Let's be honest, if you know this show for any reason at all, it's likely the color commentary performance of one Art Donovan. Donovan, a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, was an outstanding defensive tackle in his day, selected to five straight Pro Bowls while playing for the Baltimore Colts, in addition to helping to deliver back-to-back NFL titles home to Baltimore in 1958 and 1959. With the second annual King of the Ring event scheduled to be held in Baltimore, and Vince McMahon unavailable for commentary duties due to his upcoming steroid trial, Vince decided to give the local favorite a try in the booth. Now, this idea was flawed for a laundry list of reasons, chiefly among them that Donovan had absolutely no clue what wrestling even was, and knew nothing about the current WWF roster. It should have been obvious from the very start that Art was not suited to this job, but Vince was desperate to find anyone that could draw even the least bit better than his crop of talent. Art Donovan wasn't Vince's only swing at adding interest for this event, as Roddy Piper's Hollywood career had been languishing, and "Hot Rod" decided to use his free time for another return to the fold. After months of verbal battles, Piper was booked in the main event against Jerry Lawler. At this point, it's worth noting that peak of relevance for both Roddy Piper and Art Donovan was certainly not in 1994, with both men having largely excited public conversation, years ago in Piper's case and decades ago in Donovan's. These just weren't big names, at all or anymore, but the truth is that it's probably the best Vince could've gotten. We are mere months in the timeline after the historic WrestleMania 10, and the WWF is down bad.
- King of the Ring 1994 comes to you from the cleverly named Baltimore Arena (now Royal Farms Arena) in Baltimore, Maryland, a frequent host of WWE shows, and site of the end of Bruno Sammartino's second title reign in 1977. Nothing quite so interesting happening in the ring on this night, but outside of it, Art Donovan is stealing the show in the commentary booth alongside Gorilla Monsoon and Randy Savage. You've probably already seen a lot of the "highlights" of Donovan's work already, as there are tons of popular compilations on YouTube, but if you haven't just imagine it as a 80+ year old grandpa attempting to call fights while dozing off. It's comedic gold, and gets even better when Gorilla gets frustrated and just starts ignoring Art, who is left to babble to himself for an hour. We need more confused old men calling wrestling matches.
- Our opening contest is the first in a long line of King of the Ring tournament matches, as the first round opens with Bam Bam Bigelow taking on Razor Ramon. Razor is obviously preserving energy in this one, as he has a lot more work to come for the rest of the night, leaving Bam Bam to try and make it interesting. Bigelow impresses with his step-up enziguri and diving headbutt, and though Ramon doesn't get much offense in, he still manages to get a couple pops for a big bodyslam, and the match-ending top rope powerbomb.
- By far the worst tournament match on the night in up next, as IRS faces Mabel. Even on his best day, Schyster wasn't going to be able to do much with Mabel, and anything these two men tried to put together just looked horrendous. They go for a similar finish as Bret and Yokozuna at WrestleMania 10, as Schyster shakes the ropes, causing Mabel to crash onto the canvas and be pinned. Remixing the finish of the main event to your biggest show of the year at almost the very first opportunity is certainly a choice, but there was no way IRS could actually hit a move on Mabel, so I guess it was necessary.
- Owen Hart and Tatanka seem like they could put on a pretty good match together, but their first round clash didn't produce anything special. They both mostly just stall, exchanging some weak strikes, before Owen works a long sleeper hold. Tatanka tries his comeback, but a sunset flip is reversed by Owen, with "The Rocket" managing to score the pinfall.
- After little of interest in the first three matches, we finally get something genuinely exciting, as Jeff Jarrett takes on The 1-2-3 Kid in the final match of the first round. The Kid is all over Jarrett, hitting a couple big dives and the always impressive spinning back heel kick that Sean Waltman would utilize for the rest of his career. Jarrett fights back by targeting the leg, looking to apply the Figure Four, but The Kid manages to reverse into a small package to advance. A frustrated Jarrett doesn't handle the loss well, as he hits three straight piledrivers on The Kid after the bell, likely setting up Owen Hart for a cakewalk in the semi-finals. I wish we could've gotten more than 4 and a half minutes out of The Kid and Jarrett, as they both meshed well together and provide some hope for the midcard scene in the WWF.
