King of the Ring 1993 (2015 Redo): Deja Vu, WWF Style
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of the Ring 1993
Date: June 13, 1993
Location; Nutter Center, Dayton, Ohio
Attendance: 6,500
Commentators: Jim Ross, Bobby Heenan, Randy Savage
The opening video is a rundown of the brackets:
Bret Hart
Razor Ramon
Mr. Perfect
Mr. Hughes
Jim Duggan
Bam Bam Bigelow
Tatanka
Lex Luger
The announcers make a huge deal out of this being the Heartland of America. This was almost the tagline for the show.
All first round matches have fifteen minute time limits.
King of the Ring Quarterfinals: Bret Hart vs. Razor Ramon
King of the Ring Quarterfinals: Mr. Hughes vs. Mr. Perfect
Mr. Fuji says Hogan cheated at Wrestlemania by taking advantage of Yokozuna after a twenty minute match. Apparently being an evil Japanese man takes away your ability to tell time. Yokozuna promises BANZAI.
King of the Ring Quarterfinals: Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Jim Duggan
King of the Ring Quarterfinals: Lex Luger vs. Tatanka
Luger wants five more minutes but uses the distraction to knock Tatanka out with the forearm.
Here are the updated brackets:
Bret Hart
Mr. Perfect
Bam Bam Bigelow
BYE
King of the Ring Semifinals: Mr. Perfect vs. Bret Hart
Hart rolls outside and Perfect whips him hard into the barricade, right next to a cooler full of water and Diet Pepsi. Bret might have hurt his knee but you never can tell with him. Back in and a suplex and missile dropkick get two for Perfect and frustration starts to set in. That means bad things for Bret as Perfect gets more aggressive with the chops in the corner. Mr. goes up again but gets superplexed down for a close two as the fans are into this one.
WWF World Title: Hulk Hogan vs. Yokozuna
Yokozuna Banzai Drops him post match and fans are stunned. Hogan may have been a relic in 1993, but this is similar to the Streak being broken: you would never believe it happened until you saw it.
Mr. Perfect promises to prove what perfect is all about in the future. Not exactly.
Intercontinental Champion Shawn Michaels and brand new (as in like a week ago) bodyguard Diesel (named for the first time here), who helped him win the title back from Marty Jannetty at a house show, say maybe lightning can strike twice, even though Michaels is a far bigger star than Hogan.
Steiner Brothers/Smoking Gunns vs. Money Inc./Headshrinkers
Rating: D+. What a random ending with the Steiners not doing anything in the second half of the match. It sounded like they had to run out of there because of time or something and it made for a sudden ending. It could have been a lot worse, but this match was just there to give the fans something to see as they came out of their comas.
Intercontinental Title: Crush vs. Shawn Michaels
The champ grabs an armbar but misses the superkick and gets dropkicked out to the floor. Back in and Crush throws him around again before gorilla pressing him over his head with more than a few reps. Savage: “HE CAN SLAM YOKOZUNA!” A tilt-a-whirl backbreaker plants Michaels again but Diesel pulls him away from the head vice. Crush shows that all faces have to be stupid (though snappily dressed in orange, yellow and purple) by going after Diesel, allowing Shawn to knee him from the apron.
King of the Ring: Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Bret Hart
The match continues and you can almost hear Bret kill the referee for making him continue. Heenan is livid but Savage correctly points out that it should have been a DQ so Bigelow should be grateful. Bigelow hammers on the back and puts on a bearhug to keep up the psychology. Bret finally pulls him down into a DDT but Bigelow shrugs it off. A running backsplash misses but he whips Bret hard into the corner and Hart just falls down. There are FAR too many empty seats opposite the camera for the main event.
Bret counters an over the shoulder backbreaker into a sleeper but opts to dropkick him to the floor instead. A plancha sets up a bunch of right hands to the face cause Savage to spell pride p-r-y-d-e. Back in and Bret gets two off a middle rope clothesline and the middle rope elbow gets the same. Bam Bam just kicks off the Sharpshooter and we hit another bearhug, so Bret just bites out of it. Not liking being treated like a bowl of macaroni, Bigelow plants him with a powerslam for two. With frustration setting in, Bigelow puts him on the top rope but gets victory rolled for the pin and the crown.
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