1993 King Of The Ring Review

Today im writing my review for the 1993 KOTR ppv. I finally got my hands on the Coliseum Video of this ppv for a decent price, and since I haven't seen this show since atleat 1998, todays viewing is practically fresh.


This was a turning point for the WWF as Vince finally decided to pull the trigger on Hogan as the top guy and take things in a new direction. It almost came back to destroy the company but Vince was a little more competent and the other two of the big three wound up destroying themselves through bad business decisions. But there was a time when alot of people thought the WWF was going to go bankrupt.


We are LIVE!! From Dayton Ohio!! Your hosts are Good Ol JR!! Bobby The Brain Heenan!!, and The Macho Man Randy Savage!!! Vince would of been in there possibly, but he was getting his papers together or burning documents, getting ready for that upcoming steroid trial.


Match #1

King Of The Ring Match

Bret The Hitman Hart Vs Razor Ramon


Razor lost to the 1-2-3 Kid just days earlier and the crowd gets on his case with the 123 chant. Ramon would turn face a few weeks later. Bret starts by working the arm, and Razor gets annoyed and nails him good with a clothesline. Hit Man stays on the arm then sends Razor to the corner but charges into a knee. Razor hits the fallaway slam for 2 then changes things up with a running powerslam for 2! Razor stomps Brets hand just to be sadistic. Bret dodges the elbow drops and does his 5 moves of doom combo. Atomic drop, clothesline, russian legsweep, pendulum backbreaker and the elbow off the second rope. Bret tries a bulldog but Razor stops that. Razor's Edge looks to finish but Bret kicks off the ropes and into a small package for 2 1/2!! Ramon drops him and goes for his super belly to back suplex, but on the execution Bret turns it into a cross body and lands on Ramon for the pin at 10:20. Good star to the ppv. 3 stars.


Match #2

King Of The Ring Match

Mr Perfect Vs Mr Hughes w Harvey Whippleman


First and only time that I have seen two guys facing eachohter that started their ring names with Mr. This was the first of Hughes sporadic WWF appearances. Don't know why anyone liked the guy, he would show up for a cup of coffee then be gone within days or weeks. Harvey brought Hughes in to help Gonzalez steal the urn from The Undertaker And Paul Bearer. Never went anywhere as Hughes/Taker never even got into the ring. Hughes uses power and knocks Perfect around for a few minutes, then Mr P takes him down with an armdrag that looked like Hughes was doing all the work, and Perfect tries the standing dropkick but to no effect. Hughes punches Perfect over the top and out. Perfect fights back and eats shoe on a charge. Hughes goes to the chinlock. Goofy bodypress follows and some chocking. Hughes gets crotched on the top rope and it's time for Mr Perfect!! Perfect with a hiptoss and a backdrop then the neck snap but Hughes gets pissed and clocks Perfect with the urn for the lame DQ at 5:48. Just cause im a perfect mark I give it 1 star. There were a couple of spots where it was clear that Hughes was doing the work but Perfect made up by his classic selling self.


Match #3

King Of The Ring Match

Hacksaw Jim Duggan Vs Bam Bam Bigelow


Duggan is wearing his Kurt Angle prototype USA singlet here, and he's also on his way out at this point. Duggan with three clotheslines knocks Bigelow outside. Bigelow misses a blind charge, but blocks a slam and stomps away. Duggan's ribs get injured and Bigelow goes to the bearhug. Duggan breaks, and again can’t slam Bam cause of the ribs. Back to the bearhug. Duggan escapes again and finally gets the slam. He sets up the three point stance but Bigelow dodges and Duggan eats the turnbuckle. Bigelow up top real quick and a diving headbutt sends him to round 2 at 4:40. Not horrible. 1 star.


