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Who Should Have Won KOTR In 1993?

4K views 35 replies 33 participants last post by  NitroII 
#1 · (Edited)
Who Should Have Won King Of The Ring In 1993?

First a quick history of KOTR. It existed since 1985 as a (mostly) annual tournament. Harley Race won it in 1986 and created a King gimmick out of it. This became the equivalent of a midcard title that was defended against challengers for the throne, so to speak, despite new tournament winners being crowned annually. This concept ended after “Macho King” lost at WrestleMania 7.

In 1993, the King of the Ring tournament started being held at a new pay per view of the same name. Before this, the winners of the actual tournament didn't get nearly as much attention for it compared to winners afterwards.



Here is every superstar in the tournament (including the round not aired on ppv) and every other singles wrestler on the card.
Bret Hart
Razor Ramon
Tito Santana
Mr. Perfect
Doink The Clown (heel)
Kamala
Mr. Hughes
Jim Duggan
Papa Shango
Bam Bam Bigelow
Typhoon
Lex Luger
Bob Backlund
Tatanka
Giant Gonzalez
Ted Dibiase
IRS (he and Dibiase wrestled as Money Inc., but both had legit singles careers)
Crush
Shawn Michaels (IC Champ then)
Hulk Hogan (WWF Champ going in)
Yokozuna (WWF Champ leaving)

Note: Savage was on the roster, but did mostly commentating, including this event.

Jerry Lawler- same boat as Savage
1-2-3 Kid- Just upset Razor Ramon, starting to break away from his jobber status

Who do you feel should have won the KOTR tournament that year? Bret won and to this day, only he and Sheamus were former champs when they won the tournament. Bret had a great showing with 3 good matches (perhaps his best with Perfect). But did he need it? On one hand he was a former champ and main evented WrestleMania 9. But despite being a major player for the “New Generation”, he only had 2 big wins over established main eventers (Piper at WM 8, and Flair in an untelevised match for WWF Championship).

Hogan obviously didn’t need it, and Yoko went on to bigger things that night. Shawn Michaels had a good IC Title run going. Lex Luger got a mega push later that year, but it fell short of expectations, and I don’t think him winning the tournament would have ultimately changed that. Razor Ramon was a good candidate, obviously.
 
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#2 ·
I had zero problem with Bret winning, without Bret working three times during the course of that show, that show would have sucked.

If anything I had a problem with it was Bret putting on the king get up and getting beaten down by Lawler.

From main eventing mania to feuding with an announcer was quite the step down, especially when you consider Lawler had never been presented as anything serious on WWF television.

Yes, he was a legend in Memphis but outside of Memphis did anyone really care.

After Bret won it should have been him laying claim to the next WWF title shot, Luger was still a heel and hadn't started the lex express deal yet that was an utter failure.
 
#17 ·
I had zero problem with Bret winning, without Bret working three times during the course of that show, that show would have sucked.



If anything I had a problem with it was Bret putting on the king get up and getting beaten down by Lawler.



From main eventing mania to feuding with an announcer was quite the step down, especially when you consider Lawler had never been presented as anything serious on WWF television.



Yes, he was a legend in Memphis but outside of Memphis did anyone really care.



After Bret won it should have been him laying claim to the next WWF title shot, Luger was still a heel and hadn't started the lex express deal yet that was an utter failure.

Bret Hart was the perfect choice to win on that night. He also had 3 very good matches. 2 which still are talked about today
 
#7 ·
Bret was the perfect choice. He was the most popular babyface and the best wrestler in the company. Usually he would be going up against Yokozuna at Summerslam for the title BUT Vince and his bisexual fetishes decreed that Lex fucking Luger be turned face and rammed into a main event program against Yokozuna.
The right man won KOTR 1993
 
#8 ·
Bret should've never lost to Yoko and Luger should've never turned face.

With that being said, I'll go with Luger as a heel.
 
#9 ·
I didn't mind Bret winning at all, but like you pointed out, he was a former champion already. Regardless, I didn't have a problem with it, though someone else probably could have benefitted from it a little more. It still lead to a main-event run for Bret that lasted for the next couple of years with guys like Luger, Yoko, Diesel, etc., so I guess it did what I think KOTR is designed to do (put focus on a guy who's up-and-coming, and though Bret was already established, he still seemed to benefit from the win).

As far as the other guys go, the first name that comes to mind is Shawn, because he was really on the rise at that point. I also think Ramon would have been a good option. I sort of viewed Luger as the guy that they were going to push really hard no matter what, so I don't think that a KOTR win would have been as meaningful for him as it would have been for someone else.
 
#10 ·
Bret was the only logical choice as winner, in my opinion. His three matches that night were great and turned an otherwise lame PPV into a pretty solid one. Personally, I wanted Hogan to retain against Yokozuna and then for Bret to face and defeat the Hulkster at Summerslam. That would've been great!
 
#13 ·
With Bret being the face of the "New Generation" and being built as THE face of the promotion at the time, Bret had to win that tournament.
If he had still been champion (in my opinion he should have been) then I would have gone with Mr. Perfect Curt Hennig as a good second option. It could have set up Hennig as a major player again in the WWF and continued the Hart vs. Hennig feud but now over the Heavyweight title.
 
#15 ·
Perfect for me. You don't give a guy that ALREADY WON THE BELT the KOTR. With me it had to be Perfect, though that semifinal match wit Bret was *****
 
#19 ·
Well considering winning King Of The Ring in 1993 did more for Bret Hart being the top babyface in the company than beating Ric Flair and Razor Ramon in late 1992-early 1993 did I think the absolute perfect choice was Bret Hart. In kayfabe after being screwed out of the WWE title at WrestleMania 9 then not receiving his rematch he went into the tournament needing to win to get his shot again but had to put his title ambitions to one side to deal with a personal feud with Jerry Lawler.

The Hart/Lawler feud was one of the best that year and gave Bret a personal and deep hating feud to justify him being out of the title picture but helped his build towards WrestleMania 10, the momentum Bret had from winning the tournament was HUGE even if WWE tried to force momentum for Lex Luger who post Summerslam was past his hottest period and couldn't match the organic overness that Bret had.
 
#21 ·
I agree, to a point. The thing I disagree with, is having a guy that ALREADY WON THE MAIN TITLE win KotR? Why? Give it to a darkhorse and establish the younger talent (Tatanka)
 
#23 ·
I don't think there was a problem with Bret Hart winning because even though he had been champ before he still wasn't viewed as the true #1 in the company....He had the best matches but they were all were against guys who were on the IC title level and his only victory over a legit headliner (Flair) wasn't even a big deal it was just a house show.

The KotR hadn't been established yet either as a serious thing so having Bret win it after wrestling 3 matches not only helped legitimize the tournament, but also show the new direction the WWF was moving towards after the steroid troubles towards smaller, more athletic superstars with Bret leading the way.
 
#26 ·
Bret or Mr. Perfect were the best choices.
 
#29 ·
Firstly, I have no problem with Bret winning it. By him being the first winner on PPV, it kinda gave it authenticity.

Secondly, the word at the time was that they were going to do the King of the Ring so that Bret could win it after they took the title from him at Mania and lead that into a Hogan/Yoko feud rather than a Bret/Hogan feud.
 
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