington, KY] Jerry Lawler vs Randy Savage

[Superstar Sleeze]

AWA Southern Heavyweight Champion Jerry Lawler vs NWA Mid-American Champion Randy Savage - Lexington, KY 4/9/84

 

Lawler ventures to Savage's home turf, but crowd seems split as Jimmy Hart is in Savage's corner and Savage is in total heel mode. I loved the beginning with Savage using the hair only to have Lawler really whip him down by the hair and Savage throws a hissy fit. Savage is really into taking walks to break the rhythm of the King. Savage is such a great character. If this was 1997, he would have decked a camera man or ring announcer that was all that was missing. Definitely one of all time favorite stallers. I wish wrestling had more bullshit stalling in it today. There is a great moment where if you pay close attention to Savage's face you see how terrified he is of Lawler's closed fist so he quickly yanks him down by the hair. Fear is a powerful driver and I love how that pushes him to cheat to avoid the dangerous Lawler right. Lawler does some real nice technical mat wrestling with a back heel trip into a headscissors into a sort of mini-piledriver. Very cool. Savage crawls out of the ring while in the headscissors and he is takes advantage to cheapshot Lawler and sends him into the post. Everything is focused on the head of Lawler and Savage is just relentless hitting him in the head whenever. He would run himself ragged to set up different ways to stomp or punch him in the head. The double axehandle to the floor is such a perfect move of the character Savage had cultivated. There was literally no place you were safe from this wildman. Lawler has to resort to throwing a drink into Savage's eyes and blasts him with a right one after another. They trade misses, first Lawler misses a fist drop then Savage misses elbow drop and then Lawler misses his top rope fist drop. I really like that sequence. This time Lawler is ready for Savage as he is coming off the top rope and nails him in the midsection with a fist. The King looks for the countout victory, but Savage has too much pride in his hometown to go down like that. This time it is Lawler with the low bridge to stop the Savage piledriver. STRAP DOWN~! Levels the Macho Man! Fist drop, but no ref thanks to Angelo & Jimmy Hart, Savage nails a piledriver. Still no referee and Savage gets frustrated leading to a Lawler roll up for the win. That was a very modern WWE finish. Again, I just did not feel like Savage vs Lawler reached that next level. I have seen their loser leaves town match a couple years ago and really liked that. Early on, I liked this better than the cage match because it was Savage and Lawler just ripping it up as their characters, but they have not put together that next level finish stretch. Both of them are coming back at will and trading spots with out that level of struggle and consequence that makes a match a classic. Still, again there is enough action that this is a quick watch and super entertaining. Still waiting for Lawler vs Savage the classic, but next up they actually tag up against Rick Rude & King Kong Bundy. 1984 Memphis was stacked! ****