Sunday, June 23rd, 1996
MECCA Arena
Milwaukee, WI
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We get a hype video that starts with Ultimate Warrior/Jerry Lawler. As a huge Warrior fan at the time, I was not excited for that match at all. At the end of it, they claim that this is the greatest card in the history of the King of the Ring. Out comes Owen Hart to join Vince McMahon and Jim Ross. Owen interrupts and says let's get on with the show here.
King Of The Ring Semifinal Match
Steve Austin vs. Marc Mero
I completely forgot about the big crown over the ring that they did for this show. Mero gets a pop that truly is only for Sable. Mero beat Owen to be in this spot and Owen is already killing it on commentary. The sad thing about Mero at this time is that he actually was entertaining in the ring most of the time, but the character was just so lame. Owen joking about Jake Robert's age will never get old. We get a bit of a slow burn here to start, hinting that these guys will be given some time to tell a story. Austin is able to sidestep Mero and send him over the top and to the floor. Austin lifts up the blue mat and drops Mero face-first on the concrete. Austin celebrates in the ring and gets a pretty solid reaction. Austin hits a vertical suplex in the ring. Austin is working on the back and gets Mero in a Boston crab. Mero gets out and gets a quick pin attempt for a 2 before Austin nails him with a back elbow. Mero sneaks in a few more pin attempts and then Austin levels him with a right hand. Mero gets a sleeper hold on, but Austin quickly counters with a jawbreaker. Mero hits a back leap off the second rope and that's where Austin is famously busted open. Mero comes back with a nice dropkick and a series of punches in the corner. Mero goes up to the top and hits a double ax handle for a 2 count. Mero sends Austin over the top and he hits his somersault dive and we get a better look at the blood all over Austin's mouth. Mero is back in the ring and then hits a suicide dive. Mero throws Austin back in the ring and hits a missile dropkick for another 2. Mero sets Austin up on the top rope and hits a hurricanrana but that still isn't enough to put Austin away. Austin out of nowhere gets Mero up for a powerbomb but turns it into a hot shot. Mero kicks out of that, so Austin hits the Stunner and that's all. This was a good opener, as these two have good chemistry with one another.
Match Rating: ***3/4
Dok Hendrix is with Jake Roberts and he talks about robbing a bank or something. Not one of Jake's better promos.
King Of The Ring Semifinal Match
Vader vs. Jake Roberts
Jake throws the snake into the ring during his entrance and instead they show the highlights of Jake making it to the semifinals. Vader dominates the early going until he runs into a boot. Jake hits a knee lift and goes for the DDT but Vader drives him into the corner. This match is a good reminder of how tall Jake is. Vader misses with a splash in the corner and Jake hits the DDT. On his way down, Vader grabs the referee and he calls for the bell. That was a stupid finish. If they were going to go this route, they should have done it with Vader not listening to the ref. After the match, Jake goes for the snake and Vader attacks him. Cornette keeps the ref away so that Vader can hit the Vader Bomb. He goes for a second one until a bunch of referees come out to stop him. Vader even shoves Cornette out of the way in frustration. This was nothing.
Match Rating: 3/4*
We get a Coliseum Video exclusive with Vader and Cornette livid about the loss and the crooked referee.
WWF Tag Team Championship Match
Godwinns vs. Smoking Gunns
The Godwinns come out with some goats and we see some of the drama surrounding Phinneas and Sunny. Dok Hendrix is back with Sunny and the Gunns. They ask about Kloudi, who debuted with the Body Donnas on the Free For All. She then teases what she's going to do tonight to Phinneas. Before the match, Billy Gunn grabs the mic and says that he has made Sunny feel like Phinneas will never make her feel. That allows Bart to attack him and the match is underway. Phinneas starts to have "one of those spells" and unleashes on Billy. The crowd is fairly quiet here so far. They then interview Kloudi because why not? Kloudi blows a kiss to JR. I can tell this is a storyline that will definitely have legs. Bart runs into a Henry boot in the corner and the Godwinns are now in control. Billy kicks Henry's back when he's running the ropes for the cheap shot to shift the momentum. The ref loses control and all four men are in the ring. The Godwinns get the best of it until the referee tries to get Henry out of the ring. That allows for Bart to take off his boot and hit Phinneas in the back of the head and pick up the victory. This was very much a match that happened.
Match Rating: **
We go backstage to Dok Hendrix and he is with Cornette, British Bulldog, Diana and Clarence Mason. Mr. Perfect walks in the locker room to get ready to hype up the collusion.
