I'll get this out the way first. The clipping absolutely does my head in. Clipping in every match is a bummer, but this is particularly infuriating because it feels so haphazard. These weren't strategically placed commercial breaks, or inserted in a way that was designed to make it look like we never missed anything (joshi promotions seemed to be the master at this, for whatever that's worth). I think we get four cuts in the first five minutes and each time we come back there's a difference in how the two of them are selling, so we know something of substance just happened. It always feels like those cuts mess with the pacing, worse than it does in most matches, never mind any as obviously incredible as this one. And the fact it IS incredible makes it worse. It's something I've never been able to shake and it kills me that we don't have the full picture of this match, even if we only miss about seven minutes in the end.
But setting aside that thing that isn't even the wrestlers' fault, this was of course a fucking tremendous bitta the pro wrestling. The early stages nailed that proper big fight feel, a perfect blend of aggression and hesitancy befitting the stakes. Lance calls it the biggest match in the history of the Mid-South Coliseum, and you believe him, for who are you to doubt the dulcet tones of Lance Russell? Those first few strikes were great. Lawler tags Dundee with a quick backpedalling shot that puts him on his arse, Dundee checking his teeth while looking at Lawler with unveiled contempt. Lawler tags him again coming out the corner, so Dundee responds with two of the greatest bulldogs ever seen. Lawler takes the first one right on his face and Dundee had that headlock in tight enough that I'm not sure Lawler could've shaken him even if he'd legitimately tried. Lawler's reversal of the third one leads to a reset of sorts, with Dundee having to regroup and plot another course. Even with those bastard jump cuts the opening minutes had a few resets like that, where Dundee had to peel back before approaching things from a different angle.
And Dundee really was the story here. It's one of his all-time best performances, a man who would not stop. He was all over Lawler like a rash and the King of the Mountain segment is one of the best ever. Lawler takes a wild bump to the floor, one that you think is only going to be teased when he grabs hold of the ropes, until Dundee kicks him in the gut and Lawler flies back off the apron. The camera shooting it from the opposite side of the ring made it look like Lawler was heaved off a cliff. Dundee then batters him - literally - from one side of the ring to the other, Lawler repeatedly trying to climb back into the thing only for Dundee to ram him into the post or kick him in the eye. Lawler's table bump off the apron is a corker and the visual of him lying on the concrete with one side of his face covered in blood was incredible. But that was where Dundee fucked up. He was relentless up until then. He should've pressed the advantage, picked clean the carcass when Lawler was ripe for it, but instead he either settled for the count out or figured he'd finish things when Lawler crawled back in. Instead Lawler had time to recover for once and when he dropped that strap you wondered if Dundee hadn't undone all of his good work. The last time I watched this I thought the comeback came off a little sudden, but this time that 9-count before he made it back into the ring felt like just the right amount of distance needed to make it work. Dundee going for broke only to get decapitated by the greatest uppercut ever thrown and piledriven to hell was a fitting way to cap it. You have the King dead to rights you don't let him off the hook.
There's a line that strength and conditioning coaches use about doing the basics right. You see all of these crazy Instagram workouts and lunatics like Joel Seedman talking about eccentric isometrics and there's this thing called plyogility and this all got very off topic and none of you give a shit about any of it but basically, the simple stuff that athletes have been doing for eons will generally yield you better results than a lot of the cool shit on social media. This was all about the basics and those basics looking absolutely great. You knew the punches would be amazing because obviously the punches would be amazing, and these were possibly the greatest punches ever thrown, but all the other stuff looked equally amazing. Missed moves like Dundee's elbow drop early, or Lawler's missed ledgrop off the top. The way they clashed together running the ropes. Even the way they'd kick out on pin attempts, Dundee at one point getting thrown clean out the ring. Everything they did, every move, every strike, every miss carried weight and was sold like a man's livelihood was on the line. Treat something like it matters, sell it like it matters, people will buy it like it matters. Look at the reaction for the finish and tell me it didn't.
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