King of the Ring 1993 - one of the best cards eva?

[Deleted]

so its june, king of the ring month, and i thought id do a couple of these!

i was very pumped when they added a 5th annual ppv. i personally loved it most when it was just the big 5! this was perfect time for a ppv with the long inbetween of wrestlemania & summerslam.

the 1st KOTR was the best of them imo! loved the toruney, the build up, eveything. my only gripes were mr perfect not winning the tourny, lex/tatanka goin to a draw, & the dumb fireball finish with hulk/yoko!


Rating: A


Matches:

bret/razor was a great opener and rematch from the rumble

perfect/hughes was decent, and i was so shocked they let perfect win and we were gonna get a babyface vs babyface match in the 2nd round

bigelow/duggan was ok but too short

lex/tatanka was great, but the draw finish sucked

hart/perfect was best match on card and one of my all time fav matches even tho i wanted perfect to win it

hulk/yoko was decent until the lame finish

8-man tag was way too short for 4 teams (6 minutes)

micheals/crush was great, but thought for sure crush was gonna win the belt here and i wanted him too

bret/bigelow was an excellent final match.











so, lets here about KOTR93 my classic wrasslin brotha's!

[hbkjason]

I was so excited for this show! I loved martial arts movies that had some kind of tournament so I got a huge kick out of the idea of the King of the Ring.

Bret Hart's performance on this card is one of the greatest of all time. It's one thing to have a match that lasts 30 to 40 minutes, but Bret had three very different and entertaining matches on one show!

I always felt Crush never getting his revenge on Doink and failure to win the Intercontinental Championship here completely killed the momentum he had built up since he became Kona Crush

[TheEvilDoink1987]

Jun 16, 2024 0:28:16 GMT -5 hbkjason said:

I was so excited for this show! I loved martial arts movies that had some kind of tournament so I got a huge kick out of the idea of the King of the Ring.

Bret Hart's performance on this card is one of the greatest of all time. It's one thing to have a match that lasts 30 to 40 minutes, but Bret had three very different and entertaining matches on one show!

I always felt Crush never getting his revenge on Doink and failure to win the Intercontinental Championship here completely killed the momentum he had built up since he became Kona Crush

Yeah, this event kind of marked the end of the road for Kona Crush. He lost the match and got made a fool of AGAIN by Doink in the process. He was pretty over, but I think the fans kind of gave up on him at this point. Within a few weeks, he was fed to Yokozuna and written off TV until September when he returned as a heel.

As for the PPV, it still holds up as an enjoyable show which wasn't always a guarantee back in the early New Generation days. Bret was absolutely the MVP with three very solid matches - one of which is an absolute classic - and his performance kind of cemented his place in the company as the people's champion.

Hogan versus Yoko was also entertaining. The match itself was nothing special, but the hot crowd helped give it a big "main event" feel. Not a huge fan of the whacky ending with the exploding camera although I know they were just trying to keep the door open in case Hulk decided to stick around.

Nothing else from the card really sticks out too much in terms of good or bad. Most of the quarterfinal matches were forgettable and the six-man tag was weak. Again, this show was all about Bret. He really lived up to his "best there is" moniker here even though he wouldn't get back into the title picture again until the following year.

[Ohtimate Wahriah]

Lex/ Tatanka is surprisingly a VERY good match. If I’m not mistaken, this is one of Lex’s final on screen appearances as The Narcissists as well isn’t it? Less than a month later he’s Made in the USA

[K5]

i was and forever a mark for bret so yes, i agree

[The Brain]

Best KOTR event ever. Bret's road to the crown was fantastic

[MKSavage]

My favorite KOTR as well. A great card from top to bottom. Perfect/Bret was definitely the best match of the night. It's an all-time classic, just as good as their Summer Slam 1991 match. I also enjoyed the 3-man team of JR, Macho, and the Brain. 

[The Brain]

Jun 16, 2024 11:09:20 GMT -5 MKSavage said:

My favorite KOTR as well. A great card from top to bottom. Perfect/Bret was definitely the best match of the night. It's an all-time classic, just as good as their Summer Slam 1991 match. I also enjoyed the 3-man team of JR, Macho, and the Brain. 

Short but fun run and this is coming from a guy not fond of 3 man booths

[AndrewR85]

Easily the best KOTR PPV.

[LA Times]

Jun 16, 2024 8:03:00 GMT -5 Ohtimate Wahriah said:

Lex/ Tatanka is surprisingly a VERY good match. If I’m not mistaken, this is one of Lex’s final on screen appearances as The Narcissists as well isn’t it? Less than a month later he’s Made in the USA

He was still wrestling as The Narcissist on the Jul 3 1993 episode of WWF Superstars (taped Jun 15) in a squash match against a jobber.

[X-27]

A top 5 WWE ppv for me.

[Ohtimate Wahriah]

Jun 16, 2024 21:22:49 GMT -5 LA Times said:

Jun 16, 2024 8:03:00 GMT -5 Ohtimate Wahriah said:

Lex/ Tatanka is surprisingly a VERY good match. If I’m not mistaken, this is one of Lex’s final on screen appearances as The Narcissists as well isn’t it? Less than a month later he’s Made in the USA

He was still wrestling as The Narcissist on the Jul 3 1993 episode of WWF Superstars (taped Jun 15) in a squash match against a jobber.