Jerry Lawler vs. Ultimate Warrior
Lawler walks up to the throne and grabs a mic. He says that he's been there and done that and then insults the losers of Milwaukee. He then walks down and insults a few fans, including a comment that doesn't age very well. He then shifts his focus to Warrior and they show the infamous Warrior hat segment. Out comes Warrior and Lawler attacks him with a scepter on his way to the ring. I mean, I get that Lawler is a legend and all that, but I can assure you that no one bought that Lawler was any kind of threat to Warrior here. Regardless, Lawler beats up Warrior for a minute or two outside the ring. He brings him in the ring and gives him a piledriver and of course Warrior no sells that. He hits a bunch of clotheslines and then the running shoulder tackle for the squash. The crowd mostly liked it, but it's definitely not the ovation that he got at WrestleMania. Putting him up against Goldust and Lawler at the next two pay per views was definitely a choice.
Match Rating: 1/4*
We go backstage to Dok and Gorilla Monsoon. They are discussing Jake's health condition with Jake being worked on in the backstage. Gorilla says that if he has to stop the match, he will, but he's going to let Jake wrestle.
Mankind vs. Undertaker
Undertaker does a sneak attack by leaping off the top rope for a clothesline. Such trickery. He continues to manhandle Mankind and then hits Old School. Mankind gets a back elbow into the face of Taker and that finally slows him down. Mankind hits a leaping elbow drop off the apron to the floor. Owen continues to be awesome as a commentator here tonight. Mankind throws Taker into the steps and then goes under the ring to get a chair. The referee is distracted by Paul Bearer, which is interesting. It backfires and Taker gets his boot up to hit the chair in Mankind's face. He hits a back body drop on the chair and then hits him with a chair about 5 feet from the referee, who is once again distracted by Bearer. Taker gets him up for the Tombstone but Mankind gets out and hits a swinging neckbreaker. Undertaker finally breaks out of the rest hold and clotheslines Mankind over the top rope. Mankind battles back and sets up Taker's head against the step and nails him with a knee to the head. That looked vicious. Mankind comes off the apron and Taker grabs the chair to block it. Taker then hits Mankind with an unprotected chair shot. Ugh. Mankind battles back and hits his signature piledriver for a 2 count. He starts pulling his hair out, which always grossed me out as a kid. Mankind grabs the urn from Bearer. He lifts it up to use it and Bearer is able to grab it out of his hands. Mankind instead stuffs his hand down Taker's throat. Taker battles back though and Bearer tries to hit Mankind with the urn, but accidentally hits Undertaker. Mankind goes back to the Mandible Claw and that's enough for the victory. Owen speculates that Bearer did it on purpose. We get the epic Mankind outro music. Mankind then grabs a chair and goes after Bearer. This was a good match, although not quite as good as I remembered. They have done a great job with the Mankind character so far.
Match Rating: ***1/2
Dok is with Mr. Perfect and Shawn interrupts. Perfect doesn't understand why no one believes him that he's the perfect referee.
Intercontinental Championship Match
Goldust vs. Ahmed Johnson
Ahmed comes running out and attacks Goldust while he's still in his wig and robe. He hits him with a big clothesline and Goldust sells it wonderfully. Ahmed continues to destroy Goldust until he misses with a splash in the corner and falls all the way to the floor. Goldust slams the steel steps on the back of Ahmed while Marlena was distracting the referee. I like this version of Goldust so much better than what we have seen up to this point. He's much more aggressive than what we have seen. We start getting more shenanigans from Goldust and he hits a piledriver, well not really. Even the announcers say that he didn't get all of it. I'm pretty sure he got none of it. Goldust then starts rubbing his hand up Ahmed's body and then goes for a cover but Ahmed kicks out at 2. Ahmed has Goldust backed in the corner and starts leveling Goldust with clotheslines. Goldust is able to get an Irish whip into the corner and follows Ahmed to hit a knee to the back. We have Vince yelling about histrionics during the slow portion of the match. Ahmed then misses with a big dropkick that probably would have killed Goldust. Goldust puts on the sleeper hold and then lets go. He stops so he can give Ahmed CPR again and that wakes Ahmed right up. He unloads on Goldust and then hits a spinebuster. Ahmed hits the Pearl River Plunge and we have a new Intercontinental Champion. I remember being a little surprised that they didn't have a countout or disqualification finish here. The crowd was definitely into that finish. The match was decent but I'm not sure it needed over 15 minutes.
Match Rating: **
They show a bunch of babyfaces backstage spraying champagne on Ahmed in a Coliseum Video exclusive.
Out comes Brian Pillman on crutches. Jim Ross interviews him and Pillman makes a Jeffrey Dahmer joke. He says that he's brightest star to ever step foot on Earth. He eventually gets played off by Austin's entrance music.
