King of the Ring: The Early Years

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

"Nobody in that family likes each other"

 

Shawn sure turned out to be right on that one.

[cabbageboy 0]

Just watched KOTR 94 for the first time tonight. I'm still baffled at how Diesel got a world title shot in June of 1994 when he really had no remote credibility to main event at that point. In fact I was utterly shocked that he didn't just eat a sharpshooter for a Bret win. At the time I assumed the whole Neidhart run in was mostly to set up the Owen feud rather than them having any serious plan to push Diesel down the road. That said, the Bret/Diesel match was excellent stuff. Probably one of Nash's best matches.

 

The tourney itself was fun enough. No real great match in it but most of it was fun and nothing lasted too long to be annoying, which is a good thing compared to shows like GAB 92 (which was just on 24/7) that have tourney matches with no heat going 15 mins.

 

The funny thing is I have zero recollection of Lawler/Piper as a feud. Absolutely don't remember Piper being around in 1994 at all. It was hilarious hearing Gorilla blather about the New Generation the whole PPV, with a main event of Jerry Lawler vs. Roddy Piper! The sad thing is I would have loved to see that match in 1984. But 1994? Not so much.

 

As far as Art Donovan goes, why exactly was this guy commentating on a PPV? Does anyone have a possible reason for how that was allowed to happen? Can we just chalk it up to Vince being stressed over the steroid trial and not being in his right mind?

[King Kamala 0]

The (dumb) reasoning was that Art Donovan is a Baltimore legend (He's a Pro Football Hall of Famer. Played with The Baltimore Colts in case you don't know exactly who he is) and a generally gregarious guy who was a good talk show guest and thus with the show being held in Baltimore, he should commentate! Of course they didn't take into account the fact that he knew jabsolutely nothing about wrestling and the rest...is WrestleCrap history.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

Just watched KOTR 94 for the first time tonight. I'm still baffled at how Diesel got a world title shot in June of 1994 when he really had no remote credibility to main event at that point. In fact I was utterly shocked that he didn't just eat a sharpshooter for a Bret win. At the time I assumed the whole Neidhart run in was mostly to set up the Owen feud rather than them having any serious plan to push Diesel down the road. That said, the Bret/Diesel match was excellent stuff. Probably one of Nash's best matches.

 

I actually thought Diesel had a chance to win the belt when I saw this show live. How much did that guy way?

 

Piper was doing vignettes on TV in 1994 called "The Bottom Line" but I don't recall much about them other than they used TV static noise to transition shots. I think he talked about being a loyal family man with a bunch of kids in one of them and Lawler knocked him for it, but I don't hold me to that.

[cabbageboy 0]

Eh, generally speaking I tune out when a guy has the IC belt and is also going for the world title. It's like code for "This guy ain't winning unless he's the Ultimate Warrior." Besides, Diesel had done very little to even deserve an IC title run, much less a world title in mid 1994. The only thing of note he did was toss a bunch of jobbers at the 94 Rumble.

 

The funny thing is that when Diesel did win the belt by beating Backlund I honestly thought they would just job him to Bret at the 1995 Rumble, figuring they would realize how foolish it was. They eventually did job him to Bret, but not for another 10 MONTHS.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

You have to understand that in 1994, I (and many of my friends) didn't know Diesel as a lazy worker who was almost fired before getting mad cheers at the 94 Rumble (so legend goes). Diesel was a devastating force to be reckoned with. A friend of mine was pissed when "old man" Savage pinned Diesel at the Survivor Series in 1993, but I thought that was awesome because I was a big Savage fan. I was really happy to hear spoilers for Superstars on the Cody Boines wrestling wrap stating that Razor lost the IC belt to Diesel.

[King Kamala 0]

I hate to defend Nash but to uneducated marks at the time like myself (and Venkman), Diesel was easily the #3 heel in the company behind Owen and Yokozuna. One of my biggest markout moments was watching Razor Ramon beat Diesel at SummerSlam '94. I thought Razor had no chance because Diesel was one of those guys that was just too tough. Granted, I thought Giant Gonzalez and Ludvig Borga were "too tough" to be beaten. Ah, to be a mark again.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

On the subject of Nash vs Hart, that match was actually better than I remembered. I didn't remember doing the (for back of a better term) "rolling" Boston Crab off the mat, but that's probably because the camera guys basically missed it.

