Jerry Lawler v Jack Brisco (Memphis, 9/16/74)

Watching something like this really highlights the scope of Lawler's career. Guy's had killer matches in five different decades. FIVE. That's nuts. He's 24 years old here. I don't remember my biggest achievement in the twenty fourth year of my life, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't competing for a World Title in front of ten thousand people (though I once wrote up a training program for a guy that later got banned from our gym and thrown on the beast register for flashing in a public swimming pool, so maybe that's my claim to fame). This is kind of clipped up in points and doesn't really escalate into something epic, but I dug all of the early parts a lot. There are clear portions of the crowd that are pro-Lawler despite him being a heel at this point, and they pop huge for him reversing or rolling through on armdrags. Jack is always so animated when he's in holds -- he never looks like a guy who's content to just sit in a headlock and kill some time. There's this great bit where he's working Lawler's arm with an armbar, really grinding his knuckles into the shoulder joint. He lays the arm out flat and "handstands" so he can drop the knee, but as he comes back down Lawler shifts around and grabs him in a bodyscissors (and you see a big group of guys jump around celebrating). You know that Lawler scoring the pin after popping Jack with a chain-wrapped fist is going to be reversed, but it gets a pretty huge reaction before that happens. Not on the level of either guy's best stuff, but it's these two. You know it's worth your time.