Steel Cage Match: Jerry “The King” Lawler vs. “Macho Man” Randy Savage (12/12/83)

 

Macho had just debuted in Memphis weeks earlier and they are already having a cage match with this feud really needing not much build. Lawler would start off firing quick punches to the body then the head and you could just feel the hatred between the two with Savage spitting on Lawler. Savage would ground Lawler with a side headlock really wrenching it in then we get a clip coming back with Lawler throwing Savage into the cage and Savage rolls to the floor. Savage would come back to the ring and we go back to a regular match with Savage working an armbar. Savage would dig in his tights off and on using some object to hit Lawler with behind Jerry Calhoun’s back. Savage then started firing some great punches sending Lawler to the floor then he hit his diving axehandle off the top rope with not much space between the cage and the ring. Savage would then slam Lawler’s head in the cage then choked him along the bottom rope before grinding his head across the chickenwire cage. Savage would then post Lawler before going back to the ring and continuing his attack. Lawler would reverse an irish whip though and Savage went flying into the cage with Lawler following up with a fistdrop. Lawler is now starting his comeback and gets the object out of Savage’s hand then uses it on him but Savage would give him a snapmare setting up his big diving elbow drop off the top of the cage but Lawler rolled out of the way. Lawler then slammed Savage’s head on the turnbuckle before slamming him then we get another clip. Savage has Lawler on the bottom rope and tries to do a running jump but Lawler moves and Savage hits the cage feet first. Lawler tries to follow up with a piledriver but Calhoun won’t let him do it so Savage would backdrop him. Savage then picks up Lawler giving him an awesome airplane spin with both men being dizzy but Lawler has enough the deck Savage with a punch. We get another clip as Savage is throwing Lawler to the floor and again comes off the top rope with his diving axehandle then slamming Lawler’s head in the cage repeatedly. Lawler starts banging his hands on the cage and starts punching Savage before pulling down the strap. The action goes back to the ring with Lawler just unloading on Savage before throwing him into the cage again. Jos LeDuc would show up and scaled the cage climbing in and jumps on Lawler for the DQ finish. LeDuc & Savage destroy Lawler for quite a while until the babyfaces can get in the cage. There wasn’t blood but this was an awesome cage match with both men looking tremendous and even with the shitty finish that built up to the main for the next week with Lawler bringing in Idol to go against LeDuc & Savage, this is a definite nomination.

I dunno why but I wasn't that high on this match before. Rewatched and it is indeed awesome, better than the Lexington match though still not quite at the level of the loser leaves town match, which I could see making my top 5 depending on how things go.

I liked this. Though I was scratching my head when the men were working armbars and such in a cage match in the early portion of the match. I don't know how Savage didn't kill his leg when he came off the top of the cage. Eventually the brutality came; and the match was the better for it. Overall, I see it as a solid nomination which will finish high on a lot of ballots.

I rewatched this again while it was on one of the DVD's I was watching(Memphis/IcW Arena matches 1984 Disk 2) I shortchanged it a bit on an earlier viewing. This was just excellent. The fellas just went all out and had a great match. Savage and the missed elbow drop from the top of the cage was quite the visual. The piledriver teases, Savage's low blow was awesome, of course incredible punches, and alot of heat.

This is also on the Masters of Mahem release. That one has about 7 minutes trimmed off. I want to see if we have a more complete version out there.

Randy Savage vs. Jerry Lawler (Cage match)

- This match has one of those cages that are a couple of feet away from the ring so there isn't as much cage interaction as I would like. Overall, I think I liked the Garvin cage match better but this one had some great moments. The elbow off the top of the cage only for Lawler to move looked like it was the end of the match. Lawler then goes to the top turnbuckle and teases a leap form the cage but just does a body splash from the turnbuckle instead. The ending was a disappointment when LeDuc interfered but there was enough good stuff here to make this an easy nomination. This is a complete version even with commercial breaks and is VG VQ so we should probably use this version.

 

(Lynch 8.1)

I am not as high on this as some of the other folks, absolutely makes the set, but I have this below the Rupp arena match and probably below Savage v. Garvin. Needed blood, Savage is such a great nutcase though, man did he drop off when he went to the WWF

From what I always heard was that Savage did everything he could do to get noticed by the WWF or one of the bigger NWA groups after being blackballed for 5 years and he just went all out in Memphis. He got the cush gig in WWF and he settled in.