[Jebus 0]

Diesel got built up big time in 1994. I had no problem with him becoming champ at the end of the year. History has not been kind to his reign (with good reason) but I don't agree with all the "What was the WWF thinking?" talk. By November 1994, Diesel was the man. The main problem was that he won the title, lost his bad ass aura and had a terrible long reign.

 

I went to my first WWF house show in October 1994 and Diesel got the biggest pop. A heel got the biggest pop! Bret, Taker & Razor were also on the card. But Diesel got a "Goldberg" type reaction. By that I mean, his opponent was Headshrinker Seone and we knew Diesel was gonna DESTROY him so there was no point in sitting down. Let's all just chant "Diesel" for the 4 minutes this is gonna last. THAT guy should've been champ...not Smiley McHappy Diesel.

[garfieldsnose 0]

I think by that time they were already heavily teasing a Diesel/HBK breakup with Diesel becoming the obvious face, so I could see why he was being cheered in October of '94. I, along with many other people probably, was waiting for him to just snap on HBK.

[King Kamala 0]

I've said it before on this board many times and I'll say it again. There was nothing wrong with the buildup to Diesel's WWF World title reign but the actual reign itself was terrible.

[Darth Pipes 0]

I would definitely agree with that. Only when Bret or HBK were involved was Diesel's reign ever interesting.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

Historical note I keep meaning to mention but forget: KOTR 94 is the debut of the updated Bret Hart theme.

[MillenniumMan831 0]

Good call there. I always subconciously wanted to know when they busted out the New Generation version of Bret's theme. Funny to see the fans have to recondition themselves to boo (or just not pop) when they would hear Anvil use the original theme after KOTR.

[PILLS! PILLS! PILLS! 0]

Historical note I keep meaning to mention but forget: KOTR 94 is the debut of the updated Bret Hart theme.

 

I remember that very well. It went from "He has new music!" to "Hey, the fucking Anvil is back and this is awesome!" Aw, middle school...

 

And, yes, Diesel was a total badass in 1994. I loved him, even during my markdom, and bought him as main event material.

[cabbageboy 0]

See, here was my problem with Diesel. Even though he was booked as a tough guy I could never get past the notion of Nash being Vinnie Vegas in WCW and a total jobber. I wasn't even a smark at that point per se, but wasn't a total mark either. I never really bought Diesel as world champion for the simple fact that he was like the 5th biggest star in the company.

 

Watching this show made me think about the WWF in 1995 with Diesel on top. I think the biggest problem they had by far was that everyone who was a top star was a face with no decent heels to feud with. From WM until roughly Sept./Oct. of 1995 they had Nash, Michaels, Bret, UT, Bulldog, Luger....all faces. This was a major problem since they couldn't put Diesel against hardly any of those guys since they were more over than he was, so we got the dreary Sid and Mabel feuds. Hell late in his run they had Bulldog do a heatless heel turn and I think he was even more over with the fans than Diesel.

 

The irony is that I have enjoyed a lot of Nash's post WWF title reign work. His initial WCW run with Hall is brilliance, I'll even excuse his horrible booking and the Hummer Angle. Even his late era WWF 1996 run set the template for tweeners to follow. But I just never had any use for his 1993-95 work.

[Jericholic82 0]

I gotta say I gotta say I enjoyed the bret v diesel match I didn't remember it being that good though I hadn't seen the show since seeing it live on ppv in 94 All in all thanks to 24/7 for the fun double feature and for giving me a chance to record them on dvd

[bob_barron 0]

I gotta say I enjoyed the Bret v. Diesel match. I didn't remember it being that good, though I hadn't seen the show since seeing it live on ppv in 94. Thanks to 24/7 for the fun double feature and for giving me a chance to record them on dvd

 

Tried to clean that up a little bit.

 

I was very glad that KOTR 95 didn't win PYBO. No one should ever see that show

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

One time in 1999, I tried renting the 1994 Royal Rumble from a video store. I was horrified to find King of the Ring 1995 inside the box.

[King Kamala 0]

I bought what I thought was Starrcade '97 from a video store when they were clearing out all of their wrestling tapes and I looked inside and it was Starrcade '98.

 

Though with that scenario, it was really a lose-lose situation for me.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

Starrcade tapes are really annoying because Turner Home Video apparently thought it was unhip to label something with the previous year when it came out on tape.

[PILLS! PILLS! PILLS! 0]

Starrcade tapes are really annoying because Turner Home Video apparently thought it was unhip to label something with the previous year when it came out on tape.

