Lawler v Dundee: For all the Marbles!

Bill Dundee v Jerry Lawler (Dundee's Hair v Lawler's Title & Car) (Memphis, 8/22/77)

What a fucking match. I'm positive I'd seen a clipped version in the past, but this is the full version that became available a while back, possibly as part of the 70-TV.com footage released a few years ago. I'd already watched the build up on those 70-TV discs and it really is wonderful. They went back to this feud countless times over their careers and the way they managed to find new ways of keeping it fresh is pretty amazing. The opening here is more cagey than usual for them, but the stakes are as high as they've been in their eternal feud to this point. So it's understandable. Dundee's hair is on the line, but more than that if he loses he'll have to listen to all of Lawler's grandstanding on TV about how he told everyone he'd beat the little runt. Lawler's title and car are both at stake and what's a king without his crown? And in Memphis, a king without his Cadillac? So is his dopey manager's hair but I expect Jerry cares substantially less about that (I don't even remember the manager's name now and I don't think he was around very long. He was no Jimmy Hart, obviously). So it's real tentative and Lawler spends most of the first five minutes skirting the peripheries of the ring, always arm's length from the ropes. I love how Dundee played it cool, though. He never got riled, never got drawn in, just kept patient and waited for his chance. He eventually gets it by kicking Lawler in the knee - which was apparently damaged in another of their recent matches - and going to work on the leg for the next few minutes. Lawler does this great sell of it where he keeps the bad leg turned away from Dundee, still staying close to the ropes in case he needs to grab them or outright escape the ring. Dundee is dogged in going after the figure-four, gets closer to applying it with each attempt, but Lawler manages to fight him off every time. The one time he just about managed it Lawler turned onto his side and yanked Bill off his feet by the tights, so Dundee improvised and applied a sort of side of  side on figure-four using his hands for pressure instead. Lawler takes over with a short bit of revenge leg work, but it doesn't last long before we get to the fists. He brings out the chain, opens Dundee up, chokes him with it, grinds it in his cut, bites him, the full playlist. Then before the ref' can catch him in the act he drops it back out to his manager and goes about the rest of his business with bare knuckles. You know what you're getting with the punches. Both are GOAT-level punchers and several dozen GOAT-level punches are thrown. There was one awesome Dundee flurry where he was peppering Lawler with shots, circling around him as he went before dropping him with an absolute jaw-jacker. But Dundee is losing blood and before long he's on his last legs. This was some truly incredible last legs selling. At one point Lawler had him in the corner just lacing into him and you bought Dundee only being upright because Lawler's presence in front of him kept him from falling on his face. It gets so bad the NWA representative in attendance calls a halt to the match, but of course Dundee is having none of it. Lawler is naturally pissed at the restart, immediately jumps for the mount and unloads with this unreal barrage of shots. Just a total "will you fucking die already?" response, the kind of thing you see in a big dramatic murder scene when a character's pushed beyond the brink and they're left staring at their hands, all their fury spent, wondering how they were capable of doing that to someone. Except Lawler knew from the start he was capable of it and he still had fury to burn. The finish might've been a wee bit anticlimactic, but you soon forget about it with the post-match, which was very Memphis in its execution (thus, awesome). I'm not sure where this sits among the very best of Lawler v Dundee, but it's an absolute corker and probably somewhere around their top 3 singles matches.