Lawler & Bam Bam v Rich & Idol!

Jerry Lawler & Bam Bam Bigelow v Austin Idol & Tommy Rich (No DQ) (Memphis, 3/9/87) 

This was a newly unearthed piece of insanity that appeared a couple years ago and gave us another installment of one of the best US feuds of the 80s. It comes off the back of Rich and Idol yanking Lawler into the ring post by the legs, putting Lawler on the shelf for a bit with a ruptured testicle. I guess Lawler then recruited the biggest lunatic he could find in pursuit of revenge, and for the next few weeks the feud is built around both teams trying to volley each other's balls through their ribcage. They waste no time getting to the craziness early on, Rich pulling a Toby Klein or perhaps simply a Tommy Rich and bleeding everywhere after maybe 90 seconds? He was an amazing bump machine for Bigelow, who for his part looked phenomenal tearing up furniture, throwing punches and people alike all over the place, a real force of nature. He hardly went on to have a nothing career, but he's also someone who might never have looked as good as they did in their rookie year. It might've been an ARTISTIC choice on his part, maybe a product of Memphis using him differently than other places, but he definitely never came across as this much of a beast anywhere else. While this is going on Lawler and Idol pair off and fight their way up the aisle, slamming each other into the back wall. It was chaos from the jump and nobody does chaos like Memphis. We get a nice lucha-ish rudo comeback with Rich hitting a flying clothesline on Lawler while Idol catches Bam Bam low, the sort of thing that was sudden yet emphatic enough to tell you the tide had swung. Idol goes back to the well that brought them here by trying to yank Lawler's privates into the post again and I love the fight Lawler puts up to avoid it, really milking the struggle before finally kicking Idol back and into the barricade. Obviously Lawler's punches don't need to be mentioned but it's still worth talking about his running punch as Tommy Rich lay halfway out the ring. Lawler even bit him which is something you didn't tend to see very often, not least because you get the sense Rich was a little too old for him. The finish is amazing and the only time I remember seeing Lawler hit a top rope fist drop TO THE WILLY, then the madness continues after the bell as Bigelow goes flying through one of those big thick blue Mid-South Coliseum ringside tables trying to splash Rich. Idol repeatedly stabs Lawler in the head with a spike and these were maybe the nastiest spike shots this side of Jimmy Jacobs. 

Jerry Lawler & Bam Bam Bigelow v Austin Idol & Tommy Rich (Double Jeopardy Match) (Memphis, 3/16/87)

These four could've wrestled 50 times and it wouldn't have been enough. This has two separate rings, basically a 1v1 match going on in each, but it still held to some of the norms of a traditional tag match, albeit with relaxed rules. Rather than your regular tags in and out you get switches of partners between rings, though both teammates are only allowed to be in the ring at the same time for 60 seconds. Rich waits marginally longer than the last match before tasting the blade and his first bit of offence is kneeing Bigelow in the balls out of a collar and elbow. Bigelow really sells the hell out of every ball shot in this feud, his true kryptonite as he can mostly brick wall everything else the heels throw at him and look like a monster doing it. Those two at least made half an attempt at a wrestling hold to start whereas Lawler and Idol just went right to punching each other in the face. It was of course very glorious, as Lawler and Idol punching each other in the face tended to be. The camera spent most of its time on Bigelow though, and for good reason. He was a fucking maniac again, picking Rich up overhead and dropping him across the announce desk, Rich's tailbone meeting nothing but the unforgiving wood. Everyone gets creative with the double teams and Bigelow hitting a falling headbutt to Idol's balls as Lawler holds him spread-eagle was amazing. Idol selling it was pretty much a thing of beauty, then Bigelow kicks him out the ring like a trash bag and does the same falling headbutt to Rich. The heels eventually take over when Idol cracks Lawler in the head with the microphone, then he breaks off a table leg to use as a weapon. He sticks the jagged end in Lawler's head and throws it to Rich who I guess stabs Bigelow in the willy. There were probably half a dozen low blow variations in this and they were all incredible. The best of all might've been after Idol and Rich tried to post Lawler again, only for Lawler to reverse it, tie Idol in the ropes, lift his legs and punt him low. The match gets thrown out when Idol and Rich handcuff Bigelow to the ropes and try to kill Lawler with a noose, several babyfaces coming to their aid only to get punched in the neck or hit in the head with a bin lid by feral Tommy Rich. Bigelow is IRATE in the post-match and it's a pretty spectacular scene, fans scattering in terror as he flings barricades and chairs everywhere, Lawler scrambling and failing to restrain him before Jerry Jarrett has a gargantuan lawsuit on his hands.