Match #4

King Of The Ring Match

Tatanka Vs Lex Luger


Luger does his pose in the mirror entrance and the referees argue that Luger must put on a thin foam pad because he's been knocking out everybody with the steel plate in his forearm, and while the concept of a workout pad taking away the effect of metal plates implanted in your arm is silly, the crowd pops for the screw over on Luger so it works. Tatanka is "undefeated" and Luger is undefeated since arriving in the WWF as a full time wrestler and not a WBF spokesperson so you can sorta guess what the finish will be when two undefeated guys are involved in a tournament. Tatanka runs in and gets pounded and tossed. Luger goes back to posing in the mirror and Tatanka does a bad job of dumping it on him. Could of been an ugly site if the mirror shattered all over Luger. Tatanka chops him over the top and it's a brawl. Back in, Tatanka clothesline gets 2. Tatanka works the arm for awhile and the announcers hammer home the time limit factor throughout the match, yeah, were going to a draw alright. Cossbody gets 2, and back to the arm. Luger escapes and pounds away in the corner. Elbowdrop gets 2 and Luger walks around like he doesn't give a ****, (in more ways than 1) Luger tries a chinlock and that eats up time. Luger gives a shout to Heenan at ringside. Tatanka fights out and gets a cradle for 2, and then gets a sunset flip for 2. Luger decks him and continues to fart around. Tatanka comes back with the chops and is getting psyched up!! Powerslam gets 2. Flying chop for 2!! JR is freaking out about the time limit!! Luger gets a lariat for 2 and continues in 2nd gear. Powerslam gets 2, suplex gets 2, backbreaker gets 2 and the time limit expires at 15:00. Luger complains for more time then sucker punches Tatanka with the steel forearm of pain. 1 1/2 star. Bigelow gets a bye into the finals, which is typical booking of the WWF. Give the big heel an easy ride then have him beat the plucky worn out babyface by attrition or cheap interference or have the face overcome the odds. Kinda glad they did away with KOTR because they were so one dimentional with the booking.


Backstage Mean Gene stirs up **** between Hit Man and Perfect and it turns into a "my dad was better than your dad" bit.


Match #5

King Of The Ring Semi Final Match

Bret The Hitman Hart Vs Mr Perfect


Bret starts with a headlock and Hennig counters, they slam eachother, and Bret goes back to the headlock. JR points out that Hitman has his fingers taped from earlier in the night against Ramon. Bret gets a crucifix for 2, back to the headlock. Jim Ross points out that Hart has Perfect shoves him outside and he sunset flips back in on Hennig for 2. Back to the headlock, but Perfect with a ballshot and the crowd starts turning on him. Standing dropkick and Bret goes outside as the crowd starts to turn on Perfect. Perfect with a nice jesture holds the ropes open for Hitman but sucker punches him on the way in to further the heel turn. Kneelift gets 2. Brawl outside and Bret gets up onto the apron, and Perfect runs into the ropes and sends him crashing into the railing. Bret injured his knee on that fall. Bret makes it back in and gets kneelifted for 2. Hennig brings out a missile dropkick for 2?! Never saw him do that before! Perfect sends Bret into the corner for his patend chest first bump. He goes up again, but gets crotched and superplexed for 2. Bret kicks his leg out from under him and slaps on a figure four and the crowd is loving this match. Perfect makes the ropes, and Bret works the knee. Perfect goes to the eyes and uses a hairtoss. Sleeper, but Bret makes the ropes. Perfect uses the ropes when he can then Bret gets fed up and gives it right back to him. Here comes the moves of doom again. This time Hitman goes with an atomic drop, legsweep, legdrop, backbreaker and 2nd rope elbow. Bret tries the sharpshooter but Perfect grabs the bad fingers and bends them backwards to stop that. GOOD GOD!! WE HAVE PSYCHOLOGY IN THIS PPV!! Bret blocks the Perfectplex and they struggle in a front facelock and in a holy **** moment Bret suplexes Hennig out of the ring, and Perfect holds on so BOTH guys take the vertical suplex spill out of the ring and it looked pretty nasty with Hennig whacking his lower back on the apron on the way out. Back in, Perfect plays possum with his knee injury to get a sneaky small package but Hitman rolls it over and gets the pin at 18:54!! DAMN THAT WAS GOOD STUFF!!! This was easily the best WWF/WWE tournament match ever put on and it felt more like a good IYH main event match and a crap tourny match. Ah, if Perfect only could of stayed with the company through 1994/1995. Hitman/Michaels as world champs defending against Perfect would of made someo f those throwaways IYH shows wort it. Im going 4 stars here. I wanted more, but I think I enjoyed this match more than the Summerslam match. They make up after the match like good guys and get a standing ovation from the crowd.


