Talk about it here.

Lawler has his first match as a babyface in Texas and gets over big. This was a really solid tag match with some good work. I love how they're portraying Lawler -- The Heel With The Heart Of Gold. Great finish, as the heels think they can cheat against Lawler, and then Lawler outcheats them. They end up losing the match by DQ over it, and Lawler is upset and piledrives the referee. That will likely be an issue later. But this was really good.

Lawler and Jarrett were great in this. I expect it from Lawler, but Jarrett as a fiery young babyface has really impressed me. There's such a difference between what he brought to the table here and his Double J stuff five years later. I loved Lawler going to the hidden chains as a face move. This feud has been fun.

In a way I now wish I hadn't listened to the USWA-TX/Global podcast because that spoiled the Lawler babyface turn. This is a really fun match nonetheless with some great stooging from Young and even Falcone was perfectly okay. Awesome finish as the heels use a riding crop on both Lawler and Jarrett, but Lawler retaliates by pulling out his trusty chain as well as a SECOND chain to give to Jarrett. Spectacular. Unfortunately Tony Falk only sees the chain and not the riding crop, leading to a DQ win for Devastation, Inc. and a piledriver on the referee. Like Loss I wonder if that's going to be a factor in this "deal with the Devil" that Johnson and Pedicino were hyping.

Really good match showcasing how good Lawler could be as a face not completely changing his persona, just tweaking it to fit along with the storyline. Jarrett was a really good babyface in this match and has also impressed me this year. I don't know why but I kind of have a soft spot for Sweet daddy Falcone to.

A real good solid tag. The crowd goes nuts for Lawler. Jarrett was real good here mixing it up with good punches and good drop kicks. Falcone was solid, and having Gary Young is so much better than Torres. The dbl chains is 800 shades of awesome.

Lawler is now a face in USWA-TX. Announcers get all regional on us talking about Arkansas. Lawler more enjoyable to watching wrestling as a face. He’s got a chain for both himself and Jarrett. Ref catches it and disqualifies them. So Lawler gives him a piledriver.

I think that Lawler was really good in the first half of the match too in planting that seed of suspicion in the fans' heads that maybe, just maybe, he wasn't legit. Things like continuing to distract the ref for a second after the sunset flip or being just a little too hot at the wrong time. Cheating face lawler with a chain on either hand is pretty amazing if you ask me though.

 

I like the idea of Falcone (I always thought he'd have been good if he came along in 98 for ECW as a Johnny Swinger partner), but his elbow plop was the worst thing ever.

Outside of some good stuff from Gorgeous Gary, this was all Lawler and Jarrett. It's the best match I've seen Lawler have in Dallas, and only the second or third time I've seen him there where he appears to give two shakes about what he's doing. This match could have come from the MSC on any given Monday night, and that's a compliment in this case.

 

I would have loved to have actually seen a Unified World title program between Lawler and Young like the one that Craig teased; it would have been something else no matter which side of the territory it took place on. (I know he mentioned some matches between them, but I'm not sure when they could have happened, since Lawler's never been a face in Dallas before and has only recently turned in Memphis.)

 

I liked how Craig and Joe tied Gorgeous Gary, an Arkansas native, in with the people who voted to move the University of Arkansas from the Southwestern Conference to the Southeastern Conference. You have to be a native of Texas and/or a fan of American college football to totally understand this, but Texas and Arkansas have never and will never get along, so Gorgeous Gary's despicable not only for aligning with Akbar, but also simply because he's a slimy razorback hog (the state mascot of Arkansas, and the official nickname of the University's athletic teams).

 

The double chain's just the final touch we need to complete the beating of Devastation. The DQ against the faces is irrelevant, as we know who the winners really are: the ones who can stand upright. I didn't like that they went to break in the middle of the Akbar rant that most likely led to Lawler's suspension; it's an important part of the angle, almost as important as the piledriver which Lawler gave Tony Falk to inspire it. I hope they at least showed it in full when they came back from break.

 

Craig and Joe both popped for Lawler pulling down the strap off of the hot tag. Two questions: 1) Had Lawler ever done it before in Dallas and 2) If he had, had the significance of the move been explained? The crowd was hot for the King tonight no matter what, so it really didn't matter in this match, but it might going forward.

 

Finally, an insert detailing previous action in a feud while ring introductions are being shown is something I've never seen before and don't want to see again. Show all relevant previous footage that you choose to show in a full-screen format with audio if possible so the fans can fully understand what they need to in order to bring themselves up to speed.

Cool use of the chain here, a callback to Lawler's heel work, but using it as a face move to stop cheating heels. Great crowd reaction and a good finish.

I really liked the match, but for I think watching Tony Falk get the piledriver was the highlight for me. How is he back next week anyway?