WOW good Lord…they really gave no signs of a switch did they? Haha

[TheEvilDoink1987]

Jun 17, 2024 8:58:17 GMT -5 Ohtimate Wahriah said:

Jun 16, 2024 21:22:49 GMT -5 LA Times said:

He was still wrestling as The Narcissist on the Jul 3 1993 episode of WWF Superstars (taped Jun 15) in a squash match against a jobber.

WOW good Lord…they really gave no signs of a switch did they? Haha

I always wonder exactly when they knew they were going with Lex. You have to think it was probably right after this event because I doubt they would have had him continue with the heel thing at the PPV if the plans were already in place for a major babyface push. Vince probably got confirmation from Hulk in the coming days that he would not be back anytime soon and immediately pivoted.

If Hulk had decided to stick around after KOTR, I wonder how he would have been booked at SummerSlam. The rumored match against Bret might be the popular guess, but I could see him getting a title rematch against Yokozuna.

[TheEvilDoink1987]

Jun 16, 2024 11:12:21 GMT -5 The Brain said:

Jun 16, 2024 11:09:20 GMT -5 MKSavage said:

My favorite KOTR as well. A great card from top to bottom. Perfect/Bret was definitely the best match of the night. It's an all-time classic, just as good as their Summer Slam 1991 match. I also enjoyed the 3-man team of JR, Macho, and the Brain. 

Short but fun run and this is coming from a guy not fond of 3 man booths

Yeah, if they were set on Savage being a commentator and not wrestling, I wish they could have stuck with that trio for some more PPVs. Their trial run at WrestleMania IX was decent - although Randy was all over the place for most of the show - and by KOTR I felt like they were starting to show some good chemistry.

I will admit that the duo of Vince and Bobby for both SummerSlam and Survivor Series that year was very entertaining just because Heenan played so well off of Vince and would just take jabs at him all night.

[PJ]

Unless you are only counting PPV’s the Magnificent Muraco was the first KotR in ‘85. But yes ‘93 was a great card.

[Deleted]

Jun 17, 2024 13:22:50 GMT -5 PJ said:

Unless you are only counting PPV’s the Magnificent Muraco was the first KotR in ‘85. But yes ‘93 was a great card.

yes 1st ppv KOTR in june. and the 1st 6 were not ppv's and were all over different months (july, spet, oct) and none in june!

[Ohtimate Wahriah]

Jun 17, 2024 9:45:01 GMT -5 TheEvilDoink1987 said:

Jun 17, 2024 8:58:17 GMT -5 Ohtimate Wahriah said:

WOW good Lord…they really gave no signs of a switch did they? Haha

I always wonder exactly when they knew they were going with Lex. You have to think it was probably right after this event because I doubt they would have had him continue with the heel thing at the PPV if the plans were already in place for a major babyface push. Vince probably got confirmation from Hulk in the coming days that he would not be back anytime soon and immediately pivoted.

If Hulk had decided to stick around after KOTR, I wonder how he would have been booked at SummerSlam. The rumored match against Bret might be the popular guess, but I could see him getting a title rematch against Yokozuna.

I truly feel like something fell through & they looked at the roster and thought “who can believable slam Yoko?”
Because the night before, Lex is still a heel with no signs of a baby face turn.

Nobody ever talks about that though. I’d be really interested to know because if the plan all along was to have Lex turn baby and slam Yoko, why not take him off tv prior?

[JokerFC]

Really solid card. Only thing Id change is have The Steiner's beat Money Inc for the titles here.

[TheEvilDoink1987]

Jun 18, 2024 18:19:04 GMT -5 Ohtimate Wahriah said:

Jun 17, 2024 9:45:01 GMT -5 TheEvilDoink1987 said:

I always wonder exactly when they knew they were going with Lex. You have to think it was probably right after this event because I doubt they would have had him continue with the heel thing at the PPV if the plans were already in place for a major babyface push. Vince probably got confirmation from Hulk in the coming days that he would not be back anytime soon and immediately pivoted.

If Hulk had decided to stick around after KOTR, I wonder how he would have been booked at SummerSlam. The rumored match against Bret might be the popular guess, but I could see him getting a title rematch against Yokozuna.

I truly feel like something fell through & they looked at the roster and thought “who can believable slam Yoko?”
Because the night before, Lex is still a heel with no signs of a baby face turn.

Nobody ever talks about that though. I’d be really interested to know because if the plan all along was to have Lex turn baby and slam Yoko, why not take him off tv prior?

Exactly why I think Vince planned the whole thing literally a week or two beforehand. If they knew well in advance that Luger was going to get the Hogan rocket strapped to him, there is no way he is on the KOTR card as "The Narcissist" doing his usual heel schtick.

[The Brain]

Crush losing here thanks to Doink and once again taking an L to em on Superstars not long after this...Yeah no coming back from that. They had to turn em at that point