King of the Ring - MECCA Arena, Milwaukee Wisconsin, June 23rd 1996

This year’s tournament hasn’t received half as much focus on TV as the previous ones but the card for this show is pretty strong (for the time). I like the opening video for the event a lot as each and every match gets its spotlight. The announcer calls it the greatest card in history which is a stretch BUT it probably is the best card for a King of the Ring PPV.

Commentary duties are handled by Vince McMahon, Jim Ross and, in somewhat of a surprise, the 1994 King of the Ring winner Owen Hart. He immediately starts yelling at Vince and Jim to stop wasting time and to get on with the show. 

King of the Ring tournament Semi Final match

Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Marc Mero (w/Sable)

Stone Cold still has his slow sinister theme song which is fitting given that the inspiration for this character change was a documentary about a serial killer. During his entrance Vince and Jim discuss his road to the semi finals and JR gives his new finishing move its name for the first time - The Stone Cold Stunner. Austin shows a bit more personality during his entrance, shaking his head side to side and talking unheard trash to the referee. Sable has evolved a little too, no longer carrying the whip and pretending she’s a cat and just…smiling and waving. Vince has called her “the most beautiful woman in WWF history” so his feelings on the matter are clear.

It’s a joy to have Jim Ross on commentary as he provides some real analysis of their styles and strategies opposed to Jerry Lawler rattling off joke after joke. 

They start with a slow feeling out process but Mero comes out on top with a flying headscissors so Stone Cold bails out of the ring to regroup before returning to the ring and a long headlock. Stone Cold drops Mero with a Thez Press and takes a moment to raise his arms and shake his head, mouthing off in the style that would become his trademark. Some of the fans cheer him; his ruthless no-nonsense style is starting to click with some people. He offers a handshake to Mero but the Wildman smartly doesn’t accept, assuming he’d be cheap shotted which he almost certainly would have been. Stone Cold wins the fight and knocks Mero out of the ring before exposing the concrete beneath the blue mats. He lifts Marc and drops him straight onto the bare concrete which gets another cheer, as does his posing on the ropes afterwards. Owen Hart is very complimentary of his future heated rival as Stone Cold slowly picks apart Mero. It’s cool seeing Austin in his physical prime, pre-neck injury working as a heel and telling this kind of story in the ring. This is very much my style of wrestling.

Mero endures a beating and scores a couple of near falls with roll ups but Stone Cold shuts him back down each time with a big clothesline. In the midst of these roll ups Mero accidentally booted Austin in the mouth which split his lip and needed stitches to close up. He spent the rest of this match bleeding from the mouth and Marc picked up the speed with flying clotheslines and head scissors and moving fast around the ring. Mero hits a flip up and over the ropes onto Austin on the outside of the ring and then follows up with a running dive through the ropes. In the ring he hits an axe handle off the ropes and a missile dropkick, both of which Stone Cold kicks out of. JR calls him “tougher than shoe leather” which is fair. The Wildman hits the same top rope hurricanrana he used to advance in the tournament but Stone Cold kicks out of that too. He stops Mero’s momentum with a thumb to the eye and then lifts him in a powerbomb, dropping him throat first across the ropes. The fans pop big for another near fall. Austin hits the Stone Cold Stunner to win the match and advance to the finals. That’s Mero’s first loss on WWF TV and was easily his best match so far. It might be Stone Cold’s best match since his debut too - I really enjoyed this! 

Dok Hendrix interviews, as he calls it, the sentimental favourite Jake “The Snake” Roberts. He speaks in bible verses and of a higher power as he was clean, sober and a born again Christian. At the time. It didn’t stick, as I’ve mentioned before. He has an epic task in front of him against the undefeated Vader.

King of the Ring tournament Semi Final match

Vader (w/Jim Cornette) vs. Jake “The Snake” Roberts

Vader only won one match to get to the semi finals thanks to Warrior and Goldust’s double count out. Owen Hart is very vocal about the part he played in Vader getting here; he knocked out Ahmed Johnson with his cast because “Ahmed put his hands on Owen’s manager”. He’s funny as every time Vince or JR mentions that Jake is 41 years old, Owen immediately corrects him that he’s actually 51 or maybe even 61 years old. Jake is the Cinderella story in this tournament and won both his matches so far with a quick DDT out of nowhere. 

