WWE King of the Ring 1993 (1993)

Good concept, poorly executed.

Watch something else. There are very few redeeming qualities to this film.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

1. Razor Ramon Vs. Bret Hart Decent match with some upsets. 7/10 2. Mr. Hughes Vs. Mr. Perfect - Hughes totally screwed Spinebuster. Hennig won by DQ. 6.5/10 3. Bam Bam Bigelow Vs. Jim "Insult" Duggan 6/10 4. Lex Luger Vs. Tatanka - Draw match, but I must admit I expected it worse. 6/10 Semifinals: 5. Bret Hart Vs. Mr. Perfect - That was nice match full of technic and strategy, pity that Mr. Perfect didn't win. 8/10 6. WWF Championship: Yokozuna Vs. Champ: Hulk Hogan - I give this match 6 points only because of Yokozuna won and squashed another American Hogan's stupid dream, but beating from The Undertaker was far better. 6/10 NOOOOOOOOO! NASH Appeared, omg save me from another few PPVs.7. The Steiners/Smoking Guys Vs. Million Dollar Man/I.R.S./Headshrinkers 5.5/10 8. Intercontinental CHampionship: Greatest Mullet in the game-Crush Vs. Champ-Shawn Michaels 6/10 Final 9. Bam Bam Bigelow Vs. Bret Hart - Unpredictablly wins Bret Hart. 6/10

The King of the Ring 1993 is an uneven pay-per-view overall, as there are some matches that don't really deliver. All of those matches are lacking the same thing: Bret Hart. This show was all about the Hit-man. He wrestled three times this night, against three different styles, and each one was great in its own way. They call Bret one of the greatest storytellers in all of wrestling, and this is my favorite story: Bret had recently lost the world title that he still deserved to have, but now he had to climb his way back to the top of the mountain. This show was like a b-line to the top of Mt. Everest. I totally felt like I was watching a man claw his way to the top over the course of these three matches. The inspiring was the final match against the much larger Bam Bam Bigelow. There were so many times when it looked like Bret was beaten or couldn't keep going, but he never gave up. For me, this was as important as any championship or title. The outcome in wrestling is pre-planned. Most of the time you can guess who is going to win. You are fully aware watching that it is choreographed and discussed beforehand. Yet, every time I watch this back, I am charged with a feeling of wanting to go out and accomplish great things in my own life. For me, this was the best of all time.

King of the Ring 1993 was a fine PPV. It was the night where Hart finally established himself as a big time star, and also Hulk Hogan's final WWE PPV appearance for nearly nine years.The king of the ring tournament had actually been around for quite a while. Harley Race and Randy Savage were both famous wrestlers who'd taken on King gimmicks after winning the tournament in the 1980s.Bret Hart had been the most recent winner of the event, taking out the tournament in 1991 (there was no tournament in 1992). This, and the screwy way he lost the WWE Title at Wrestlemania meant that he didn't have to wrestle a match to qualify but was granted a bye straight through to the PPV.The night began with Bret Hart defeating Razor Ramon in a stellar match to advance to the second round. The match was entertaining and went back and forth. It ended with Ramon attempting to suplex Hart off the top rope, but Hart was able to land on top of Razor and get the pin.The next match saw Mr Perfect defeat Mr Hughes by DQ after he used an urn he'd stolen from the Undertaker to knock out Perfect. Perfect would now face Hart in the next round.Bam Bam Bigelow then won through with a victory over Jim Duggan following a flying head butt. He received a bye through to final after Tatanka and Lex Luger fought to a time limit draw in the next match. Both men were undefeated in the WWE at that stage.This left Bret Hart to defeat Mr Perfect in one of the best matches in WWE history in the semi final. This was a thrilling, fast paced and absorbing match up, almost the equal of their match from Summerslam 1991.This bought us to the main event of the evening as Hulk Hogan put his WWE Title on the line against Yokozuna. Hogan had defeated Yokozuna in a few seconds to win the title at Wrestlemania IX and hadn't wrestled since. Yokozuna kicked out of the Hogan leg drop (!) and then Hogan was distracted by a photographer and then had the camera explode in front of his face. Yokozuna hit a leg drop of his own and was the new WWE Champion in a pretty silly match really.Next up it was filler time as we had an eight man tag match. The team of the Steiner Brothers (Rick and Scott) and the Smoking Gunns (Bart and Billy) defeated Money Inc (Ted DiBIase and Irwin R Shyster) and the Headshrinkers (Samu and Fatu). Billy Gunn won the match for his team by pinning DiBIase who was busy bragging to the crowd about a perfectly executed million dollar dream. This was fun, but a little chaotic for some tastes.In the penultimate match of the evening Shawn Michaels retained the Intercontinental Title against Crush. Crush had long been trying to win the IC Title from Michaels, but on this night was foiled by Doink the Clown, who came to the rung with a look alike to distract Crush just long enough for Michaels to hit a super kick and get the win. Doink had also been a feud with Crush coming into the match. This was a fun match.And finally we end up with the tournament final with Bam Bam Bigelow, relatively fresh coming off a bye in the second round, taking on Bret Hart who'd wrestled two grueling matches earlier in the night. The two put on a classic big man vs little man match, with Hart winning with a victory roll to be crowned King of the Ring for the second time, and the first time on PPV.This was a performance that really put Hart on the map as a star of the future, but he would not have much time to celebrate tonight as commentator Jerry Lawler, King of the Memphis Territory interrupted Hart's coronation. Lawler made it very clear that we'd have to wait and see who the real King of the WWE is when Hart and he got in the ring together.

King of the Ring 1993 was a great card of action which also marked the ending of one era but the beginning of a new one.(SPOILERS AHEAD)This was Hulk Hogan's last WWF PPV match and he defended the title in a mismatch against the late Yokosuna who dominated the match throughout and finally crushed Hogan for the WWF Title. Following King of the Ring, Hogan went on to battle Yokosuna in the United Kingdom in arena matches but this event was Hogan's last televised match until his return early in 2002. At the time of seeing this back in June 1993 I was very sad to see Hogan leave.Bret Hart advanced through the King of the Ring tournament to become King of the Ring for a second time (although when he won the King of the Ring crown in 1991 it was not televised). Hogan may have wrestled his last match at this event but seeing Bret win the crown made you realize that he would soon be WWF Champion again.All in all, a brilliant event. Rent it on video when you can.