[1993-06-13-WWF-King of the Ring] Bret Hart vs Razor Ramon

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

I always thought this match was a little overlooked. This is an excellent 10-minute match with some extremely well-timed nearfalls, which is a credit to Razor growing as a wrestler. Really well-constructed and a nice way to start a PPV. Also, during the heat segment, the crowd is chanting 1-2-3, which is a huge credit to how over they got that angle.

[MJH]

I've always preferred this to their Rumble match, but it's nothing on the match with Hennig.

 

Semi-related note, I've always loved the setting of this show. Maybe it's my own nostalgia but it seemed, 'colourful', I don't know.

[KB8]

I've always really liked this show, too. 'colourful' setting fits pretty well, I think.

 

Good match. I don't remember much of anything about their Rumble match, but I can't imagine it being much, if at all, better than this. That small package nearfall was great and totally had me biting. And yeah, the crowd chanting "1-2-3" to get under Razor's skin is really cool.

[flyonthewall2983]

Agreed with the setting. The idea to put KOTR between WM and SummerSlam was a good one until every other month was filled with something.

[Matt Franklin]

Going to try and pick up my comments from here after slacking off for a while. KOTR 93 is one of my sentimental favourite PPV's, as it was one of the first events that I rented from my local video store. It is realistically the Bret Hart show (though I think the Luger/Tatanka draw is underrated from this show) and so much has been said about how he was able to craft 3 totaly different but great matches that I don't really have anything to add that hasn't already been discussed. Count me in as one of the people who think this is one of he greatest one-night performances of all time.

 

This match is more of a sprint than your usual Bret PPV match, which works with the 15 minute time-limit stip. Razor more than keeps up with the pace, and this is a really good all action match. The way the near falls were worked to be closer and closer was excellent, with the small package being so close that Bret gets caught up with the ref leading to a nice transition. Also, it is nice to seenthe back superplex reversal used on someone who actually uses it as a signature manuever rather than randomly used in a try-to-powerbomb-Kidman way. Hard to believe it is by far the least of the three matches that Hart had on the night.

[Kevin Ridge]

Bret is announced as the number one seed of the tournament so that would make Razor number 8? He’s got to be ranked higher than Hughes and Duggan. The loss to 123 Kid must have affected his ranking big. Anyways, I loved the initial King of the Ring tournaments. Very good match to start tournament and set Bret on his way for the night. Sequence with Bret reversing out of the Razor’s Edge, flipping over and then almost get that super close pinfall attempt that Razor kicked was very nice. Think I would have had that as the finish. Yeah, the 15 minute opening round time limit forces guys to work faster matches which is works in a tournament setting.

[PeteF3]

This might be Razor's standout performance to date, maybe even his best performance not involving a ladder. He times the near-falls great and has developed a good variety of offense to sling Bret around with. It's not a great match but Bret has to work two more long matches and a big angle, so it wasn't designed that way. It still had a very hot crowd doing everything the WWF wanted of them--booing when Razor poked the eyes, living and dying on the near-falls, and rattling Ramon with the "1-2-3" chants.

[soup23]

I need to rewatch the Rumble match but this was a treat. Razor has a cool gimmick going on right now where any roll up or nearfall is treated seriously by the fans and he could be upset by any wrestling but yet he still feels like a threat. Bret takes a lot of this match and works well but Razor seems to gain some confidence coming out of this one even in defeat. Nice opener. ***1/4

[garretta]

I was pleasantly surprised by this one.

 

First, I never expected the end-to-end action we got here. The Wrestling Classic and the Mania IV tournament were the two tournaments I'd seen from the WWF before this, and most of the matches were so sparse that they ran together. It's not just that they went no longer than about three minutes on average, it's the participants did as little as possible within those three minutes. Here, we actually had a match, and a very good one too,

 

Bret, of course, was great, but don't underesitmate Hall. Again, this match was booked and worked to the opposite of what would be reasonably expected. Yes, the crowd went nuts chanting "1-2-3", but Hall never appeared rattled by it, in spite of what Savage tried to tell the audience. Far from covering his ears and cowering in the manner of a Larry Zbyszko, Hall wrestled the match of his WWF career so far, nearly beating Bret on several occasions. Even the finish reinforced the notion that Bret had to dig deep to beat someone who, upset loss aside, was at the top of his game.

 

I thought for a minute that they were going to have Bret kick out of the Razor's Edge to lead to the finish, and I'm glad they didn't. I'd have been okay with his counter leading directly to the winning fall, especially since it looked so good, but using the back suplex reversal was a wise move under the circumstances, particularly if a face turn was already in the works for Hall.

 

JR was his usual self here. He didn't play straight man much with Heenan, which was a disappointment, but maybe he assumed that Savage would do it. If so, he was dead wrong. I'm fine with guys taking sides in matches, but that's ​all ​Savage did. He offered almost no insight at all into anything beyond cheering for Bret, and even no-sold Heenan's attempts to accuse him of starting the "1-2-3" chants. Heenan, of course, sided with Hall, but also provided little touches of insight that he'd never bothered with before. My favorite was when he praised Hall for stepping on both of Bret's hands, which would have made it difficult for Bret to both hit Hall with punches and pick him up for moves. As I've said before, I think JR was responsible for a lot of this, because Bobby felt the need to pick up his game.

 

He still got off some great lines, though. My favorite was to JR: "You wouldn't know anything (about competing). You're from Oklahoma; you spend most of your time milking pigs!" I also liked him saying that Bret was so geared toward wrestling that if he got a wakeup call for Room 123 at a hotel, he'd kick out as soon as the operator said "two". It's a shame that Savage destroyed the joke by calling it irrelevant.

 

I can't wait to see the other two Bret matches we have here; I've heard great things about the Curt match in particular.

[Superstar Sleeze]

Bret Hart vs Razor Ramon - WWF King of the Ring 1993

 

Really fun traditional pro wrestling match. They don't do anything extraordinary but they do the ordinary so right that the match has incredible heat and is a real fun watch. It especially helps this is coming on the heels of the wicked hot 1-2-3 Kid angle with the fans chanting 1-2-3 to taunt Razor. This is Bret by the numbers but there is a reason his formula works. He does a great job keeping the deceptively big & tall Scott Hall off his feet with headlocks and wristlocks. I really like simple stuff like Razor missing the elbow in the shine with Bret getting up and going back to work. I love the eyepoke as the transition to the heat segment with the charge into the post cementing it. I thought Razor was good in his heat segment adding the running powerslam to his fallaway slam. Razor had a really hard time hitting elbow drops in this match. Missing four in a row. Bret executes his Five Moves of Doom excellently, but ends up taking the Bret Bump. The nearfalls down the stretch are wicked hot. Loved Bret shifting his weight on the super back suplex to win the match because that was the finish of every single match I have ever had with my brother because it was the only suplex I could ever do so I would have him shift his weight to win (I am the older brother so I was always the heel). Really fun textbook wrestling match. ***1/2