These two do know each other from their days in WCW and as big as Vader is, Jake is actually taller and pretty thick himself. Vader actually wrestles Jake on the mat before knocking him down with big tackles off the ropes and a splash. The fans rallied behind Jake and are buying into this unlikely hero story. Jake did eventually get clean so it feels ok to be critical of this time in his life. In Mick Foley’s first book he talked about this period in Jake’s life as he’d talk endlessly about the bible and Christianity backstage but when talking about his demons and days as a drug addict his eyes would light up, like he missed it. 

Jake hits the DDT out of nowhere but as Vader went down he grabbed the referee’s shirt, dragging him to the mat. The referee calls for the bell and disqualifies Vader rather than count the pin. That was a fine outcome to protect Vader’s undefeated streak but he disagrees and attacks Jake, squashing him twice in the corner and then a pair of Vader Bombs while Cornette holds the referee back. We’ll never know if Vader would have kicked out of the DDT or not. Given how quickly he recovered after it I suspect he would have (Kayfabe). 

Referees fill the ring to hold Vader back and end the assault but the big story now is Jake’s injured ribs heading into the Final. He had sore ribs from his previous match with Justin Hawk Bradshaw too. 

WWF Tag Team Championships

The Smoking Gunns © (Billy and Bart Gunn w/Sunny) vs. The Godwins (Henry O. and Phineas I. Godwin w/Hillbilly Jim)

The Godwins enter first and have a pair of baby goats with them which is very cute but I hope they were looked after. I felt the same way about Jake’s snake as he stuffed it back into its bag before the match. Backstage Dok interviews the champions and Sunny. Earlier tonight the Bodydonnas unveiled their new manager “Cloudy” and Sunny is, as you’d imagine, disgusted and furious at the insult.

Sunny changes subjects and taunts Phineas about his feelings for her; she plans on using her wiles to distract him again. Billy tries to cut a promo but trips over his words and Vince actually has to step in and tell Dok to wrap things up. Sunny does look rather distracting in her cowgirl outfit and the story that’s emerging from this new pairing is that she and Billy Gunn might have a little “thing” going on. It’s yet unknown how Bart feels about that. Jim Ross confirms that the Gunns are now heels now, claiming he saw them refuse to sign autographs for young fans earlier in the day. That’s a nice touch. Billy grabs the mic and taunts Phineas about Sunny which was a ruse allowing Bart to jump him from behind to kick off the match. 

The Gunns cut off the ring and isolate Phineas and, after a desperate tag, Henry who doesn’t fare any better. I don’t have a great deal more to say about it as it’s not very interesting watching Bart and Billy take turns to lock Henry in rest holds. During the match, Vince and JR interview Cloudy backstage with a split screen and she says she’s better looking than Sunny. Cloudy is one of Chris “Skip” Candido’s buddies dressed as a woman which is as funny as it sounds. 

Henry finally makes a tag to Phineas after countering an attempted double suplex into a double DDT and The Godwins run wild, bouncing the Tag Team Champions around the ring. Phineas is super focused on Billy and, with the referee getting Henry out of the ring, Bart hits him from behind with a club to the back of the head. That’s somehow enough for Billy to get the three count and retain the Tag Team titles. Vince and JR call the Gunns cheaters but I had no idea what they meant until the slow motion replay - Bart hit Phineas with a cowboy boot! Not a great match but it is good to see the Tag Team Champions back on PPV with a division of more than one team - feels like it’s been a while since the Tag Team titles got ANY focus.

Dok Hendrix is having a busy night, interviewing Camp Cornette backstage. Jim looks very happy despite what happened to Vader earlier; he has a hand picked referee, he has Owen Hart on commentary and it feels all but certain that the Bulldog is going to be the new WWF Champion with the deck stacked in his favour. The fix is in as in the background we can see that Mr. Perfect, tonight’s referee, is getting dressed in the Camp Cornette locker room. Bulldog shouts into the mic that tonight he’ll become a member of the triple crown club but like all his promos, he seems to lose track of what he’s saying and ends on the line “Shawn Michaels, you’ll see, in just a few short hours, you’ll be mine!” which doesn’t totally make sense but also isn’t a very threatening thing to say? He’s confident, I’ll give him that.

The Ultimate Warrior vs. Jerry “The King” Lawler

Not for the first time, Jerry Lawler has a marquee match at the King of the Ring. I guess with the King gimmick it does make sense but it feels like a waste of the Warrior. On his walk to the ring, Lawler takes a moment to check out the King of the Ring coronation area, unimpressed by the crown and cape. He’s the REAL King of the WWF. He makes a point of picking up the sceptre and discretely carrying it down to the ring with him, telling the fans in the arena that their local sports teams suck which gets him some loud, easy boos. Lawler has some fun as he walks down the aisle mocking fans in the front row. “I saw this guy in the bathroom earlier getting a drink. Then the seat fell and hit him on the head! Is that your face or did your neck throw up? Look at her, it’s nice to see you off the streets for a change! Look at her face! It’s girls like you who turn men into…guy’s like Goldust!” That last one got a big laugh, in fairness to him.

