Classic Review: WWF King of the Ring 1993
King of the Ring wasn’t a new concept in the WWF in 1993, but it was a new concept as far as being televised, and the event became the company’s fifth regular pay-per-view extravaganza after WrestleMania, Survivor Series, SummerSlam, and the Royal Rumble, proving for all time that no company has ever needed to be on a good run to add pay-per-views to their calendar; in fact, most of the time there’s been PPV expansion, companies weren’t hot.
The tournament originally ran from 1985-91, save for no tournament in 1990, with the first two events taking place in Foxborough, Massachusetts, and the remainder in Providence, Rhode Island. Don Muraco won the inaugural tournament in 1985, followed by Harley Race (1986), Randy Savage (1987), Ted DiBiase (thrown a bone in 1988), Tito Santana (1989), and Bret Hart (1991)1.
The ‘93 event, the first on pay-per-view, came on the heels of the godawful WrestleMania IX, which has recently been “reclaimed” by WWE as a great event that put smiles on faces and made magical moments the world greatly enjoyed, such as Undertaker, who is just great and always was, facing the bo-hemoth Giant Gonzalez, and Hulk Hogan, half-rejected by a tired fan base in his return to action that year, encouraged by Bret Hart to run in there and steal the glory by immediately taking the WWF title from new champion Yokozuna.
Live from Dayton, Ohio, on June 13, 1993!
Jim Ross is on the call alongside Bobby “The Brain” Heenan and “Macho Man” Randy Savage. Ross is still quite new to the WWF, while Heenan is about six months from leaving the company to join WCW, a prelude to Hulk Hogan jumping to WCW in the summer of 1994, which would be followed not long after by Savage. Ross at this point still adds such a new and unusual energy to WWF broadcasts, as he remains a pro wrestling commentator more than a sports-entertainment voice. I’m not really knocking the latter; if you know much about me at all, you know I love Gorilla Monsoon, and I also like the vast majority of Ross’ work that came once he started wearing the cowboy hat and being “JR.” But pre-hat Ross is my favorite Ross.
Never really loved Savage as a commentator, actually. More than I liked Rod Piper, but never loved him.
Bret Hart vs Razor Ramon
King of the Ring Quarterfinal
These two had met in a really good WWF title match at the ‘93 Royal Rumble, so they had some history. They weren’t exactly big time rivals, but they knew one another. Fans chant “1-2-3” at Razor, as he had been recently upset by “The Kid” on the new WWF Monday Night Raw program.
Hart hands the glasses to a toddler at ringside, whose mom is really excited. That little fella would be in his mid-30s now, and I wonder if he still has those glasses or if, like most normal people, he grew out of liking wrestling at an appropriate age2.
Two of my favorite wrestlers of this era. Hart, of course, is my favorite wrestler of all time and that will never change, he has been for three decades and change now and has never been leapfrogged on the charts for even a week, and I always really liked Hall, starting with the Razor Ramon gimmick. (I actually thought Diamond Studd was kinda cool, too, though he didn’t do much of fuck all.) Also two key players in the WWF’s “New Generation” era, which has also been sort of “reclaimed” by WWE as something that didn’t mostly suck ass and make the company seem whiny and desperate.
These two had a nice chemistry, though Hart had a nice chemistry with almost anyone who was competent, and Hall was more than competent, he was really one of the best bigger-guy workers of his era.
Heenan, as he often did, puts over someone he likes and respects in real life, even if the character has to hate them, as he says of Bret, “Since he was born, probably, he’s been wrestling, he’s been putting on holds, countering holds — his whole life, his whole family’s life, is wrestling. I mean, he knows it all, he really, really does — but I just can’t stand him.”
Ross keeps calling Hart “the number one seed,” which sounds good until you turn your brain on and consider that this makes Ramon the “number eight seed” to be matched with him in the first round, which seems pretty absurd for a tournament that also has Mr. Hughes and 1993 Jim Doogan. In fact, if Hart is truly a “number one seed,” that means Perfect vs Hughes is the 4/5 matchup, Bigelow/Duggan the 3/6 in either direction, and Tatanka/Luger the 2/7 in either direction. It doesn’t hold up. You’re suspect, James. I’ve got my fuckin’ eye on you and I think you’re full of beans.