Morton is billed as being 193 pounds here and that feels about 60 too many. This was basically Lawler doing his Memphis version of heel ace v babyface challenger for ten minutes on TV. I'm a dweeb and spent a goodly amount of time a few years back comparing how Flair would work those matches in Atlanta to how Bockwinkel would work them in Minneapolis to how Rose would work them in Portland. I haven't really seen a ton of Lawler working that kind of match in Memphis, largely because he spent almost all of the 80s as a babyface and also because 90s Memphis/USWA is a blind spot. I guess ultimately the broad strokes of this were the same as they'd be for those other guys, but it's a match dynamic I'll always like and I thought this was fun as fuck. Morton won't put up with Lawler's nonsense and takes him over with the headlock, so obviously Lawler complains about his hair being pulled. Morton goes back to the headlock - cleanly - and as Hart runs distraction Lawler reverses it into a headlock of his own...by pulling the hair. Morton's bumping is already pretty great, and I know it's easy to say this now but you could tell that skinny young man was going to be awesome. The leg work in the middle ruled and I loved Lawler digging the knuckle into Morton's kneecap, loved Morton's burst of offence, loved him standing on one leg as he went back to the headlock, loved how that gave Lawler the opening to take over again. His knee-high tackles looked great as desperation spots and like any good version of a match like this he made the people believe he might actually have a chance. In the end his only satisfaction would come from kicking Jimmy Hart in the mouth, but he put up a hell of a fight and Lawler made him look like a threat. You can't ask for too much more.
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