The fans go nuts for the Ultimate Warrior who sprints to the ring and blows the company’s entire pyro budget. While he does a lap of the ring Lawler hits him in the kidneys with the sceptre and aggressively chokes him on the outside. Feels deeply illegal that the referee still rang the bell to start the match but this is as much offense as Lawler is likely to get against the Warrior. He chokes him with his jacket and beats him up on the outside while the fans chant “burger king” at him. 

Back in the ring, Lawler unwraps his wrist tape and uses that to illegally choke Warrior too, undetected by the referee. What a dirty cheater! He spikes Warrior with his trademark piledriver - it looked fantastic - but Warrior shakes it off and totally no-sells it. He runs through Lawler with three clotheslines and a big jumping shoulder tackle and thats enough to keep King down for the three count. Warrior wins and the fans loved it but I didn’t. Lawler’s stand up routine before the match was the best part and given how much I hate Lawler, that should tell you something!

This was Ultimate Warrior’s final televised WWF match. I’ll talk more about his departure in the next Preview but this few months in 1996 feels like an odd blip in WWE history. Vince McMahon would later say that he could not WAIT to fire Warrior again. 

Dok Hendrix gets us a medical update on Jake “The Snake” Roberts. Jake insists on competing in tonight’s final and Gorilla Monsoon is going to honour his wishes. He says he will stop the match if he has to but only Jake knows how hurt Jake really is. He says that the doctors don’t have x-ray glasses. No, not glasses but they do have x-rays. At ringside, Owen Hart says that at “80 or 90 years old” Jake Roberts is risking not just his career but his life against Stone Cold Steve Austin. Owen is great.

The Undertaker (w/Paul Bearer) vs. Mankind

No video package for this one but Vince and Jim Ross do recap some of the events between these two men leading to tonight’s match. They sadly don’t show the first attack where Mankind hit that amazing diving elbow drop off the apron onto The Undertaker. I’m really looking forward to this match; It’s not a secret by now that I love Mick Foley and every version of Mankind, including this demented heel one.

Paul Bearer makes his way to the ring solo, looking behind him and wondering where The Undertaker is. Is he afraid of Mankind? No, it's a trap and The Undertaker appears in the ring on the top rope behind Mankind to attack him and start this match with a flying clothesline off the top rope! He hammers Mankind with punches in the corner and the commentators lose their mind - we’ve never seen Undertaker attack with this much fury and speed. That makes Mankind look really strong, absorbing it all and staying on his feet. 

Undertaker beats up Mankind in and out of the ring but he just keeps moving and getting back up, even taking time to squeal at Paul Bearer. Mankind mounted a comeback with a series of elbows in the ring, on the apron and then a diving one off the apron to the floor which looked great. Even against opponents like Bret Hart, Undertaker has never moved this quickly and is basically being forced to wrestle like a normal person against Mankind rather than his usual slow, methodical style. On the outside, Mankind runs Taker into the ringsteps and then runs at him with a steel chair but has that kicked back into his own face, followed by a back drop right on the exposed concrete! Ouch.

Undertaker is taking no prisoners and blasts Mankind in the back with the steel chair back in the ring too. Mankind is unstoppable and doesn’t even leave his feet after a big boot to the face and immediately comes back with a swinging neckbreaker and a leg drop. He feels no pain, or maybe he likes it? Mankind goes for the Mandible Claw but Undertaker blocks it - he has to, it’s put him down three times! He doesn’t get his finishing hold but does apply a different nerve hold on the neck and maintains advantage. Undertaker fights back with punches and Owen Hart is blown away by the speed as they tumble to the outside. Mankind is too much for Undertaker and drives his knee into Undertaker’s head, trapping it against the ringsteps. His attempted flying elbow off the apron is blocked with a steel chair which Undertaker uses as a shield and then he BLASTS Mick in the head with an almighty chairshot. That gets a big reaction from the fans and the commentators. This is a brutal war. 

