WWE King of the Ring 1996 (1996)

Sorry, this movie sucks

Simply Perfect

Just what I expected

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

1. Semi Final: Stone Cold Vs. Marc Mero - Austin got over that wimp. 6.5/10 2. Semi Final: Vader Vs. Jake Roberts - Jake is out of shape in 1996. Nothing special occurred. 6/10 3. WWF World Tag Team Championship: The Godwinns Vs. Champs: The Smoking Gunns - An ordinary tag match. 5.5/10 4. Jerry Lawler Vs. The Ultimate Idiot - What a shitty match with shitty wrestler like Warrior was all his entire life. 4/10 5. Mankind Vs. The Undertaker - Surprisingly good match. Mankind won after Bearer "accidentaly" hit the Undertaker with Urne. 7/10 6. Intercontinental Title Match: Champ-Goldust Vs. Ahmed Johnson - Title change. 6.5/10 7. KoR Final: Steve Austin Vs. Jake Roberts - That was squash. 6/10 8. WWF World Heavyweight Title Match: The British Bulldog Vs. Champ-Shawn Michaels - 6.5/10

Well, In Your HOuse 8: Beware of the Dog had left a few question unanswered going into King of the Ring. Shawn Michaels and the British Bulldog had pinned each other simultaneously in their WWE title match. Here they would settle who was the better man and rightful champion.Also of significance was the separation from his former manager Ted DiBiase, of Stone Cold Steve Austin. Austin had qualified for the semi finals of the King of the Ring tournament and was seeking to make his mark at this tournament. Make his mark he certainly did.Another notable part of this show was that it featured the final ever appearance of the Ultimate Warrior on a WWE PPV. He was taking on Jerry Lawler.The night started off with our two King of the Ring semi finals. The first, a very long, unremarkable match, was won by Steve Austin over Marc Mero. Mero was not a great worker, but could be all right on occasion. This wasn't quite one of those. He would meet Jake Roberts in the final after Vader was disqualified in their semi final.This was followed by the latest entry in the rivalry between WWE Tag Team Champions the Smoking Gunns (Bart and Billy) and the Godwinns (Henry and Phineas) over the belts. This was about what you;d expect with some good moments, some bad and the Gunns won to retain their belts. Tag team wrestling was rather weak at this stage in the WWE.Next saw The Ultimate Warrior defeat Jerry Lawler in a short match. This was the Warrior's final run in the WWE and his final PPV match. His return had not really accomplished much.The next match saw the first chapter of what would turn out to be a memorable rivalry between Mankind and the Undertaker. Mankind had cost the Undertaker the Intercontinental Championship at the previous PPV, interfering in a casket match by hiding in the coffin. Taker sought revenge here, and didn't get it, Mankind winning by TKO in about twenty minutes. Best match of the night so far and one of the better matches from 1996, though it was destined to be eclipsed later on.Ahmed Johnson got his biggest moment in the WWE next as he defeated Goldust to win the Intercontinental Championship. This was not a great match.Next came one of the key moments in wrestling history as Stone Cold Steve Austin won the King of the Ring tournament, defeating Jake Roberts in a dreadful match and then cutting his famous promo "Austin 3:16 just kicked your ass!" Austin 3:16 would go on to to be the highest selling t-shirt in wrestling history. Though, as noted, that was the only good thing about this match.Next came the main event, a really good match that saw Shawn Michaels retain the WWE Championship, pinning the British Bulldog. This was the closest Bulldog would come to a world championship and ended his last run in the main event in the WWE. Jim Cornette, who between Bulldog and Vader was starting to get a pretty intimidating stable of monsters together, was at ringside and interfered a few times in this match.King of the Ring 1996 was an average PPV. The tournament matches were all bad. Taker/ Mankind was a good match, and Michaels/ Bulldog was a good blow off to their entertaining feud. It also kept the bad blood between Michaels and Cornette in order to set up the WWE's next big feud.

SpoilersAlthough this PPV is mainly remembered for the birth of 3:16 it was actually quite a good event.The free for all match between the New Rockers and the Bodydonnas, although not shown in its entirety is an excellent opener.The first semi final king of the ring match between Steve Austin and Marc Mero is good, however the second, between Jake Roberts and Vader is disappointing with a lame ending.The final between Roberts and Austin is again a bit of a disappointment with respect to action but tells a good story and Austin's post match coronation is legendary with good reason. That promo would go on to generate millions of dollars of merchandise due two well known phrases first said during it, "Austin 3:16" and "cause Stone Cold said so".The other matches range from poor to superb. The Warrior-Lawler match is just a squash, whilst the Godwins-Gunns tag match is average. The Undertaker-Mankind match was very good and also the start of a great feud. The Goldust-Ahmed Johnson match pleasantly surprised me and the world title match between Shawn Michaels and the British Bulldog is an undiscovered classic.Also worth noting is the good job Owen Hart does as a colour commentator.Overall well worth a look.

King of the Ring 1996 was a fairly good event but I felt that the undercard matches were great where as the tournament matches were pretty average.The tournament finalists were Marc Mero, Vader, Jake "The Snake" Roberts and Steve Austin-the matches were nothing special and a couple of them were far too short to be good matches.The undercard was great. The Undertaker battled his foe Makind in a fantastic match (the Undertaker and Mankind had one of the best feuds of 1996). The Ultimate Warrior battered Jerry "The King" Lawler to a pulp in a short match. I thought the Ultimate Warrior was a fantastic character in the WWF.The main event pitted Shawn Michaels and the late British Bulldog Davey Boy Smith. These two always had good chemistry in the ring and they assembled a fantastic match which was much better than their mediocre match the previous month at In Your House 8.All in all, a great event.