Going into the PPV: my thoughts
This is one of the few PPVs I had on tape, always thought it was awesome because it was Hogan's last match. I look forward to documenting my thoughts on an old favorite.Bret Hart vs Razor Ramon, quarter final match
Apparently Macho Man is a giant troll because he starts "1-2-3" chants when Razor comes out, who had just recently beat Razor in the upset.-Bret works the arm of Razor for a good while.
-Ramon tries to break both of Hart's hand, smart.
-Huh a "roll out of the way of multiple elbows" spot. You don't see that everyday
- The terst of strength flip through into a small package could've easily been the finish
- Bret Hart counters a superplex for the finish. Wish that spot happened more often.
7/10
Mr.Hughes has the Urn because he stole it from Taekr during a fight with Giant Gonzales, and took out both Taker and Bearer
Mr.Perfect vs Mr Hughes w/ Harvey Whippleman, quarter final match
-Perfect bumps like a boss for Mr.Hughes' immobile ass.-Mr.Hughes hits Mr.Perfect in the head with the urn right in front of the ref. Why? Why even bother showing up if you're going to get yourself DQed?
4.5/10
Mr.Fuji/Yoko promo. He contends that Hogan cheated, that Yoko is different now. Yoko says Hogan will go down
Bam Bam Bigelow vs "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan, quarter final match
-Duggan messed up his ribs trying to slam Bam Bam, smart booking.-This match has ben "Slam attampt, bear hug" for a while
-Bam Bam went for a huge kick, Duggan ducked out of the way, and Bam Bam took a back bump.
-Hacksaw hits the turnbuckle and gets a headbutt to the stomach off the top rope.
5.5/10 great big man match though.
Interview with the Smoking Guns and The Steiners, who are taking on Money Inc and the Headshrinkerss.
Pretty much, the entire promo is "If we hit our finishers, we will win. Rick gets to do his thing though.
The Narcicist Lex Luger vs. Tatanka
The announcers hypes up that this will be the knockout artist (Luger) vs the undefeated man (Tatanks)-Bobby Heenan uses a stylus pen to circle things like a football announcer, called a "Brain scan" Heenan circles the arm, which is made funnier by Luger turning around just as he does it, causing him to circle the wrong arm. Heenan then proceeds to contend that Luger has a monkey wrench in his arm.
-The official demands that Luger put a pad on his elbow or be kicked out of the King of the Ring tournament. Something tells me this stipulation had been practiced at every house show in June 1993.
-If Luger has a fucking METAL PLATE in his arm, what is an elbow pad going to do?
-Luger immediately throws Tatanka out of the ring to pose. Tatanka comes in and pushes the mirror over on Luger, who falls down, despite being a body builder who could probably pick up the mirror with one hand. Because this crowd is full of the biggest idiots on the planet. they pop.
-Luger teases flying over the rope with a Tatanka chop and does great
-Tatanka has lots of explosive offense. Randy Savage tries to drive home this point, but decides to iterate it while Tatanka has Luger in an armbar.
-Speaking of which there's like 10 minutes of armbar, explosive offense indeed
-Savage and Ross acknowledge my earlier points about the pad, Luger is also going for pins more frequently
-Luger abandons that strategy and rest holds.
-Tatanka starts doing the stomach punch of the rest hold spot but Luger puts him right back in it.
-Tatanka has the world weirdest hulk up
-Loots of false finishes though
-The match ends in a draw, Luger gets on the house mic and demands five more minutes, Luger out Tatanka while he's celebrating the recision knocks him out then, so both men remain undefeated.
6.5/10
Mr.Perfect and Bret Hart get a simultaneous interview. Gene stirs up shit between Perfect and Bret, Mr.Perfect seems to think that Bret wanted to fight him because he's easier than Mr.Hughes. Gene asks if their fathers Stu Hart and Larry "the Axe" Hennig ever met in-ring. This devolves into "My dad could beat your dad" Perfect brings up Summerslam and calls in for a handshake, he then "psyches" Bret not in any way dating this PPV, Perfect gets his shit in as Bret makes his entrance.
Bret Hart vs Mr.Perfect
-A classic Bret/Perfect match8.5/10
Hulk Hogan promo- Really disorienting at first, because it's just an airbrushed painting of Hulk Hogan until it pans out and you realize we've just looking at the back of Jimmy Hart's zoot suit for a minute. Really generic Hulkster stuff. Hilariously, Jimmy Hart quotes Hogan's WCW theme song in his last WWF appearance.
Yokozuna w/Mr. Fuji vs Hulk Hogan w/ Jimmy Hart for the WWF Championship
-The Dayton crowd goes apeshit for Hogan-Japanese photographers come to the ring, including one with an easy-to-identify tie dye t-shirt, sunhat, and beard....Hmmmmm
-Savage mentions that a lot of people thought that Bret should've gotten the re-match against Hogan, Heenan also claims the Yoko was cheapshotted at WM9. So pretty much they make Jack Tunney look like an incompetent official to anyone with half a brain.
-Hogan does a good job of making Yoko look good,
-And the afformentioned cameramaman blinds Hogan with a camera explosion.
-My only qualm with this match is that Hogan lost dirty, Yoko made Hogan look like a chump.
6.75/10
Mr.Perfect interview, puts over Bret, but is annoyed, and wants to be left alone
We pan to Gene Oakerlund, who is set to interview Shawn Micheals w/ Diesel about his IC title defense against Crush, who can't stop droaning on about Hulk Hogan. Shawn Micheals calls Hulk a dinosaur in a great promo and introduces Deisel
The Smoking Guns and The Stiener Brothers vs Money Inc and the Headshrinkers
Standatd tag team wrestling, untl Ted locks in the Million Dollar Dream on Bill Gunn, lets go of it to be a cocky asshole, and gets rolled up by Billy for the three.4/10, would've been a 5 if not for the finish
And OK Yoko promo, Fuji is a great heel though.
Crush vs Shawn Micheals w/ Diesel for the IC Title
-Crush gets his head slammed into the post a bunch early in the match, creating some very convincing babyface in peril.-The finish plays off of this even, as, while Crush is distracted by the two Doinks, Shawn kicks Crush in the back of the head, causing him to whiplash into the top turnbuckle, for the 3.
6.75/10
Bam Bam Bigelow vs Bret Hart to determine the King of the Ring
-Jim Ross does a great job selling that this match may exceed the rest of the time elotted for the PPV on satellite.-Great underdog stuff with Hart
-Luna Vachon hits Bret with a chair and Bam Bam gets the win
-Another ref comes out and tells the other ref what happened. The decision is first reversed, and then restarted
-Bret gets a rollup and wins
7/10
Jerry Lawler interrupts the Hitman's correnation, and after Bret calls him a "Burger King" Jerry beats him up and so ends KotR 1993
Final thoughts
Normally, in a tournament situation, there's maybe one or two good matches and the rest of shitty or poorly booked, Everything in the tournament, on this PPV, aside from the finish of the 8 man and Hughes/Perfect were great, truly in the VHS/DVD buy category.