SlyGuy21
1st Match: Marc Mero vs Stone Cold Steve Austin. A great start to the show, Mero keeps the crowd in his corner, while Austin has them gunning for him. Good face and heel work here, also Owen Hart is on commentary the whole show, wonder if that'll come into play later. Austin gets his lip busted pretty bad here, and had to actually get stitches immediately after the match. Great stuff here to start. Rating: 4/5 2nd Match: Jake Roberts vs Vader. The match is less than 5 minutes and has Vader get DQ'd so Roberts can move on in the tournament. Roberts was doing an underdog story with this tournament, and that can work, especially with a guy who had his fair share of demons, but the DQ ending to this is lazy. I realize there's no way Roberts could've beaten Vader 1-on-1, but the match is short and somewhat entertaining. There have been worse matches that are less than 5 minutes. After the match, Roberts gets his ribs destroyed by Vader in a beat down, don't worry, that'll come into play later. Rating: 3/5 3rd Match: The Godwinns vs The Smokin' Gunns, WWF Tag Team Championship. An alright tag team match, if anything it benefits from being 10 minutes long, but it has a constant pace, and the crowd's into it. Probably the weakest match of the night, but still very watchable. Rating: 3/5 4th Match: Jerry Lawler vs The Ultimate Warrior. This match is also less than 5 minutes, but watching Lawler lose is always fun. Apparently this would be Warrior's last WWF PPV appearance because he no-showed a bunch of house shows after this and then went to WCW for awhile. His run here was alright, a lot better than what Renegade did the year before, but it was more due to nostalgia than anything. Rating: 3/5 5th Match: The Undertaker vs Mankind. A pretty brutal match. Hard-hitting, there are chair shots, drops onto concrete, and this was just the beginning of their feud. Paul Bearer accidentally hits Taker with the urn, getting Foley the win, but I have a feeling there's more to come from this rivalry. Another great match on the show. Rating: 4/5 6th Match: Goldust vs Ahmed Johnson, WWF Intercontinental Championship. Another solid match, not as good as the one before it, but very good. Goldust is of course creepy as hell, and Johnson's reactions to him are great, but Ahmed as a whole is just fun to watch. Good back and forth action, and Johnson gets a clean win for his first title. Rating: 3.5/5 7th Match: Stone Cold Steve Austin vs Jake Roberts. This is also less than 5 minutes, but they told a great story with it. A battered and beaten Jake Roberts vs the young and aggressive Steve Austin. Gorilla Monsoon almost calls the match off, but Roberts wants to continue, to try and win the big one, but Austin crushes that dream with a stunner. I might be hyping this match up more than it deserves, but I think it's booked really well storyline wise. After the match, Austin cuts the "Austin 3:16" promo, and gets shot to the moon. I also love how he doesn't take the crown, or sit on the chair, he wins, makes an awesome speech, and then leaves. Simple, effective, Austin. Rating: 4/5 8th Match: Shawn Michaels vs The British Bulldog, WWF Championship. A lot better than their match at last month's IYH. Their last match was an OK Bulldog match, this is a great Michaels match. Michaels get a lot more offense, and there are some great spots and close three-counts. The only problem the match has is the ending being overbooked like crazy, with two refs, and Owen pulling one of them out to stop the count, but the count continues, so it was pointless anyway. It's weird. But Michaels wins, and there's no double pin finish like last show, so it's not that big of a negative. A very good match to end the show. Rating: 4.5/5 Final Rating: 7 out of 10. While the show's mostly remembered for Austin 3:16, the rest of the show holds up really well. Every match here is at least watchable, and sometimes that's all you need for a great show.
neobowler
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.
Big Movie Fan
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.
