The war between Bret Hart and Owen Hart raged on as the second annual King of the Ring PPV came along. And the big story going in here was Owen's promise to emulate his brother's achievement from the year before and win the King of the Ring. Bret in the meantime had his hands full as he put the WWE Championship on the line against Shawn Michael's gigantic bodygurard and Intercontinental Champion Diesel.
But first thing's first as we have the first round of qualifying matches with former Intercontinental Champion Razor Ramon conquering the monstrous Bam Bam Bigelow. This was a sweet little match, with Razor overcoming the giant with some quick thinking and a cool spot where he threw Bigelow off the top rope to set up the pin. Nice start.
Next up we saw Irwin R Shyster win another qualifying match in a not dissimilar, but much more under handed, way to Razor. Like Razor, IRS was facing a huge opponent in Mabel, and was able to shake the ropes, with Mabel on the turnbuckle, to send him flying into the ring awkwardly resulting in a pin. The win meant that IRS would now face Razor in the semi final.
Owen Hart was attacked by Tatanka to start the next qualifying match, but he was able to take control before eventually winning by countering a sunset flip attempt from Tatanka into a pin to get the victory. NIce little match. Owen really did have a fantastic year in 1994.
The final qualifying match saw the 1-2-3 Kid win an entertaining little match with a pretty cool counter on Jef Jarrett. Jarrett put the Kid in the figure four, but he was able to flip Jarrett into a small package to advance to the semi finals where he would face Owen Hart.
Next up came one of the big matches of the night as Bret Hart put the WWE Title on the line against Diesel. Diesel had recently won the IC Title from Razor Ramon, but only Hart's title was on the line in this match. Shawn Michaels accompanied Diesel to the ring, while Bret had his former Hart Foundation tag team partner Jim Neidhart in his corner. Hart and Diesel wrestled a fine match, which looked to be nearing its end when Bret put Diesel in the sharpshooter, but the 7 foot giant reached the ropes and Bret had to release the hold. Hart was then jumped by Michaels and knocked down, allowing Diesel to hit the jack knife powerbomb. Neidhart then came into the ring, slugging Diesel and getting Hart disqualified to save his title. Isn't that nice of him? But he went from friend to enemy after that, leaving Hart in the ring on his own to get double teamed by Diesel and Michaels.
This was followed by the King of the Ring Semi Finals. In the first semi Razor Ramon proved too strong for IRS, escaping a chin lock to hit the Razor's edge for the win. Not a bad match, but for the second time in the night it started with an attack outside the ring, this time it was Razor getting stuck into IRS.
And we weren't finished with the pre match beatdowns as Owen hart got in on the act too in his match against the 1-2-3 Kid. They have a nice little squash match, won by Owen with the sharpshooter. Probably a little unfair to call this a squash as the Kid did control roughly a quarter of the match.
The next match saw the Headshrinkers retain the WWE Tag Team Titles against Mr Fuji's evil duo of former WWE Champion Yokozuna and Crush. Fuji tried to get in on the match, hitting Samu with the Japanese flag, but Fatu was there to get the pin and foil Fuji again. 1994 had not been a good year for Fuji at this stage. His biggest asset Yokozuna had lost the WWE Titles and two of his monsters had filed to get the tag belts here. A big addition is necessary I reckon.
Following this is the penultimate match of the night, the King of the Ring final. Razor Ramon vs Owen Hart and the pair put on a good back and forth wrestling match until Jim Neidhard, who'd evilly left Bret Hart to a beating earlier in the night, came out and assaulted Razor. Hart picked up the pin and so had done what he'd promised to and won the King of the Ring. He proclaimed himself the King of Hart's as Neidhart celebrated with him. The Bret/ Owen sibling rivalry had now become a family war! Finally comes the main event which saw WWE legend Roddy Piper defeat Jerry Lawler. Lawler had assaulted a fan in the build up to the match and he stood at ringside and helped Piper win by pointing out Lawler cheating by putting his feet on the ropes during a pin attempt.
So a nice little show. Strange main event, but it set up Summerslam rather well with the Hart brothers on a collision course.
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