[GreenTeaFrapp]

With it's seventh pick, Team Kayfabe selects, in the Storyline category, one of the best feuds of all time, Jerry Lawler vs Austin Idol and Tommy Rich.



This was awarded feud of the year in 1987 by the Wrestling Observer and it might have been one of the craziest feuds ever.


It was the last great Memphis angle. Nearly three years after Vince McMahon had begun streamrolling every wrestling territory in the United States, Jerry Lawler and Jerry Jarrett's Memphis promotion seemed to have their scarred heads held a little higher above water than the other remaining promotions. Although the norm of 8,000-plus crowds and the occasional sellout at the Mid-South Coliseum appeared to be gone, the promotion was surviving just fine. Lawler, the promotion's co-owner and top drawing card, was one of the few top regional stars who didn't jump to McMahon's ever-expanding circus tent, maintaining the promotion's credibility with the local fans.

The promotion had a strong year in 1986 with a Bill Dundee/Buddy Landell feud vs. Jerry Lawler and Dutch Mantel, including a rabid sellout crowd at the Coliseum on March 3, 1986. (The catalyst for the angle was Dundee and Landell attacking young ref Jeff Jarrett and then father Jerry Jarrett, who immediately "reinstated" the loser-left-town Lawler.) The program culminated with Lawler triumphing over Dundee in a loser-leaves-town bout in Memphis before about 8,000 fans over the summer. Toward year's end, the promotion had dipped back down to the 5,000 range at the Coliseum, despite Lawler vs. Kabuki headlining most cards.

However, heading into the New Year, business was picking up. Former NWA-champ/TBS-babyface idol Tommy Rich slowly turned heel after being overlooked for an AWA World title shot against Nick Bockwinkel, who had once again been awarded the title without pinning anyone, this time when Stan Hansen refused to drop the strap to the aging star. (Nick had previously been awarded the title as the "number-one contender" after Verne Gagne retired with the belt in an incredibly egotistical move in 1981.) Rich had returned ostensibly to help Lawler in his feud with pudgy-eternal, masked wrestlers Fire & Flame (Don Bass and Roger Smith). However, in a subtle interview, Rich questioned why Lawler always receives the World title shots in the area--after all, Wildfire was a former NWA World champ, so why not him?

Lawler and Rich had a couple of fantastic bloody brawls for the title shot as 1986 came to an end, which helped spike attendance. But they were just getting warmed up.

On January 4, 1986, Lawler was set to wrestle Nick Bockwinkel for the AWA title. Prior to the bout, though, Austin Idol entered the ring and asked Lawler to step aside. When Lawler refused, Idol decked him, splitting open the King's forehead wide open.

Lawler went on to work a 60-minute Broadway with Bock, in a bout filled with high drama.

The next week, Idol's turn was complete, as he and Rich double-teamed Lawler, each grabbing a leg and ramming the King's crown jewels against a ringpost. (Lawler couldn't have timed his legit vasectomy any better.) Lawler sold the injury for about a month, returning to the Coliseum on February 16, 1987, drawing a hot crowd of 9,000.

The Idol, Rich vs. Lawler feud peaked on April 27, 1987, with the now-infamous hair match, which drew about 8,500. Along with his manager Paul Heyman (then known as "Paul E. Dangerly") Idol and Rich cheated Lawler of his hair and the AWA Southern title in a steel-cage match. (In hindsight, the cage probably saved the lives of those heels from hell in the ugly aftermath.) While Lawler getting his hair cut was certainly enough to create a melee of Pacers-like proportions, to make matters worse, in the pre-match hype, Idol had promised to refund every audience member's price of admission should he lose as well as have his own precious bleached-blonde locks snipped. Since the very idea of Lawler losing a hair match at that time was about as unfathomable as Rich regaining the NWA World title, Memphis fans eagerly plucked down their blue-collar cash thinking the Women's Pet had made a wager he'd soon regret.

That confidence was shattered seconds after Heyman kneeled on the floor of the Mid-South Coliseum to yell the prearranged signal to Rich, who had been secreted under the ring around 3 p.m. that day. Wearing an undersized Coca Cola Clothes sweatshirt, Rich moved like wildfire from the floor and into the ring, just in time to save the Idol from a King-sized, match-ending piledriver. The heels again posted Lawler against a ringpost, and Idol followed it up with one of the most classic heel moments of all time: With Lawler lying against the post, still selling the nutcracker, Idol smugly looked down at him, cradled the King's head in his hands and promptly bitch-slapped the hell out him. Too good.

After the momentarily stunned ref Jerry Calhoun came to his senses just in time to count out the King, Heyman wrapped a thick chain around Lawler's neck as local hairstylist Ted Cortese cut the hair of the city's number-one son.

Irate fans scaled the cage to save Lawler, but Memphis cops pulled them down--it was amazing heat. Somehow, Idol made it out the building alive, but not before giving one of the best promos of his career: "I grew up in Las Vegas rolling the dice and spinning the roulette wheel, jack. I've been a gambler since the day I was born and I'll be a gambler to the day I die!"

The next week, even with Lawler out selling the injury, 9,000 fans showed up at the Coliseum for Bill Dundee's return against Idol and Rich--that's how much heat the heels had.


Here's the infamous Lawler vs Idol, hair vs hair cage match: