It has been many a year since I watched this show and I was surprised to see that I didn't review it as I could've sworn I did...anyway...the show kicks off with Bret Hart vs. Razor Ramon. Nobody on commentary mentions that Bret defended his WWE Championship against Razor at the Rumble in January, which is a bit odd because Bret and Perfect do play up their match at SummerSlam 91' years earlier. Maybe one of those things that the commentators were told not to mention for some reason? The first two-thirds of this match are nothing special as Bret works on Razor's arm and then Ramon takes over after Bret gets run into the steel post. The final third of the match are terrific, though, as Bret regains control and starts delivering signature offense but Ramon continuously kicks out. The finish is a good one as Razor goes with a deathblow - a belly-to-back suplex off the top rope - but Bret is able to counter it into a crossbody and gets the pin. (3/5)
Next up - Curtis Hughes vs. Mr. Perfect in another first round match-up in the King of the Ring tournament. Hughes had some credibility after beating down the Undertaker earlier in the week, but not enough to make him a real threat in this tournament or even a PPV challenger for Taker (who would end up working with Giant Gonzalez again at SummerSlam despite the catastrophe that was their WrestleMania match). Perfect tries his best to get something good out of Hughes but even the great Curt Hennig couldn't necessarily carry the clumsy, one-dimensional powerhouse into something actually good. I'll also give some credit to Perfect here for crafting a match that made sense and kept Hughes relatively strong as Hennig got the DQ win once Hughes opted to stop fighting fair and used the urn against him. About as good a match as one could possibly hope for or expect out of these two thanks to Perfect's selling. (2/5)
Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Jim Duggan follows. This goes almost exactly 5 minutes and is very forgettable. Duggan was still over with the live crowds, but not to the same level he'd been even 2-3 years earlier. I know Duggan has a ton of fans who love his early work and I'm a big fan of his match against Vader from Starrcade 94', but, for the most part, he's just somebody I always found too goofy in the WWE and WCW. I've become a bigger Bammer fan than I was as a kid now that I've seen his late era WCW work and more of his ECW run, but this wouldn't be a match I'd consider one of his best. (1.5/5)
Lex Luger vs. Tatanka is our next match and the final first round bout of the tournament. These two don't have the arsenals, energy, or even the natural charisma to carry a (spoiler alert) 15-minute draw. Maybe if Tatanka was the one working heel and had DiBiase as his manager like he would in 94'? Maybe if Lex Luger was the popular babyface working from underneath like he did against Ric Flair years earlier? Here, it is Luger who has to set the pace and Tatanka who has to come up with the fun and spirited comebacks and it doesn't work very well until the end, when both guys start wrestling with some actual urgency. The booking here is smart, though, as both Luger and Tatanka came into this match undefeated and it wasn't necessarily the right time for either guy to lose (especially not Luger). The post-match is a great babyface turn tease from Luger - especially when it is watched in hindsight knowing that Luger would become a fully-fledged babyface about a month later - that had me second-guessing my knowledge of Luger's WWE timeline. Not horrendous, but not very good until you get to the last 4 minutes. (1.5/5)
With Luger and Tatanka fighting to a draw, the next match serves as the only semi-final of the tournament: Bret Hart vs. Mr. Perfect in a rematch from SummerSlam 91'. That match is well-known and highly-regarded, but this bout gets praised a ton too and for good reason. Perfect was a babyface by this point, but works heelish at times, which is true to his win-at-all-costs character. Like their SummerSlam match, this one has so many great elements and moments to it - arguably even more than their more famous clash - including Bret coming in with taped-up fingers to sell the damage from his match with Razor, Bret and Perfect both taking fantastic cringe-inducing bumps at times, the way the match goes from being a battle of technicians to an outright fight, and, of course, Bret getting sent into the guardrail from the apron and, later, the suplex from inside the ring to the floor were two huge bumps you didn't see in every match 30 years ago. My biggest criticism - and a fairly typical one - is the finish, which looks a little bit wonky and happens a tad "out of nowhere." The logic is there, but I kinda wish they had built up to it with a few more nearfalls before landing on a more climactic reverse to the inside cradle. (4/5)
