A Bunch of: Jerry Lawler's Memphis 2010

Jerry Lawler's Memphis promotion is back on TV, and as part of my Indie-cision 2010 project, I figured I'd watch the first four shows together. You too can do this at Lawler's website. The episodes run to around 35 minutes once the adverts and WWE clips are stripped out, and with two or three matches and interviews on each of them, I'm not expecting a classic. But quite a lot has been solid, and there's some fun to be had as well. Let's focus on the good stuff.

Derrick King is quite clearly the best guy on the show so far. He's had one short match with sort-of bland babyface Matt Boyce which was a really nice two and a half minutes of action. His main input so far has been this little feud with Koko B. Ware, which started with a really intense promo exchange, followed it up with a pull-apart brawl the following week, then had a four minute match in the last week. I loved King's selling off punches and his expressions after bump-taking, and he generally carries off the pace of his matches with significant presence.

I also liked the two Kid Nikels and Eric Wayne vs. Cody Melton and Stan Lee matches from what they appear to be calling their tag division - nothing complicated, but it felt really fluent and pacy and there's plenty of no-nonsense stiffness. The first was longer, and they do an abridged version of the longer formula with a false then a real face-in-peril section, whilst the second is almost entirely heat section, then a quick comeback victory. Both classic templates and all four guys do them well. Cody Melton and Stan Lee have a versatile heel act - it's much more obvious in the second match, when they slow things down more, cheat more and get cockier, whilst in the first one they pace is faster and they have to work together more and cheat less.

There's been some good booking and some less good decisions. It's at its best when sticking to simplicity - fight one weeks leads to match next week. There's main storylines so far have: Koko vs. King, which has progressed nicely with both guys doing good work inside and outside the ring, and the Southern title tournament which has been used for two additional purposes - the building up of heel Brian Christopher, and to establish Matt Boyce as the second top babyface (below Lawler). Christopher's turn sort of came out of nowhere (tagged with Lawler one week, cut a heel promo the next), but he's pretty dislikable and suits the role. His in-ring work hasn't been particularly notable yet, but the booking of his character is covering it up. Boyce, as mentioned above, is a little bland, but he's being booked well - he can bump, and he keeps sneaking quick pinfall victories. Aside form his match with Derrick King, the formula worked well against the physically imposing Tommy Mercer.

Lawler needs to establish a program for himself, because the show is missing a top babyface at present. They started to set up a program with Kevin White last show, which will hopefully go somewhere. In the meantime, there seems to be about thirty colour commentators/managers who want to retire Lawler or stop him winning the title or other unspecific threats. A re-run of Lawler vs. Jimmy Hart is no bad idea, but they need to pick a direction. On a related point, Brandon Baxter, as commentator, has been excellent, talking up the matches and the workers, but not in an annoying, paid-by-the-superlative way. Ring announcer and occassional commentator Lauren Jenkins is keen (and very pretty, has this been noticed by anyone yet?) but she is right at the bottom of the learning curve of doing good commentary - Baxter, however, is really good at working all her observations into something more insightful.

I will be watching more of this.