Back in the ring they go back and forth with clotheslines and piledrivers, struggling to but ultimately succeeding in shaking off each other’s big moves. Mankind grabs the urn but Paul Bearer snatches it back. Undertaker tries to attack from behind while he’s distracted but Mankind gets him into the Mandible Claw! Undertaker grabs him by the throat and tries to battle out of it but when Paul Bearer swings the urn at Mankind’s head, he ducks and Bearer hits Undertaker by mistake! That leads into the Mandible Claw and The Undertaker passes out! Mankind defeats The Undertaker in a brutal battle which I absolutely loved. Great stuff, and a huge win for Mankind in his first PPV match. Mankind grabs the steel chair and pursues Paul Bearer, slowly chasing him out of the arena and Undertaker struggles to his feet and tries to follow, barely able to stand. Great stuff. 

Dok Hendrix’s busy night continues and he interviews Mr. Perfect accusing him of collusion. WWF Champion Shawn Michaels arrives and tells him he better call it right down the middle and be a real Perfect referee. Perfect teases that Michaels seems nervous and promises he WILL call it down the middle. 

WWF Intercontinental Championship

Goldust © (w/Marlena) vs. Ahmed Johnson

Goldust’s Intercontinental title reign has, to be blunt, under whelming. He’s been in high profile matches against Roddy Piper, The Undertaker and the Ultimate Warrior but at no point was the title belt the focus.

Ahmed explodes through the doors knocking both of the ushers off their feet and sprints to the ring, tackling Goldust and hammering on him with punches on the mat. He is PISSED at Goldust forcing a kiss on him a few weeks ago. He hits a running dive up and over the top rope and almost lands on his own head - that’s a scary risk for a man as clumsy and uncoordinated as him to take!

Goldust finally manages to slow his momentum and get some control, using the ropes and pulling at his ankles from the outside of the ring to get Johnson on the mat. Marlena takes her seat in the director’s chair and looks nervous for her man as Ahmed shakes off any attempt to build offense and slams him on the outside. Johnson picks up the ring steps and hurls them at Goldust, just missing! He needs to calm down or he’s going to get disqualified! 

Goldust gets Ahmed with some theatrics to distract and then his big swinging uppercuts which were one of his trademarks and slowly starts to pick apart the challenger with basic moves; bodyslams, choking him on the mat and a deep chin lock. JR and Vince have mentioned Ahmed’s victory in the Kuwait Cup more than once but this is his first real title shot.

Goldust slowly works over Ahmed for a long time but, with the challenger on the mat, he takes some time to taunt and pose and deliver mouth to mouth to him again, just like he did three weeks ago. The fans squeal when he does it but it backfires, waking Ahmed up and he goes ballistic with punches hammering Goldust down in the corner as he cowers. Johnson drills him with the big spinebuster and his Pearl River Plunge and just like that, Ahmed Johnson becomes the new Intercontinental Champion.

Here’s a funny commercial for next month’s In Your House 9: International Incident (because it’s in Canada)

To everyone’s surprise, the WWF’s new signing Brian Pillman hobbles down to the ring on crutches. He broke his ankle in a car crash recently so it’ll be a little while before we see him in the ring. Pillman is unhinged, signed from WCW. His departure from there was rather hilarious as he did his “loose canon” gimmick, unable to be controlled by management. He asked his boss Eric Bishoff to fire him for real to make the storyline more realistic and when he did, he made a few appearances in ECW before just signing with the WWF instead! He performs the same loose canon gimmick here, screaming that the fans are garbage and calling Jim Ross a stupid son of a bitch for no clear reason. He was the tag team partner of Stone Cold Steve Austin in WCW and they were very successful, winning the Tag Team titles more than once. He promises to rape, pillage and plunder the entire WWF on his way to the top and there’s a little tension as he and Stone Cold pass by each other. Vince explains that after the bloody mouth he suffered earlier Stone Cold needed 16 stitches in his mouth and tongue to close the wound.

King of the Ring tournament Final

Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Jake “The Snake” Roberts

Jake Roberts hobbles to the ring holding his ribs, struggling to stand but determined to compete. He’s a brave man for sure but Austin will show no mercy and attacks Jake, hammering on his ribs with elbows, punches and kicks as soon as the bell rings. He is ruthless and berates Jake, screaming at him to get up while wailing on his ribs time and time again. 

President Gorilla Monsoon comes to the ring and makes the referee hold Austin back so he can check on Jake, considering stopping the match. Roberts begs him to let the match continue; he refuses to quit. He throws punches at Austin so Gorilla allows it to continue and Owen Hart cries foul. He’s right, that’s unfair that he got a rest and to throw some cheap shots. It doesn’t last long and Stone Cold goes back to hammering his ribs before finally putting him out of his misery with the Stone Cold Stunner. Stone Cold Steve Austin is the 1996 King of the Ring but the in-ring victory is half as important as what happens after the match.

