WWE King of the Ring 1996 (1996)

Who payed the critics

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

The acting in this movie is really good.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

(06.23.96)Live from Milwaukee, WIAttendance: 8,762Your hosts are Vince McMahon, Jim Ross & Owen HartKing of the Ring: Semi-Finals"Stone Cold" Steve Austin Vs Marc MeroAustin advances to the finals with a stunner. This is such an underrated match! Why is this not mentioned more often? These two just clicked right from the outset. Mero's high-flying style meshed very well with Austin's. You could tell this night was gonna be special for Austin with the way he moved, his mannerisms, etc. I'm gonna give this fantastic match four stars.****King of the Ring: Semi-FinalsVader (W/Jim Cornette) Vs Jake "The Snake" RobertsJake nails Vader with the DDT, but Vader grabs the referee on the way down. As a result, Jake wins by DQ. Vader injures Jake's ribs after the match. Weak finish aside, the aftermath was really effective. It gives Jake a Cinderella run to the finals and maintains Vader's status as a monster. *1/4Tag Team ChampionshipThe Smoking Gunns (C) (W/Sunny) Vs The Godwinns (W/Hillbilly Jim)The Gunns win after Bart nails Phineas from behind with his boot. This match is too inconsistently paced for my liking. Some times it was exciting, others it teetered on boredom. It didn't help that I had no interest in it to begin with.**Jerry Lawler delivers some epic insults to some of the fans in Milwaukee before the match. Jerry "The King" Lawler Vs The Ultimate WarriorWarrior wins with a flying shoulder tackle. This was complete crap. Warrior got his ass kicked for most of the match! All Warrior did was no-sell a piledriver from Lawler and hit a shoulder tackle, and that was it. Warrior's comeback run in 96 was very lame, even if the fans loved him.*Mankind Vs The Undertaker (W/Paul Bearer)Mankind wins with the mandible claw after Paul Bearer accidentally nails Taker with the urn. Even though it wasn't promoted as such, this was a no-holds barred brawl. There were a lot of hardcore elements at play here and I felt it suited both of them. This may not be on the level of their match at King of the Ring, but it's pretty good. Mankind winning was a shocker.***1/4Intercontinental ChampionshipGoldust (W/Marlena) Vs Ahmed JohnsonAhmed wins the title after a Pearl River Plunge. This was a pretty boring match for the most part. It's filled with too many rest holds and redundant psychology from Goldust. I loved the Goldust character back then, but he overdid it at times. *1/2Brian Pillman delivers a wonderfully eccentric promo about his arrival in the WWF. He was quite chilling to watch and said stuff you wouldn't see on TV today.In a cool moment, Austin and Pillman sharing a knowing exchange on Austin's way to the ring. For those that don't know, they were a tag team in WCW called The Hollywood Blondes. King of the Ring: Finals"Stone Cold" Steve Austin Vs Jake "The Snake" RobertsGorilla Monsoon tries to stop the match, but Jake says no. Austin becomes King of the Ring with a stunner. The match was short, but it had wonderful psychology. Austin was pugnacious, unrelentingly attacking the ribs of Roberts. Roberts had the heart of the lion for his fighting spirit. If you don't know about Austin's legendary, Austin 3:16 promo, be ashamed of yourself. In any case, here it is. "The first thing I want to be done is to get that piece of crap out of my ring. Don't just get him out of the ring, get him out of the WWF, because I've proved, son, without a shadow of a doubt, you ain't got what it takes anymore. You sit there, and you thump your bible, and you say your prayers, and it didn't get you anywhere. Talk about your psalms, talk about John 3:16-Austin 3:16 says I just whooped your ass! All he's gotta do is go buy him a cheap bottle of thunderbird, and try to take back some of that courage that he had in his prime. As the King of the Ring, I'm serving notice to everyone of the WWF superstars, I don't give a damn what they are, they're all on the list, and that's Stone Cold's list, and I'm fixing to start running through all of them. As far as this championship match is concerned, I don't care if it's Davey Boy Smith or Shawn Michaels. Steve Austin's time has come, and when I get that shot you're looking at the next WWF Champion. And that's the bottom line, because Stone Cold said so"Thoughts: It's one of the greatest promos ever, plain and simple. WWF ChampionshipShawn Michaels (C) (W/Jose Lothario) Vs The British Bulldog (W/Jim Cornette & Diana Hart Smith)Mr. Perfect is the guest referee. Shawn wins after a superkick. This was better than their previous match at the In Your House PPV. Everything flowed better and there was more excitement. They started off a little slow, but this match delivered. ***1/2Shawn Michaels tries to fend off a 2 on 1 assault by The Bulldog and Owen Hart. Ahmed Johnson runs down to even the odds but Vader runs down and makes it 3 on 2. The Ultimate Warrior runs down to even it at 3 a piece as the faces celebrate to end the show.Thoughts: This was SUPPOSED to be Shawn Michaels, Ahmed Johnson & The Ultimate Warrior Vs Vader, Owen Hart & The British Bulldog at In Your House: International Incident, but Warrior was too undependable and Sycho Sid replaced him.8/10 ranking overall

Wrestling sucks today.If you like good wrestling watch this event.I thought this was in the top two events of the year.Stone cold and Marc mero had a great match. Taker and mankind had a good match and saw usage of a chair. It was a solid ppv and Michaels and bulldog had a great match as well but the sweet chin music was botched at the end and looked fake (if you see previews of k.o.r. on another wwf source it'll show you a different camera angle other than the one on the event)hahaha But doesn't matter the match made up 4 it.Other mentions Lawlers match with Warrior was dumb in retrospect because Lawler just choked warrior the whole match with his wrist tape and the ref didn't even call for a disqualification even after seemingly forever.The gunns vs. godwinns was good for a wwf tag match.Vader beat up Jake but too bad the ref called a disqualification because Austin and vader woulda been better but heel vs heel was unheard of at the time. Ahmeds match with goldust was boring i still haven't watched the whole match there's a lot of sleepers pardon the pun. Austins 316 phrase is born after he stone cold stunner's Jake the snake. good ppv.

As a wrestling fan, I have noticed the decline in good wrestling action as of late...but I own this video and it is a great one to watch for some some just plain good wrestling action. The only poor performance was by Jake The Snake Roberts. But the show marked the true birth of Stone Cold Steve Austin. In the Tournament Semifinals Marc Mero and Austin put on a great show, while the Vader and Roberts match was not quite as good. Even though Vader had a nice showing. The Tag match between The Smokin' Gunns and The Godwinns was an excellent match, the Godwinns were way better than normal. The Mankind and Undertaker match was great, and really showed Foley's ability. Ahmed Johnson put on a great showing in his match with Goldust. The main event was by far the best match on the show...Shawn Michaels always does an incredible job, and when he is working with The British Bulldog it makes for a great match. Overall I give the show a 4 out of 5.

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.