Pro Wrestling Chronicle

Match # 114: Jerry Lawler vs. Curt Hennig (Title vs. Retirement) (5/9/88)

They built this up for a while as Lawler’s last shot at his quest to become the world champion. They even had voting to pick a ref (with Larry The Ax Hennig), and local area legend Jackie Fargo winning. This is for the AWA World Title with Hennig as a big heel in Memphis. This is pre-Perfect days, so he was just starting to put the character together as a persona.

They show Bill Apter, Joel Goodhard (who started TWA), Dan Wolf, Dave Brown, and others. Guess they couldn’t get any real wrestling old timers to show up. They did get the mayor of Memphis to show up (to a mixed reaction) though, as well as some pro athletes whose names I couldn’t hear.

I’m not exactly sure how to characterize the match. The first 12 minutes weren’t horrible, but they were so inconsequential that you don’t hear Lance Russell’s live commentary until 12 minutes in. There is an oddly more laid back Russell commentary for the first 12 minutes. Basically Ref Fargo exerts himself as a “fair ref” by constantly detracting from what the heel Hennig is allowed to do. His manager is kicked out of ringside for cheating. He won’t count pins for Curt and makes him break holds with fast 5 counts. It totally makes the deck stacked against the heel while he tries to get the heat, and I hated Russell and Brown trying to act like this was justice. First half of the match sucked.

In totality this was a 25 minute match where maybe 5 minutes as interesting or engaging. Lawler bleeds, though it wasn’t to compelling for me, and the finish was very odd to me. The pin, pop, and aftermath as Lawler claims his first World Title is pretty awesome, but for the bulk of the match the importance doesn’t quite come across. Honestly, both men bump really well in sections, but this never flows when either man controls the action. It’s a first to second gear match that never really moves well. I’m at a loss. It didn’t suck, it just wasn’t as good as the context and stage it was in/on. 3 and 6/10.

Match Discussion Here