The WWE World Champion Hulk Hogan defended his title against Yokozuna in the next match. This is one of those matches that is much more interesting to talk about than to actually watch. The story here is that at WrestleMania IX, Hogan had "ambushed" (or "Pearl Harbor'd") Yokozuna after he had cheated to beat Bret Hart for the title, challenging him to an impromptu match and leaving with the gold. This time around, Yoko would be fresh, making him a much bigger threat to the Hulkster. Meanwhile, behind the curtain, Hogan and Vince were having some issues. Hogan's deal was ending later in the summer, prior to SummerSlam, but I'm assuming they were still negotiating an extension at this point. Hogan had taken some time off following WrestleMania VIII, but the WWE had kept rolling, pushing the aforementioned Hitman as the next top babyface (with The Undertaker also moving higher up the card) while Hogan's contemporaries and longtime rivals, Savage, Flair, and Warrior, were either moved to non-wrestling roles or sent packing entirely. The company had also introduced Monday Night RAW in his absence, a seismic shift in the delivery system of WWE content that would eventually push things further and further into adult territory with its primetime slot compared to the emphasis on Saturday morning TV shows of the previous few years. Watching this match, Hogan stands out as a bit of a relic. The crowd is still behind him and the pop he receives in Dayton is nothing to scoff at, but the act is still undeniably stale. There's good foreshadowing at the start of the match as JR and Savage note the attendance of photographers from around the world, hyping up the global scale of this match. The action isn't great, but what one would expect from these two? It is night-and-day between what these two are capable of and what we saw in the previous bout, but its unfair to compare the two in that regard. Again, the "enjoyability" of this match doesn't really come from the specific moves or the shifts in momentum, but rather from the way it can be dissected and analyzed as a whole. Yokozuna essentially dominates the match, kicks out of Hogan's finisher towards the end, and is never slammed, which is legitimately shocking considering how much that is played up on commentary and how many matches in Hogan's career were built around him finally slamming some massive giant (literally at WrestleMania III) to score the feel-good victory. Despite how much this is played up on commentary, they don't deliver that moment. Nor do they deliver the moment of Hogan kicking out of Yoko's finish before "Hulking Up." This isn't some subtle inversion of the standard, predictable Hogan match - it was seemingly a purposeful decision to not deliver the expected match. But whose decision was it? What were their motivations? This match is a borderline burial of Hogan, especially the post-match, where Yoko does deliver the Bonzai Drop and the commentators go overboard about the "death of Hulkamania." As an angle, it would've been the perfect set-up for a rubber match...but we never got that rubber match. Hogan just "doing business" and putting over Yoko so thoroughly doesn't really jibe with his M.O for politicking, so one is left to assume that he agreed to the "burial" under the impression that Vince was going to cough up the dough to re-sign him. That, of course, did not happen. Instead, Vince essentially gave Luger Hulk's gimmick and tried to prop him up as the company's next leading man, a decision that likely also played into Hogan jumping ship to WCW. Oh, and all the messiness around the steroid trial that would rear its head in the fall. Regardless, the match itself isn't very good, but it is interesting and that's more than can be said about some of the other bouts on this card. (2.5/5)
The next match is boring filler as The Smoking Gunns team up with The Steiner Brothers to take on Money Inc. and The Headshrinkers in an 8-man match that goes under 8 minutes. They don't really have the time or space to present a great match so this isn't really an indictment on the wrestlers, most of whom were solid. In hindsight, this match does highlight how much the WWE's roster was in flux in 93' as the Steiners and Money Inc. were the established teams on their way out of the WWE (the Steiners would spend most of 94' in Japan while DiBiase would retire before the end of the year) and the Gunns and Headshrinkers had not yet had much exposure as top teams in the division. Not actively bad, but not good. (1.5/5)
