Easily the best Henning match I have ever seen, classic big match Lawler main event. Kind of unexpected as it was all about great looking Henning punches, a great looking Henning piledriver and crazy Lawler bumping (well you could expect that.) Henning really stays away from his goofy pinball bumping outside of one crazy flip for a pull the strap down Lawler punch. Which makes it way more effective. Not much of ending, but I imagine this will finish really high on peoples ballots

 

AWA Classics on ESPN

Lawler was Champ in this one, correct? From Vegas?

Yup

Well this is officially the most badass I have ever seen Hennig look in the ring. Holy lord was he laying in the punches. I'm gonna say it: he outpunched Lawler in this one. And Lawler's punches looked GREAT in this. This was 20 awesome minutes and just great. Curt dominates to start and Lawler bumps huge in the corner for the shots. Lawler bails to chase Madusa and he is really sprinting after her. She was awesome at ringside the whole way through this. Hennig is all about stalking badass beatdown in this, and not so much flipping around the ring. Lawler takes the strap down during his comeback, blasts Hennig, and he takes his one massive bump of the match (and it looks so much better since the whole match built to it). Finish is Lawler getting DQ'd for backdropping Hennig over the top, but who cares. This was all too awesome to hate on the finish. Easy nomination.

 

AWA on ESPN Classics 6/10/08, All-Star Wrestling 1988

All the pre-match stuff was cool with Madusa cockily clapping and stalking around the ring, Hennig with the glare of death and Lawler putting up his finger in Hennig's face to indicate that he is the king of the mountain. Sadly all this pageantry was sort of wasted on the 75 people who were in the Showboat that night but whatever. The early feeling out stuff was fun as Lawler got the meager crowd going and I dug the story of Curt avoiding Lawler's right hand at all costs. Hennig leads with some big rights of his own and finally eats a Lawler jab for a huge, wild, flailing bump to the floor. Hennig is awesome selling all of this and his follow up sell job of Lawler hitting a sly back elbow off of a wastelock was great as well. The criss cross spot with Lawler bailing to chase after Madusa who fled into the ring and got lectured by the ref was really well done. Lawler ends up getting hung up in the ropes and takes a nice bump to the floor. The King was great eating blows on the apron and taking a delayed splat bump to the floor off of a nice Hennig shot to the chin and Hennig follows this up with a post shot to Jerry. Hennig ends up working the midsection and after a good near fall on a suplex locks in an ab stretch. Lawler escapes but Madusa passing her high heel to Curt who decks Lawler with it for a huge near fall. Lawler eats a piledriver and a neckbreaker for near falls and Madusa is great at running interference to stifle Lawler comebacks. Hennig goes up top but gets caught with a big Lawler right and crotches himself. This is followed up with the old double knockout punch spot which was an AWA staple. Lawler is wobbly but drops the strap and hits some great jabs with Hennig taking one of his nutty bumps off of a big uppercut. Lawler goes up to the second rope but misses his falling fistdrop and Hennig locks on the sleeper. Lawler escapes the hold by flinging Curt forward over the top which was a lame finish to a great match. This could have used blood and atmospherically if this had been in Memphis it would have been on another level. Still a great match and an easy nomination and though it is not Curt's best career match it is probably his best heel performance.

These guys work really well together. Some of those bumps to the floor by Lawler were holy shit moments. Even with the crappy ending, that Lawler get's over that he is the thinking mans's wrestler would have played better in Memphis. Still the body of this was excellent with both guys working hard to have a bad ass match.

AWA World Heavyweight Title: Jerry "The King" Lawler © vs. Curt Hennig (7/16/88)

 

This is Curt's final match in the AWA and what a way to go out in front of 750 fans at the Showboat having one of the best matches of his life. Lawler & Hennig had really good chemistry against each other and Hennig was especially on fire here turning one of his best heel performances ever. Lawler was fantastic here as well throwing great punches and being a great babyface in general. Madusa was great here as well in her role of pissing Lawler off. Hennig's offensive run was solid with Lawler being great of course at selling everything and when he made his comeback shit was on. I was surprised that they went with an over the top rope DQ finish considering Hennig was leaving but it didn't matter as everything worked out here. Slam dunk nomination.