Match #6

World Championship Match

Hulk Hogan w Jimmy Hart Vs Yokozuna w Mr Fuji


So back at Mania 9, Hogan managed to talk McMahon into letting him get the belt after Yoko beat Bret if he agreed to later on pass the torch to Hart. Hogan then immediately dissapeared with the belt and did NOTHING for 3 months. Vince had enough of this crap and business wise, Hogan was drawing the ammount of money anymore (nobody was) for Vince to throw millions at him and cater to his ways of doing things. So this match was Yoko squashing Hogan and Vince finding a new Hogan to beat the monster. JR points out that fans were complaining about Hit Man not getting the match for the belt against Hogan but Yoko got the title shot so there. Hogan didn't wanna do the job to Hit Man (what he promised) so we got this. They do the shoving match. Yoko wins it. Yoko pounds him down and does goes about his methodical pace. Yoko misses an avalanche. Hogan punches away, but can’t slam him. He tries again and can't pick up the fat samoan. Three clotheslines, but on the third one Hogan gets decked. Yoko misses a weird looking big splash. Yoko gets a bearhug, but Hulk punches out…and walks into an elbow. Belly to belly gets 2, and it's hulk up time!! ulk hulks up. Hogan does the three punches, and a big boot stuns Yoko, a second makes him groggy and the third causes the dazed Yoko to fall down. Legdrop by Hogan only gets 2!! A photographer jumps up and wants to take a picture of Hogan (played by Whippleman,Jannetty or Akio Sato) and he kicks away Jimmy Hart then his camera ignites a fireball right in Hogans face and Yoko drops him and the hulkbuster legdrop gets the pin at 13:03. Yoko gives Hogan a banzai drop as the commnetators go on about the death of HulkaMania. Simple cut and dry. Yoko took Hogans best like nothing, and squashed him with his own move then to add insult to injury he did the bonzai drop to make Hogan look like a chump. This was all because Hogan didn't live up to his end of the bargain and Vince made him drop the belt as soon as he could, he also didn't get the chance to slam Yoko which helped save his aura of monstr heel. JR talks about getting an update on Hogans condition as soon as possible but that never happened as Hogan went into the black book of names not to mention and he was written out of history almost 100%. Hogan was being so uncooperative I am suprised, looking back now that Hogan didn't just try to walk with the belt triggering a Montreal screwjob type of affair. 1 1/2 star for the cheesy finish.


Backstage interview with Shawn Michaels and he calls Hogan a dinosaur and buries him. It's interesting that Vince McMahon was like the Emperor from Star Wars who was constantly trading up for new more powerful apprentices. Sammartino/Graham/Backlund/Hogan/Macho/Hit Man/ they all had a falling out with Vince. Austin put a stop to that by not becoming a corporate lacky which sparked the feud of 1998. Shawn has the IC title back when he won it off Jannetty at a house show thanks to the newly named bodyguard, Diesel.


Match #7

8 Man Tag Team Match

Tag Champs Money Inc And The Head Shrinkers Vs The Steiner Brothers And The Smokin Gunns


Crowd is just dead from the last match. Dibiase and Scott start, and trade armdrags. Steiner dropkicks him and clotheslines him out, but Rick tosses him back in, where Scott clotheslines him out again. Fatu tries with Bart. Bart gets a dropkick, but Fatu comes back with a superkick and the Shrinkers doubleteam him. Dibiase gets a suplex. Shrinkers backdrop Bart for 2. Fatu with backbreaker gets 2. IRS legdrop gets 2. Lariat from Irwin, but a hot tag Billy, and he gives Ted two clotheslines and walks into a hotshot. Million $ Dream but Dibiase lets go to gloat and gets pinned by Scott at 6:49. Crap filler match. 1 star.


