Talk about it here.

In progress. Weird to see a Bret cage match with little heat and so many fans up and roaming around. Not a good match, but Yankem works hard and hits some nice moves. Lawler has a fake nosebleed, which is great. Bret wins, presumably to signal that he is done with all of this midcard crap.

actually the nose bleed was real. He broke his nose several times and can make it bleed on command by simply sticking his finger up his nostril and pushing against the septum. He was able to do this off camera

Lawler up in the cage above the ring. Now you know Watts is booking.

This match fell flat. Only memorable thing was Lawler's nosebleed, which was great.

actually the nose bleed was real. He broke his nose several times and can make it bleed on command by simply sticking his finger up his nostril and pushing against the septum. He was able to do this off camera

Now THAT is how to do something good with an injury!

The heat machine is out in full force for this one. This match isn't bad, and Lawler's shenanigans involving changing the lock and tossing Yankem a key are rather clever and probably pitched by Lawler himself given how Memphis-y it is. But the Yankem gimmick is such a dead end and impossible to take seriously. Bret wins this decisively and this more or less finally ends the Bret-Lawler program, barring another tag match or two to come.

For some unknown reason, this was the match that hooked me on pro wrestling in 1995. I haven't watched it since it aired 19 years ago, when I was 9 years old. I heard it's on the WWE Network now, so I should just watch it for fun since I'm curious. I think as a kid, I just dug the Hart's persona, and Lawler's over the top antics. Started watching RAW (and sometimes Nitro) weekly right after I saw this.

According to Scott Keith this was actually a taped dark match that Vince decided to air on TV at the last minute. That' seems to explain the going through the motions feeling of the match

Thanks to SirEdger for giving me this match in the Secret Santo thread.

 

Some basic work by both to start, solid but unspectacular. I do miss this sort of work on WWE tv, feels much more organic and less scripted. Another thing I prefer from back then is how in their instant replays, they dont speed up the shot right before impact.

 

Yankem took a cool bump when Bret pulled his legs out from under him while standing on the top rope, resulting in him landing face first in a cool way.

 

I really like all the shenanigans with Lawler, but in one of those pro wrestling logic things, why did they have the shark cage conveniently there and empty for half of the match? Was this a part of the stip, where if Lawler interfered hes end up in the cage? It would make sense due to how their Summerslam match ended.

 

The action takes a back seat at this point, but picks up when Bret gets crotched on the top rope. Eventually Bret hits a second rope elbow and then escapes over the top, which felt kind of anticlimactic.

 

Overall, the match was ok, but seemed more as a backdrop to Lawler comedy than anything else. Jacobs as Yankem, in this match and in general, was really not much, he really lucked out by picking up the Kane gimmick as this (and Fake Diesel) didnt really show what he could do, in-ring and character wise.

 

This seemed more like House Show Bret than Big Match Bret, which given the fact that the focus was off of the match for a good portion of it, is probably to be expected. More like a Coliseum Video exclusive type match than the Raw main events these days, which isnt necessarily a bad thing as long as you go in with those level expectations.

 

*1/2

 

- Just read Strummers post about it being a dark match that actually aired, that really makes sense when you look at the match and how it was worked.

To answer your question about the shark cage, it was there because Gorilla Monsoon wanted to punish Jerry Lawler if he decided to physically get involved in the match to help Isaac Yankem. I can understand though why you question the logistics of this one a bit.