- The long-running rivalry between Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels gets another chapter written on this night, as Shawn manages his bodyguard Diesel in challenging for Bret's WWF Championship. In the interest of fairness, Hart is allowed a man in his corner to counter-act Shawn, and after hyping up the possibility of a family member joining him, Hart's ally is revealed to be the returning Jim Neidhart. The original Hart Foundation are re-united, and you just know there were plenty of shenanigans in store with Neidhart and Michaels patrolling on the outside. Before we get to that, though, we have a match to witness, as Bret and Diesel go to war in a methodical, psychologically sound, 23 minute long championship collision. This match featured the same kind of story-telling that we've seen from Bret in the past, and would see again in the future, as he slowly picks apart the bigger man with precise attacks, particularly focused around the legs. It's not flashy, but works to build to something greater down the line. For his part, Diesel hasn't quite reached his peak as a performer yet, and gets gassed the longer this one goes, resulting in a few ropey moments late on. But Bret is more than good enough to cover up any of Diesel's deficiencies, and after getting knocked loopy with a big boot, Bret comes up with one of the most gorgeous applications of the Sharpshooter, or any submission move for that matter, I've ever seen. The timing required for Bret and Diesel to execute the transition, which involves Bret hooking the legs of Diesel from the mat, then taking him down into a Boston Crab position, is so exact and yet they manage it flawlessly. Diesel manages to find the ropes, and the two exhausted warriors exchange some shots before Shawn Michaels gets involved, causing a ruckus and allowing Diesel to connect with the Jackknife Powerbomb. This was a majorly anticipated moment, as Bret had put over the potency over the Jackknife and was unsure if he could kick out of it, but before we find out whether Bret had what it took to survive, Jim Neidhart wallops Diesel to cause a disqualification. Neidhart has seemingly saved Bret's title, but curiously then just walks out while Diesel and Shawn put the boots to Bret, the two heels furious over getting thwarted in their plan to steal the gold.
- The semi-finals of the King of the Ring tournament begin with Razor Ramon facing IRS in a Royal Rumble rematch, which is a significant step down from that already mediocre match. After a lot of brawling on the outside, Ramon escapes a rest hold and ends it with the Razor's Edge, which makes you wonder why he didn't just do that at the start, rather than wasting 5 minutes.
- The 1-2-3 Kid is able to make it out for his match against Owen Hart, and these two put on a heck of a sprint in their 3 allotted minutes. Kid does manage to gain some control despite his weakened state, but Owen ends it with a powerbomb and the Sharpshooter. These two worked extremely well together, and I would love to see them get an actual match against each other in the future, though that unfortunately would never happen on pay-per-view.
- I'm still not really sold on the idea of Lou Albano managing the Headshrinkers, but Fatu and Samu did make for solid babyfaces in their WWF tag title defense against Yokozuna and Crush. The hard head gimmick works well for a face in this era, as the good guys were frequently known for no-selling certain moves, and Crush gets in an impressive superplex, though the crowd doesn't really care. The audience does wake up for a Lex Luger appearance, as Lex causes enough of a distraction for Crush to be pinned by Fatu.
- Time for the King of the Ring finals, as Owen Hart and Razor Ramon duke it out for the crown and cape. After being more of a high-flier in his first two matches, Owen is a more traditional heel here, slapping Razor in the face and controlling the action with an abdominal stretch. Ramon powers out and hits his back superplex, but a Razor's Edge is countered, and Ramon is sent to the floor. In a surprise twist, Jim Neidhart makes his second appearance of the night, cementing his heel status by bashing Ramon off the steel post, and Owen then finishes it off with a diving elbow drop. Just like his older brother one year prior, Owen Hart has ran the gauntlet to emerge victorious, declaring himself the "King of Harts" during his crowning ceremony. This match wasn't anything special, but Owen's story was told well, and this leads to the legendary Steel Cage match at SummerSlam pitting brother against brother.
- Main event time, as despite the WWF's claim of featuring a "New Generation" of talent, the final spot on the card features two performers above the age of 40, with Jerry Lawler taking on Roddy Piper. I'll say this for Lawler and Piper; with the right storyline, these two men can work magic, bringing the type of fire to a well-built grudge match that very few can. Unfortunately, that flame has even come close to being lit for this feud, and you can tell that Piper especially just doesn't care about this match. There's very little of interest to discuss for this one, as both men engage in a heatless brawl in front of a crowd that is ready to just go home. Some gaga involving a fan in Piper's corner happens, and after Roddy takes a piledriver, the fan stops Jerry from attempting a rope-assisted pinfall, allowing Piper to get the win with a standard back suplex, of all moves. Yeah, this sucked, and the fact that these two legends put on one of the worst pay-per-view main events in WWE history is such a disservice to their combined legacies.
6/10
While a large portion of the card was rather bland, everything outside of the tag title match and the main event blended together well to create an engaging show-long storyline. The King of the Ring format is difficult to execute properly, and while the first annual version did it better, this was still a valiant attempt that ended up working, at least for me. I can't say there's a single match on the card that comes highly recommended, but all the tournament matches and the WWF title match all form a well thought out and cohesive story. It's just a shame that that dismal main event was also on this card, and got the biggest spotlight. If you would like to see what came of the storylines set up on this show, you can check out my review of SummerSlam here.
Next time on Henry's Pay-Per-View Reviews: Survivor Series 1994, where Yokozuna and The Undertaker meet in another Casket match, this time featuring Chuck Norris. See you soon.
- Henry
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