Stone Cold Steve Austin’s victory promo is one of the most important promos in wrestling history. He talks trash at Jake Roberts mocking his sobriety and Christianity and rattling off two of the most iconic catchphrases in history. Austin 3:16 says I just whooped your ass. Here’s the highlights of the promo because I can’t do it justice.

An’ that’s the bottom line cuz Stone Cold said so! I obviously loved this.

WWF Championship

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

Special Guest Referee: Mr. Perfect

Mr. Perfect enters first as Vince recaps the terrible and confusing finish to their previous match. I thought Michaels vs. Bulldog last month was pretty rubbish so I hope they do better this month; they’re definitely capable of much better! 

Owen jumps up on the announce table to cheer and yell encouragement to his brother-in-law while he makes his entrance. Owen has been great all night long! 

Shawn dances and struts and poses with his pyro for so long that his theme song finishes. Before the match can begin, President Gorilla Monsoon comes down to the ring and makes a last minute change; Perfect is no longer the special guest referee, he is demoted to outside of the ring enforcer in a secondary referee capacity with Earl Hebner acting as the official in the ring. That’s only fair but obviously the heels are unhappy about it! Perfect almost corpses, breaking out into a very genuine looking smile while he and Michaels are having a go at each other. I wonder what HBK said to make him laugh?

They start out grappling and exchanging holds and headlock take downs until Michaels gets the first big move sending Bulldog out of the ring up and over the top rope. It doesn’t really chance anything and once they’re back in the ring Bulldog goes back to the long headlock. They went back and fforth with headlocks, chin locks and arm locks until finally moving to the outside, Bulldog suplexed Michaels on the floor. From there he puts his focus on Michaels’ back with kicks and submissions with Mr. Perfect even hopping up onto the apron to help ask Michaels if he wants to quit. He’s a bit keen to see HBK lose the gold.

HBK endures a long chin lock with the knee in the back and mounted a come back with a flying forearm, picking up the pace and getting some near falls with roll ups. He wriggles free of Bulldog’s powerslam and goes for the Sweet Chin Music but Bulldog holds onto the ropes and takes him down with a clothesline. That was a really nice exchange. Bulldog hits a piledriver and then goes for a diving headbutt - the camera angle reveals that he’d have missed by miles even if Shawn didn’t move so the commentators have to cover and say that he slipped. The pace picks up from there with Bulldog hitting a big superplex and countering Michaels’ hurricanrana into a powerbomb. HBK reverses an irish whip and sends Bulldog flying upside down into the turnbuckles. Shawn bodyslams Bulldog and his feet hit the referee in the face, knocking him down. He follows up with the diving elbow drop and starts to tune up the band for Sweet Chin Music. He hits it and there’s some weird confusion as I think Earl Hebner was supposed to stay down for longer and totally messed up his cue. Mr. Perfect has to tell him to stop counting so he can join in and then Owen Hart pulls him out of the ring before the three count. Earl Hebner counts the three after all so Michaels retains the title. Owen Hart rushes the ring and the WWF Champion is forced to fight off both men which he does a good job of! Owen seemed to be upset at Mr. Perfect for even trying to call the match fairly and not screw over Michaels.

The two on one odds are too much and Owen and Bulldog beat up Shawn until the new Intercontinental Champion Ahmed Johnson rushes to the ring to fight them both off and make the save. He’s overwhelmed by Vader next and the two champions are beat down three vs. two by Camp Cornette. Jim even hits Jose Lothario with his tennis racket at ringside for good measure. The fans see the next story beat coming and start chanting for Warrior who does eventually run down and make the save, shoving Vader off the top rope. It was a little awkward as Warrior clearly missed his cue and the lads in the ring had to kill time and wait for him a lot longer than planned. The PPV ends with Warrior, Ahmed, Michaels and Warrior hugging in the ring. That sets up the main event of our next PPV and Vince immediately confirms it; a six man tag team match at International Incident. There’s some big changes to that match between now and then. 

This was a good PPV! Michaels vs. Bulldog was definitely better than last month, Mankind vs. Undertaker was fantastic, Austin vs. Mero was good and of course the arrival of Stone Cold Steve Austin as King and his awesome game changing promo. Thumbs up and here’s the end of the show recap to enjoy the highlights.