WWE King of the Ring ‘94, the “Perfect Father’s Day Card.” We’ll see about that as we head Into the Vault for another Hart-studded extravaganza!
Skip These Matches
I will say that King of the Ring ‘94 is an easier one to get through than the ‘93 edition. That isn’t to say that 1993 was a painful watch but 1994 didn’t show up to waste time. We’re short a non-tournament match but the card is chopped up beautifully between the tournament action.
Just skip all of the 1-2-3 Kid matches and the IRS matches. It pains me to say “Skip a 1-2-3 Kid match” because he was very serviceable in WWE at this time but these weren’t essentials to watch unless you want to see some heel Owen action. The IRS matches were meh.
Oh, and you can skip the World Tag Title match. I dig the Headshrinkers, dig Yokozuna, Crush matches just…they never did it for me in WWE or WCW. The main event can be skipped as well. I enjoy Jerry Lawler, thought Piper was fine, I watched the WWE TV leading up to this King of the Ring, didn’t need this as the main event.
You Can Probably Skip These
Razor Ramon vs. Bam Bam was well-paced and we got Razor advancing. Owen against Tatanka wasn’t as good but they were neck and neck. It’s a quarter-final match, the good stuff doesn’t come until the semis and finals.
Owen Hart vs. Razor Ramon. Both are wrestlers I really enjoyed but what a way to end the King of Ring. It’s not that there was interference but there was interference resulting in a short, RAW-length final. The action in that 6 minutes and change wasn’t bad at all but it comes off as a bit rushed.
But this heel Hart Foundation so of course there would be interference. Jim Neidhart’s outside interference game was clutch. Honestly, this should’ve at least gotten the time that the Lawler-Piper main did but whatever.
Watch These Matches
Bret retaining his WWE World Title against Diesel was a good match. It ended with a DQ in Diesel’s favor, of course. What I liked about this is that we got 90s Bret which was the gold standard of dope U.S wrestling in this decade and early 90s Kevin Nash. He’s far from great but he’s putting in the effort once he’s up there on the card.
This isn’t a learning process for Nash, he’s applying what he’s learned to the best of his ability against Bret Hart and it was a good bout.
Verdict for WWE King of the Ring ‘94
I’ll tell you now: this was not as good as King of the Ring ‘94. It wasn’t a trash show at all but it was a lot of stuff that WWE could’ve just ran on RAW and made June an In Your House month. The WWE title match was the best thing on the show and none of the KOTR matches really got that honor.
Most of this score is for how good that World title match was compared to everything else and Art Donovan’s bad color commentary.
RATING: 5/10