The Intercontinental Championship is on the line next as "The Heartbreak Kid" Shawn Michaels defends the title against Crush. Crush was in the midst of a fairly strong push, but he never connected with the crowd and wasn't a very interesting worker inside the ring at a time when, thanks to guys like Bret and Shawn, being able to deliver an entertaining, fast-paced, hard-hitting match was essential if you didn't have the natural charisma or freakish steroid-supported look of the Ultimate Warrior. Diesel had made appearances in Shawn's corner before this event, but wasn't "named" until a pre-match promo. This isn't a career highlight for anyone involved - the soon-to-be great chemistry between Diesel and Shawn wasn't there yet, Crush and Michaels didn't really mix well, and the crowd still seemed a bit deflated after the Hogan loss. Michaels had had some very good matches by this point in his career, but he wasn't "good enough to carry a broomstick"-level yet, nor was he even at the point in his career where he would ragdoll around and bump like crazy to prove he was capable of being "The Showstopper," an attitude that some would deem wildly cocky and arrogant and that of a prima donna (but that would've undoubtedly made this a much more enjoyable match). Interference from Doink leads to the finish, which might be the best part of this bout. Not terrible, but a touch long and forgettable. (1.5/5)
Main event time - Bret Hart vs. Bam Bam Bigelow in the finals of the King of the Ring Tournament. This is Hart's third match of the night (duh) while Bigelow is coming off over an hour of rest and a relatively short match with Duggan. Not as revered as the match against Perfect earlier on, this match is still quite good and features a bunch of small details that warrant repeat viewing and admiration. Hart is not only still selling damage to his fingers, but now he's also got a slight limp. I love that some of the biggest transitions and cut-offs and comebacks occur outside the ring too, a theme that Bret wove through all three of his matches. I wasn't a huge fan of Luna Vachon's interference as not only was it a weak-looking chairshot but it just felt wholly unnecessary and too "heel-by-numbers." Bigelow's offense looks vicious and Bret sells it all really well. Bret's over-the-top rope dive onto Bigelow on the floor is one of those moments that got shoe-horned into nearly every WWE package for years to become because of how excellent it looked. The false finish coming off of Vachon's interference was a moment I completely forgot about and I'm not a huge fan of it. Just seems like overbooking more than anything, though I guess it gave Bigelow the visual pin. From here, you might expect some sort of bullshit to wrap things up, but they actually extend the match for several more minutes instead of going right into the finish. Speaking of the finish, I really liked how Bret used his cunning to come up with yet another unexpected pin that showed off his technical prowess. Here's hoping that with Vince gone, we see more wrestlers in the WWE stop relying so heavily on their finishers - and often multiple uses of them in a single match - and start doing what Bret did on this night and at multiple other times in his career by capping off his matches with more variety. (3.5/5)
Jerry Lawler attacks Bret during his coronation ceremony in a big post-match angle. I'm not a big Lawler fan, but it is an effective way to kickstart their feud. Like Heenan and Hogan - and I may be misremembering - even when Bret turned heel in 97', I feel like Lawler continued to attack and criticize him on commentary while still backing his favorite Hart, Owen. Closing the show with a heel beating down on a babyface was not at all the norm in the WWE, so this was quite a way to close the show. In fact, I really can't think of another major WWE pay-per-view before this one that ended on such a sad note aside from Flair winning the Rumble in 92'.
Overall, King of the Ring 93' is a good watch thanks to Bret Hart putting in one of the all-time greatest one-night performances. Over the course of 3 matches and something close to an hour of ring time, the Hitman puts on a wrestling clinic. The Hogan/Yokozuna match is worth checking out too. The rest of the show isn't great, but doesn't necessarily drag aside from the underwhelming Crush/Michaels match. Despite a somewhat low rating of 2.44-out-of-5, this one gets a....
FINAL RATING - Watch It...With Remote in Hand
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