Lawler v The Macho Man (again)!

Jerry Lawler v Randy Savage (Memphis, 4/9/84)

"This Macho Man is as wild as anyone you'll see." Lance Russell is, once again, dead on the money. They're wrestling in Kentucky here, in Angelo Poffo's OUTLAW~ ICW promotion, and I love how everything feels a little more hectic than usual. Savage in general, Hart in his corner constantly shouting nonsense that's picked up by Lance's mic, Angelo Poffo in his leather jacket running around like a HOODLUM. Just the ambience of it in the dark arena. Savage was the perfect blend of stalling and shithousing early, everything he did laced with a little Macho Madness. He was chucking Lawler full across the ring by the hair, then when Lawler gave him a receipt Savage was hopping out the ring threatening to take a swing at Lance, that paranoia on full display. Savage backs Lawler into the corner and goes to throw a punch, the ref' grabs the hand to stop it, so Lawler pops him while he's distracted. Usually that spot will be flipped and it'll be the babyface who's restrained, but I like how they gave Lawler that shot here considering the deck was fairly stacked against him otherwise. They settled into some nice hold-working after the early stuff, a couple armbars, some hair-pulling, building the heat in simple ways. The matwork actually lasted a little longer than I would've expected (or remembered, because I remembered not a thing about this) and it gave it a bit of a slow build title match feel. Lawler worked the headscissors and Savage would try and headstand out, so Lawler would hit one of those mini piledrivers to shut him down. Savage would try and shift his weight around, Lawler would really crank on it, Savage would get visibly frustrated. It was really good and if nothing else it makes me wish we got to see Savage work the mat like this more often. Inevitably he sacks the idea of even trying to do it clean and just drags Lawler to the floor and launches him into the post, which Lawler goes full screwball into as is his wont. Savage is great working King of the Mountain segments, just super animated, attacking from above, off the top, the side, along the apron, head on, all of it awesome. Lawler turning the tables by grabbing a drink off a front row fan and hucking it in Savage's face was amazing and we all consider making a joke about Lawler getting away with things that MJF won't but then we immediately reconsider making jokes about things Jerry Lawler has gotten away with over the years. The last stretch of this felt like an extended finishing run and I thought it was pretty outstanding. There were the incredible punches, one double knockout spot that was as good as any of its kind ever, a couple jab combos that would bring a tear to the eye, Savage taking an insane posting, and the way they built to the big fist drop was great. Lawler tries it a couple times and Savage moves at the last second, just a squirmy, twitchy maniac that's impossible to pin down. It's a shame that when he does finally hit it - off the middle rope no less - they kind of speed through the next sequence, a Savage piledriver, a bit of distraction before Lawler rolls him up with a schoolboy. It was a two-minute segment condensed into thirty seconds so they had to kind of blow off the selling you'd expect from moves of such consequence. Weirdly paced ending aside, this was awesome and I liked it even more than their cage match.