Guest Report post Posted April 5, 2002 Triple-H's promised 1996 KOTR win was scuppered due to the curtain call, with him winning the event the following year instead. However, he was eliminated in the qualifying stages on Raw, only to be reinstated to the tournament because Vader was so beat up from the match he had with Ken Shamrock the previous month at IYH15. Was this all a complicated work to put Shamrock over as a super-badass, or was someone other than HHH scheduled to win KOTR 97? Sorry if this is an obvious question, I'm new. Cheers in advance to anyone who can help. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Tony149 Report post Posted April 5, 2002 I don't think Shamrock was supposed to win. From what I've read the plan all along was to give HHH back his "win" he didn't get from '96. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Report post Posted April 5, 2002 No, I didn't mean put Shamrock over as a bad-ass to win the KOTR, just as a bad-ass in general. I actually thought Ahmed Johnson was going to win it, as he was being pushed huge at the time. See, Ahmed actually eliminated HHH in the qualifying stages on the may 12th '97 Raw, but then Tripper got another shot to qualify against Crush the following week as a substiture for Vader, who was injured. I read that Vader was legitimately hurt after his IYH match with Shamrock, which is why I was thinking HHH was just put back into the tourney as a substiture and Ahmed was set to win the thing. If the plan was for Hunter to go over all along, it was a pretty strange way to build him up as a credible winner. I guess Vince Russo was writing at the time, so maybe it was swerve, who knows. Maybe they backed out of putting Ahmed over at the last minute because he injured himself 3,795 times in the space of two months. But then I have also heard that Hunter was always intended to win it after being punished in '96. Weird. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Tony149 Report post Posted April 5, 2002 Thinking about it some more, I think the hot rumor at that time was Ahmed going over. The fact he was hurt a lot and hurt other wrestlers made them change their minds as to who should win. I remember the Vader/Shamrock match from IYH: Cold Day In Hell. Some stiff shots were thrown. Probably because Shamrock wasn't used to the wrestling style yet. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Some Guy Report post Posted April 5, 2002 I would have put Foley over at KOTR 97. He was just starting to get over after the long interview segments with JR and a win at KOTR would hve gotten him much more over. HHH wan't over until DX and Ahmed was an injury causer and injury prone. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Report post Posted April 5, 2002 Giving the tourney win to Foley would have made a lot of sense at that time actually. The fans were still pretty hesitant to accept him as a face, although by the end of the final against Hunter he was getting a pretty good reaction. A win there would have done a lot for him. More sense than HHH going over anyway. His matches were sooo boring at that time and he had absolutely zero heat. With him having been knocked out of the tourney earlier, I think it must have been a last minute decision to put him back in and not to go with Ahmed, who was too injury prone and too much of a loose worker, despite the fact he was over big time with the fans. Otherwise, the pre-PPV booking just makes no sense. Hell, Lawler had more momentum going into the tournament than Tripper. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest tpww7 Report post Posted April 5, 2002 Was Ahmed injured by the time of the 97 KOTR?, I thought he had injured himself right after the show, If not, then I dont see why he didnt go over Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest dreamer420 Report post Posted April 5, 2002 HHH was a good choice. Like Austin and Hart HHH went onto main event in the WWF and become champion, although Hart did it before winning KOTR. It elevated him high on the roster and we all know where he went from there so you can't argue with him winning. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Robert S Report post Posted April 6, 2002 I remember the Vader/Shamrock match from IYH: Cold Day In Hell. Some stiff shots were thrown. Probably because Shamrock wasn't used to the wrestling style yet. I think Shamrock injured Vader's ankle with the ankle lock legitimately. It seemed to me that they tried to work a japanese (UWF-i like) style in their match. If I remember correctly than I read somewhere that Ken Shamrock was an (independent) pro wrestler in the early 90ties before he became a shootfighter. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
