Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #26102 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-07-05
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 353 minutes

Synopsis
Features footage from the 1993 and 1994 King Of The Ring tournament, where eight men battle it out for the title.

Customer Reviews

Do King's of the ring stand the test of time?
In my opinion, this "tagged classic" of the inaugral wwe king of the ring in 1993 and it's successor in 1994 should definatly be in the collection of any die hard wrestling fan. The "king of the ring" tournament hasn't been around in the wwe for a few years now, but when it was around, it was used by several superstars as a springboard to greatness in the wwe. previous winners over the years include "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, Triple H and Kurt Angle to name a few, and of course the 1st two winners of these king of the rings are on this dvd!

The format of the king of the ring is an 8 man single elimination tournament all taking place on the one night, with a superstar potentially having to compete 3 times in one evening.
in 1993 it was:
Bret "Hitman" Hart
Scott "Razor Ramon" Hall
Mr.Perfect Curt Hennig
Mr. Hughes
Hacksaw Jim Duggan
Bam Bam Bigelow
Tatanka and Lex Luger.

Without spoiling the results of the event, this pay per view is one of the best performances of Bret Hart's career, and includes a wrestling clinic between The Hitman and Mr.Perfect, in a rematch from their classic at 'summerslam 91'. It also includes Hulk Hogans' last ppv in the WWE before he left to join WCW, as he defended the WWE title against (the late) Yokosuna, as well as Shawn Michaels against Crush for the Intercontinental title, and an 8 man tag between the Smoking Gunns & the Steiner Brothers against Money inc & the Headshrinkers.

The 1994 event had a similar format, with:
I.R.S
Mabel (now known in the WWE as Viscera)
Scott "Razor Ramon" Hall
Bam Bam Bigelow
Jeff Jarrett
123 Kid (or 'X-pac' Sean Waltman)
Owen Hart and
Tatanka, in the king of the ring tournament. The event also includes:

Bret Hart vs Kevin "Diesel" Nash,(In arguably one of Diesel's rare great matches)

Hall of famer 'Rowdy' Roddy Piper vs Jerry 'The King' Lawler

and The Headshrinkers vs Crush and Yokosuna for the Tag titles

As is often the case at Wrestling pay per view's, the event is let down a little by some of the matches on the card. in this case, some of the tournament matches and so called "Filler" matches on both events don't quite stand the test of time when you compare them to the athletisism of some of todays WWE matches. However, there are enough great matches on the DVD to just skip through and watch those! If you're a Bret hart fan like myself, this is him at perhaps his best, and there is also the opportunity on this DVD to see some of todays Superstars in the early days of their careers, and a chance to see some wrestlers that have since passed away, such as Curt hennig, Yokosuna and Owen Hart, in some of their best matches.
in closing, it's WWE before it was World Wrestling "entertainment", Before the era of wwf "Attitude", but after the old school 80's days. well worth a watch to see one of the 1st times WWE/F went into transition. 4 out of five, due to some of the matches not being great, but both shows have some great matches and some famous wwe moments.

The 2 Best King of the Rings on offer
The 1993 King of the Ring was the beginning of an annual Pay Per View event that ran all the way until 2002. The 8 man single elimination tournament features Bret Hart vs Razor Ramon, Mr Perfect vs Mr Hughes, Hacksaw Jim Duggan vs Bam Bam Bigelow and Tatanka vs Lex Luger. Hart, Ramon, Perfect, Bigelow and even to a lesser degree, Tatanka and Luger all perform on top of there game. The winner is somewhat predictable, after you see who wins one of the semi-final matches - but it's argueably the best King of the Ring tournament ever. Also on the card - Hulk Hogan defends the WWE Championship against 500 pound+ Yokozuna in a disappointing match. Shawn Michaels defends the Intercontinental Title against Crush in a match that you'll forget instantly (no fault of Michaels though) and in an 8 man tag team match - The Steiner Brothers & The Smoking Gunns face Money Inc & The Headshrinkers - in what is a waste of time card filler.

A year on and the same format in 1994. The WWE title match is fantastic. Not only does Diesel give a career best performance against Bret Hart, the outside action between corner-men Shawn Michaels and Jim Neidhart is equally entertaining. The 8 man single elimination format is still in place - but is ok at best. Razor Ramon vs Bam Bam Bigelow, Mabel vs I.R.S., 1-2-3-Kid vs Jeff Jarrett are average matches but Tatanka vs Owen Hart is a really good fast pace match. The winner isn't as predictable as the year before and there's a nice twist/heel turn throughout the proceedings.

Buy them both and enjoy. After 1993/1994 the King of the Ring tournaments are never as good.

A king is born from good hart
They are presented in their original form with all the world wrestling federation references left intact (unlike some of the other DVD's where the icons are blurred out) which is nice to see. The first show is carried by bret hart for the most part but it also has the original end to hulkamania and watching hogan being squashed by anybody is nice, especially when the guy is 600 hudred pounds. The second show features the rarest of thing a good diesel match. well worth getting if you like the time period. It does feel a little dated compared to today but it still pretty good and theres two show so what more do you want?