It's been almost 17 years since I last watched this. I guess I forgot just how good it was because I came away from it this time thinking it might be THE Jerry Lawler masterpiece. Maybe not his best MATCH - although a phenomenal one all the same - but his performance in it is about as good as any I've ever seen. It wasn't a carry job by any stretch and I'll talk about Bigelow in a minute, because he was amazing here too. The King was mesmerizing, though. The way he sold all of Bigelow's shots, the way he showed hesitancy and how cautious he was in engaging with Bam Bam, the way he communicated the STRUGGLE of going up against this guy, it was exceptional. Lawler's start was cagey, maybe because he knew deep down that he was indeed a slow starter and if he let Bigelow build up steam early it was over. So he picked his moments and his weapon of choice was the jab. Those shots stung more than anything, certainly not enough to put Bigelow down, but they clearly annoyed him and maybe Lawler was using them to goad the big fella into something. When it goes to the floor Lawler finds himself up against the ring post - perhaps through happenstance, perhaps through strategy - and when Bam Bam throws a punch Lawler ducks and Bigelow cracks the post. When they get back in the ring Lawler offers up a test of strength and I love how Bigelow really wanted to go for it, probably because he knew he'd win it without much trouble, but that's with two hands and he only had one good one at that point. Eventually he bites anyway, shielding that bad hand as long as possible. Then Lawler dotted him with a hook like you and I and probably even Bigelow always figured. And really this was an amazing Bam Bam performance. He'd been wrestling for all of 13 months so it would hardly be unfair to suggest Lawler was leading this, but it wasn't Lawler throwing all of Bigelow's shots for him and it wasn't Lawler bumping around for his own punches. Going through the '86 Crockett footage I've said about a dozen times that Magnum TA looked like the future of the business, but Bigelow looked absolutely spectacular here and there's a universe where he stays in Memphis another few years and Magnum never gets into the car accident and Magnum v Bam Bam for the world title headlines Starrcade '89. After Lawler duped him into the test of strength Bigelow obviously decided he wasn't about to get popped in the mouth again and from there he went to the headbutts. These were like the Ted DiBiase fist drops of falling headbutts, just crushing Lawler's ribcage with every blow. Sometimes he'd jump into them and those ones looked even nastier. His punches to the gut looked awesome too, lifting Lawler fully off the ground like he was trying to punch a hole through him. He never forgot about that bad hand either. Even though he threw body shots with it, punches to the belly are not the same as punches to the skull, and when he lamped Lawler with a haymaker to the jaw late on he immediately sold the hand. Despite losing several falls Lawler won't stay down, and you can see Bigelow start to tire the longer it goes. In the last third of the match he just lay on Lawler with a sleeper hold that was more rear naked choke, really grinding Lawler down with his weight while preserving as much energy as possible for another rally. When Lawler gets cut open Bigelow even applies the Iron Claw and starts biting the cut so that was another awesome thing in this match. Even before Lawler makes the big comeback Bigelow is visibly gassed, throwing his hands up in frustration and sagging against the ropes as Lawler beats yet another 10-count, and then when he does rip the strap down you wonder if getting beaten from pillar to post wasn't part of the plan. Maybe he'd survived long enough for Bigelow to punch himself out. A truly exceptional match and one of the very best of the decade.
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