 

I think that it was more along the lines of the Turner Home Entertainment being very lazy/careless when it came to putting together WCW's video art. Check out the cover of Hog Wild 96 if you don't know what I'm talking about.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

Starrcade tapes are really annoying because Turner Home Video apparently thought it was unhip to label something with the previous year when it came out on tape.

 

I think that it was more along the lines of the Turner Home Entertainment being very lazy/careless when it came to putting together WCW's video art. Check out the cover of Hog Wild 96 if you don't know what I'm talking about.

 

 

That is some funny stuff right there, lol. Thanks man.

[cabbageboy 0]

Eh I figure that Hog Wild art was just done before the whole Hogan heel turn went down. WWE does posters for shows that are out of date all the time.

 

I actually rented some WCW tapes from a now defunct store called Hastings (they had movies, music, books, etc.). I rented Slamboree 1996 only to find GAB 96 in there instead, which is actually a WAY better PPV. A few days later I went back and complained about the mix up, and then they gave me the free rental on Slamboree 96, haha.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

Eh I figure that Hog Wild art was just done before the whole Hogan heel turn went down. WWE does posters for shows that are out of date all the time.

 

That was my first thought too, but they had lots of time to clean it up with something - ANYTHING else - once the tape was released. Besides, where's the fun in dissecting comedy?

[MillenniumMan831 0]

Besides, was Savage even on that ppv?

[BruteSquad_BRODY 0]

Saturday Night match: The Public Enemy (Rocco Rock and Johnny Grunge) defeated Dick Slater and Mike Enos (3:47)

Rock pinned Enos.

Saturday Night match: Konnan defeated Chavo Guerrero, Jr. (4:24)

Konnan pinned Guerrero.

Saturday Night match: The Nasty Boys (Brian Knobbs and Jerry Sags) defeated High Voltage (Robbie Rage and Kenny Kaos) (3:22)

Knobbs pinned Kaos.

Saturday Night match: Alex Wright defeated Bobby Eaton (0:30)

Wright pinned Eaton.

Saturday Night match: The Dungeon of Doom (Kevin Sullivan, Meng, and The Barbarian) defeated Joe Gomez, Jim Powers, and Mark Starr (3:06)

Meng pinned Starr.

Saturday Night match: David Taylor defeated Mr. JL (2:37)

Taylor pinned JL.

Saturday Night match: Diamond Dallas Page defeated The Renegade (6:53)

Page pinned Renegade.

Saturday Night match: Arn Anderson defeated Hugh Morrus (0:40)

Anderson pinned Morrus.

Rey Misterio, Jr. defeated The Ultimate Dragon to retain the WCW Cruiserweight Championship (11:35)

Misterio pinned Dragon after a hurricanrana from the top rope. Misterio's entrance was aired at the close of WCW Saturday Night, which aired live from Sturgis that night.

Scott Norton defeated Ice Train (5:05)

Norton forced Train to submit with an armbar.

Madusa defeated Bull Nakano (5:00)

Madusa defeated Nakano by disqualification.

Chris Benoit (w/Woman and Miss Elizabeth) defeated Dean Malenko (26:55)

Benoit pinned Malenko with a roll-up.

Harlem Heat (Booker T and Stevie Ray) defeated The Steiner Brothers (Rick and Scott) to retain the WCW World Tag Team Championship (17:53)

Booker pinned Scott after Parker hit him with a cane.

Ric Flair (w/Woman and Miss Elizabeth) defeated Eddie Guerrero to retain the WCW United States Championship (14:14)

Flair pinned Guerrero with a figure-four.

The Outsiders (Scott Hall and Kevin Nash) defeated Lex Luger and Sting (14:36)

Hall pinned Luger after Nick Patrick hit Luger with an elbow.

Hollywood Hogan defeated The Giant to win the WCW World Heavyweight Championship (14:55)

Hogan pinned Giant after hitting him with the title

After the match, Hogan, Scott Hall, & Kevin Nash spray painted “nWo” on the WCW Championship.

 

 

 

 

[MillenniumMan831 0]

I guess he turned down jobbing to Alex Wright in 30 seconds.

[PILLS! PILLS! PILLS! 0]

Eh I figure that Hog Wild art was just done before the whole Hogan heel turn went down.

 

Wow! Really?!?

[TheSSNintendo 0]

Art Donovan is light years worse than the guy who guest broadcasted at Survivor Series '93.