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Enigma

King of the Ring: The Middle Years

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King of the Ring Semi-Final Tournament Match

Steve Austin vs. Marc Mero (w/ Sable)

 

King of the Ring Semi-Final Tournament Match

Vader (w/ Jim Cornette) vs. Jake Roberts

 

WWF World Tag Team Championship

The Godwinns (w/ Hillbilly Jim) vs. The Smoking Gunns (w/ Sunny)

 

Jerry Lawler vs. The Ultimate Warrior

 

Mankind vs. The Undertaker (w/ Paul Bearer)

 

WWF Intercontinental Championship

Ahmed Johnson vs. Goldust (w/ Marlena)

 

King of the Ring Tournament Final

 

WWF Championship

The British Bulldog (w/ Jim Cornette & Diana Smith) vs. Shawn Michaels (w/ Jose Lothario)

*Mr. Perfect is the special guest referee

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Enigma, it's the Godwinns challenging the Smoking Gunns (w. Sunny).

 

The Body Donnas debuted Miss Cloudi on this show when they fought the New Rockers on the Free For All. Don't know if 24/7 is going to air that match or not.

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One of those '96 shows that isn't particularly good outside of one or two matches but I'm inexplicably and overly nostalgiac about. Maybe it's because I had just gotten back into wrestling after a year long absence or maybe it's because the first house show I went to was two weeks or so after this and there were a couple of rematches from this show.

 

 

The booking of the tournament is somewhat underrated. Austin-Mero set up a nice, little mini-feud that managed to put both guys over and tide Austin over until Hart came back and Vader-Roberts put Vader over nicely as a sadistic monster without putting a dreaded (at the time) heel vs heel matchup. And as a mark, I personally thought they were setting up a Jake Roberts fights insurmountable odds and wins the tournament and validates his comeback finish or at the very least Jake Roberts fights bravely before Austin has to resort to cheating to beat an injured fogey. Besides even a mark with no knowledge of the inner working of the biz, I thought there was no way that bad guys would win The King of The Ring three years in a row! I may have been the only one but I was surprised to see Austin just kick the everliving shit out of Jake The Snake.

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Pillman's promo here, much like almost every promo he delivered from 95-97, was just gold. And I loved how he and Austin crossed paths right after that segment.

 

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I've always found one specific part of the Goldust/Crush match in 1997 to be very amusing. D'Lo and Clarence Mason start going after Marlena outside, so Goldust intervenes. Meanwhile, Crush begins to approach Goldust from behind, unnoticed. With that, the little kids in the front row get really excited and start yelling "Goldust! Behind you!" several times. Finally, there's one last "BEHIND YOU, GOLDUST!", but unfortunately, it falls on deaf ears, as Crush attacks...

 

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The Qualifiers for the 97 were a bit of a mess, with HHH being eliminated from the tournament only to then take Vader's place. The reason they gave is that HHH was unaware that being DQ'd would cost him the match and fail to qualify for the next match - seriously, wtf?

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Hooray, KOTR 96 showed up today.

 

When I was 15 I really liked the way they made such a huge deal over the Taker/Mankind match and how Mankind would end up "having Undertaker's number". I think when I later watched it on video, it didn't seem like that good a match, but I look forward to revisiting this soon.

 

I didn't like how 1996 began the "only two rounds on PPV" trend.

 

Bulldog/Michaels is very good though... I already have it on Shawn's DVD though (much like KOTR 97's best match, Austin vs. Michaels, is something I also have on DVD). I've never actually seen 1997, so as weak as I know a lot of the card was, I'm looking forward to watching it next week.

 

Funny story about KOTR 96 - I thought for sure Jake was winning. I had it in my mind he was getting the big come back win and I was mad when he lost. I went on to a PRODIGY CHAT and vented about how this was all stupid. Then I told people I believed Virgil was the 3rd man at Bash at the Beach.

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I skipped right to Lawler vs. Warrior. Why the hell is Warrior wearing a baseball cap in the footage of him getting hit with Lawler's painting? I think they talked about that on the Warrior DVD, actually. Anyway, Lawler making fun of people is always classic. I love how he makes some Burger King joke and the girl just yells "FUCK YOU!" back at him. Where were you on that one, 24/7 censors? Some other chick looks incredibly depressed to be the recipient of Lawler's barbs.

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No 95? I actually liked that one.