King Of The Ring Finals
Steve Austin vs. Jake Roberts
Austin and Pillman cross paths but just kind of give each other a look. Austin attacks Jake as he is entering the ring and we're underway. Jake keeps going after the injured ribs, which makes perfect sense, but does not make for an entertaining match. Austin rips off Jake's bandage around the ribs and out comes Gorilla Monsoon. He enters the ring and orders Austin off of Jake. I love Gorilla, but this makes no sense. Jake refuses to stop and Jake attacks Austin with right hands. He signals for the DDT but is driven into the turnbuckle. Austin continues with multiple shoulders to the ribs. He hits the Stunner and Austin is your King. He gets a little bit of a pop for the victory. The match stunk, but it kicked off the very early stages of the company being saved by Austin.
Match Rating: 3/4*
Austin meets Dok up at the throne for an interview. Then he hits us with the words that forever changed the course of history, the creation of Austin 3:16.
WWF Championship Match
British Bulldog vs. Shawn Michaels
Mr. Perfect is introduced first. Gorilla Monsoon comes out to the ring again. Fink lets us know that Mr. Perfect will be the referee outside the ring and Earl Hebner will be the referee inside the ring. We get a slow mat-based beginning before Michaels skins the cat and brings Bulldog over the top rope with the floor. Michaels hits a slow hurricanrana before hitting Cornette in the butt with his racket. After a lengthy rest hold from Bulldog, we get a weird spot where you can see Shawn tell him to hit a press slam. Now Shawn decides to work on the arm of Bulldog. Shawn switches to a sleeper hold, but Bulldog backs him into the corner. We get a big spot where Bulldog gets Shawn up in a press slam and falls back towards the ropes and drops Michaels to the floor. Vince is complaining that this should be a DQ. I have never seen anyone disqualified for something like that before, but okay. Bulldog just lets him lay there for a long time before finally realizing he can't win the title that way. Shawn kicks out at 2 and then we get another rest hold. Michaels tries to make a comeback but Bulldog levels him with a clothesline. Bulldog gets Shawn up in a surfboard, which is always a favorite of mine. Bulldog hits a big back body drop and gets another 2 count. Shawn comes back with a crossbody and gets a 2 count and then Bulldog gets up and levels him again with a clothesline. Shawn gets a crucifix and that also gets a 2 count. Michaels gets Bulldog up on his shoulder, but Bulldog reverses it. Michaels escapes and goes for Sweet Chin Music but Bulldog holds on the ropes and then hits another clothesline. Bulldog nails a piledriver and then climbs up to the top rope. He misses with an ugly looking something or other. Vince thinks he may have slipped. Owen says that Jose grabbed the ropes, which is hilarious. One underrated thing here is that both guys have gold sequence all over their backs from the Goldust entrance. Bulldog hits a top rope superplex and again Shawn is able to kick out. Shawn counters a super back suplex into a crossbody and gets a close call. Both men collide in the middle of the ring and I have to say that was pretty convincing looking. Michaels goes for a hurricanrana but Bulldog countered it into a sit down powerbomb for another 2. That looked very good. Michaels lifts up Bulldog for a body slam and Bulldog's legs hit the referee. Michaels hits a top rope elbow drop and he sets up for Sweet Chin Music. He hits it and Hebner starts counting. Mr. Perfect comes in and starts counting with him and then Owen comes and pulls Perfect out of the ring. Michaels then goes after Owen and puts on the Figure Four. Bulldog comes at him and he puts him in a small package while still having on the Figure Four. That was an odd choice. Eventually the 2 on 1 doesn't work out and Owen nails him with a spin kick. Out comes Ahmed Johnson to make the save. Now Vader is out and he clubs Ahmed. The crowd starts chanting for Warrior. The heels beatdown goes on for quite a while until the Warrior finally comes out. The crowd loves it and the faces have been saved. They celebrate and all is good in the world. I have to say, this match was not as good as I remembered. The last few minutes were entertaining, but before that was a lot of rest holds and a slow pace. This was the end of Bulldog as a "main eventer" and rightfully so. The whole Mr. Perfect thing also made absolutely no sense.
Match Rating: ***1/4
Vince announces that we'll have a 6 man tag match at International Incident and get a Coliseum exclusive with Camp Cornette. They do lots of complaining. We get a video recap and that's the end of the show.
I have to say, this was always locked in my head as an underrated gem. While I did enjoy it, it certainly was nowhere near as good as I had remembered. I really liked a couple of the matches and liked the outcome of the tournament, but it did drag in some spots too. Overall, this is a mild recommendation.
Overall Rating: 67%
