This match ended with a ‘Dusty finish’, and Lawler thinks this played a factor in Jerry Jarrett ending his working relationship with the NWA shortly thereafter, and moving on to work with Verge Gagne’s AWA. The NWA had something against Title changes, and Jarrett was really pushing for a Title change at this time due to Memphis Wrestling’s drawing power in a time when the business was in somewhat of a lull in other places around the country.
Lawler says there was no truth to the rumours back then that he didn’t like working with Flair. Some rumours stated that he didn’t like the fact that Flair called the matches and he particularly disliked the Figure 4 Leg Lock and getting slapped in the chest.
Lawler says there’s no denying that Flair’s Leg Lock was legitimate and nearly brought him to tears on occasion, and he also admits to hating getting chopped in the chest. However, he loved working with Flair and he says there was no argument over who was going to call the match because Flair was the World Champion, and the World Champion was always going to call the match.
Lawler considers Flair to be the best World Champion of all time because Flair always made his opponents look credible. While some World Champions would stick their chest out and make it known that they were ‘the best in the World’, Flair always worked with his opponents to have great matches, and he always made fans think that his opponent could beat him on any given night.