Wow. This might be a historic moment, finding someone who actually LIKED King of the Ring, 1995! In truth I don't despise that show as much as most people do and I think it gets a worse reputation than it deserves, but it was pretty crappy.

 

Aside from HBK doing his usual show-stealing, 96 didn't have much in the way of ring classics. But aside from Utimate Warrior and Lawler practically sitting down and playing poker in the ring, most of the matches were at least watchable. Others have already mentioned Pillman's promo and the crossing-paths thing with Austin, but it's still enough of a ghostly powerful historical moment that I'll bring it up again. Mankind/Taker was a really fun ahead-of-its-time brawl.

 

KOTR 97... I'm having a hard time even remembering what half the matches were. I know Mankind beat Lawler in a lackluster match in the semis, to send him to a heatless final against Hunter in a boring match that felt like it was never gonna end. I can't even remember who HHH went over in his semi match. Goldust? Ahmed? Whoever, it likely sucked. Stone Cold and Michaels had a decent match with a crap finish. Main event was... uh... Taker vs Farooq, I think? Can't imagine that exactly lighting the world on fire. This was definitely during that floundering-around period where they were losing money and WCW was stomping on their balls every Monday night; they didn't know where to go next, and there was a feeling of desperation in the air.

 

Hey Psycho Penguin, I asked you this before, but didn't get an answer. Are you the Psycho Penguin who writes for GameFaqs?

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Well then, allow me to personally say thank you, since I've enjoyed a lot of your old game reviews and gotten much utility out of the FAQs you wrote. Whenever I finally get around to finshing Final Fantasy X, it'll be with your walk-thru. I dunno how much feedback the FAQs guys get (probably a lot, probably bad, probably badly spelled) but I thought I'd take this moment to stop and say, thanks.

 

. . .

 

And I do kinda agree that Mabel gets more complaints than he deserves.

 

Okay, this is feeling dangerously homoerotic, stepping away now.

 

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Heh thanks. I might write another FAQ one day, a bit harder to find time now.

 

Also - I just read my review again and wow. I sucked at writing in 2001 or whenever I did that. Ouch. But my points on King Mabel stand. I don't know why but he's always been a guilty pleasure.

 

Anyways, haven't seen 96 and just started 97. HHH beat Ahmed and Mankind beat King in boring matches. I did like HHH getting a 2nd opportunity to be in the tournament because he threatened to sue the WWE over being DQed out of the tournament.

 

I didn't like how 1996 began the "only two rounds on PPV" trend.

 

Yeah, but weren't there draws and stuff in 93 and 95 also? And maybe 94, I forget. But I know 93 had a draw and 95's bracket was hell (Mabel went to the finals after one match)

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I agree that the two round finals were better since there would be draws and 3 minute matches.

 

Did Goldust-Crush have a backstory, or was it a last second addition?

 

 

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Pretty fun watch - worth checking out for the Owen commentary itself.

 

He's no Art Donovan, but I'm enjoying his commentary. Jake Roberts keeps just keeps getting older (51-61-81-91).

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It's the last TV wrestling appearance for Sid, actually, as he made that random cameo alongside HBK, Austin, Patriot, and Shamrock on that Raw in San Antonio about a month later.

 

When Ahmed confronts Taker after the match with Faarooq, what is he yelling? I know it's usually hard to understand him, but is this what everyone else thought he was yelling: (pointing to his head) "Use this! USE THIS! Discover! DISCOVER!" followed by the "I'm talking to you" and Pearl River Plunge.

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Might as well type up the card since the show has now been on 24/7 since Wednesday:

 

King of the Ring 1997

LIVE! From the Providence Civic Center in Providence, RI.

 

King of the Ring Semi-Final Match: Hunter Hearst Helmsley /w Chyna vs. Ahmed Johnson

 

King of the Ring Semi-Final Match: Jerry "The King" Lawler vs. Mankind

 

Goldust /w Marlena vs. Crush /w Nation of Domination members D`Lo Brown and Clarence Mason

 

'Sycho' Sid and the Legion of Doom (Hawk and Animal) vs. The Hart Foundation (Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart, The British Bulldog, and Intercontinental Champion Owen Hart )

 

King of the Ring Finals

 

World Tag Team Champion Shawn Michaels vs. World Tag Team Champion 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin.

 

World Wrestling Federation Championship Match: The Undertaker © vs. Faarooq

 

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