Match #8

Intercontinental Championship Match

Shawn Michaels w Diesel Vs Crush

This is the first PPV appearance for Diesel in the WWF. Crush grabs a headlock and shoulderblocks Shawn right out of the ring. Back in and another headlock, but Shawn escapes. Crush leapfrogs him twice and dropkicks him out of the ring. Back in, Crush bumps Shawn around and military presses him. Tour of the islands backbreaker and Shawn bails and hides behind Diesel. Interesting at this point in the ppv, that Savage is pushing Crush to the moon as the guy who could slam Yokozuna since Hogan didn't do it. Interesting, maybe they were thinking of Crush for the big push. I would of preferred him over Luger I think. Crush chases Shawn and gets decked from behind, then Shawn rams the back of his head into the ringpost five times. Crush is Ko'd and Shawn drags him in for 2. Shawn goes up with a double axehandle and stomps away, for 2. Chinlock for a few minutes then Crush fights out and he hooks up Shawn for a vertical suplex but drops him stomach first on the top rope. Crush with a backdrop. Backbreaker gets 2. Big boot and legdrop get 2. Seems like the ppv is all about burying Hogan at his point in time..... Shawn gets dumped as the evil Doinks come to ringside, and Crush like an idiot stands on the second rope to yell at them and gets superkicked in the back of the head for the cheap pin at 11:00. Crush chases after them. Dumb distraction brings it down to 2 stars.


Match #9

King Of The Ring Finals

Bret The Hitman Hart Vs Bam Bam Bigelow


Bret hammers away, but Bigelow fights back and wins the punchout. Bret counters a press slam for 2, and works the arm. Bam overpowers him and presses him onto the floor. Back in, Bigelow drops a pair of headbutts and whips him into the corner. Another headbutt gets 2, and Bigelow works the back. Backdrop suplex gets 2. Hart comes back, but gets whipped into the corner again. Another headbutt gets 2 so he tries a bearhug. Another backdrop suplex gets 2, and they brawl outside, which Bret wins. BBB picks him up and posts him back first then slams him on the floor. Luna Vachon makes a suprise appearance and chairshots Hitman and Bigelow brings him back in for the diving head butt and the pin. But wait!!! One of the Hebners runs in and points out the interference so the match must continue they didn't bother doing that for Razor the following year when Anvil helped Owen win it. Only when it helps the stories case I guess. Like when Cops "tell the truth". Back to the bearhug. Into a body vice, which Bret reverses into a suplex. Bigelow misses a senton and Bret tries to come back, but gets whipped into the corner again. Another body vice, but Bret wriggles into a sleeper. Bammer shrugs him off, but Bret dropkicks him out. Pescado follows, and Bret heads back in for a 2nd rope clothesline for 2. Russian legsweep and bulldog follow, but he can’t get the Sharpshooter. Bigelow counters a suplex for 2. Blind charge hits boot, and Bret pulls out a nice victory roll at 18:19 to win the "first ever" KOTR. Im going 3 1/2 stars for this one!!


Post match coronation sees King Jerry Lawler show up and piss on the coronation, so Bret debutes the Burger King chant and Lawler lays him out with the sceptor. and dumps the throne on him and beats him further passed an already bruised pulp. Bret later revealed that Lawler hit him too hard with the sceptre and messed up his back for a short time. There's something about that family and hitting people with props that usually leads to long term injury....



Overall Opinion: Of all the KOTR shows, this is the one that really matterd as a ppv. Owen's win in 94 would be seond best and the following years just sucked match quality wise. This show had some mediocre crap on it, but what you want to see is everything with Bret Hart in it.


Final Score: This show earns a 6.2 star rating out of 10.0 from me.