Background
The WWF had held several "King of the Ring" tournaments in previous years, but it did not become a PPV event until 1993. The 1993 event featured the King of the Ring tournament as well as three other matches. In these matches, wrestlers were portrayed as villains or fan favorites and wrestled in matches that built upon pre-existing feuds and storylines.
Seven of the eight entrants in the quarter-final matches wrestled in a qualifying round prior to the PPV broadcast, while Bret Hart was entered without needing to qualify. Lex Luger was the first wrestler to qualify, as he defeated Bob Backlund in a match televised on the May 2 episode of Wrestling Challenge. Six days later, Razor Ramon was added to the tournament after he defeated Tito Santana on WWF Superstars. On May 9, "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan pinned Papa Shango on Wrestling Challenge to become the fourth entrant. The following night, Bam Bam Bigelow qualified by defeating Typhoon on a live episode of Monday Night Raw.
On the May 15 episode of WWF Superstars, Tatanka faced Giant Gonzalez in a qualifying match. Gonzalez attacked referee Bill Alfonso during the match; as a result, he was disqualified and Tatanka advanced to the next round of the tournament. Mr. Perfect and Doink the Clown wrestled three matches before a decisive winner could be found to advance in the tournament. They first faced each other on the May 1 episode of WWF Superstars, but the match was declared a draw when the time limit expired. Their next match took place on the May 16 episode of Wrestling Challenge and resulted in another time-limit draw. On the May 24 episode of Monday Night Raw, Perfect pinned Doink to advance to the seventh spot in the quarter-finals. In the final qualifying match, Mr. Hughes defeated Kamala on the May 30 episode of Wrestling Challenge.
At WrestleMania IX, Bret Hart dropped the WWF Championship to Yokozuna. At the conclusion of the match, Mr. Fuji, Yokozuna's manager, threw salt in Hart's eyes, enabling Yokozuna to win the match. After the match, Hulk Hogan came to the ring to help Hart. Fuji challenged Hogan to a match for the WWF Championship, which took place immediately. Fuji attempted to throw salt in Hogan's eyes, but Hogan moved and the salt hit Yokozuna instead. Hogan quickly defeated him to become the new WWF Champion. Due to a real-life arrangement with WWF owner Vince McMahon, Hogan was supposed to lose the title to Bret Hart, but he changed his mind and refused to lose to Hart. He formed a compromise that allowed him to face Yokozuna in a rematch at King of the Ring 1993. He did not want to be pinned cleanly, so he insisted on a storyline in which he would lose the belt due to outside interference. As a result of Hart's controversial loss, Jack Tunney, who played the on-screen role of WWF President, granted Hart entry into the King of the Ring tournament without requiring him to win a qualifying match.
Crush faced WWF Intercontinental Champion Shawn Michaels several times in early 1993 but was unable to win the title belt. The pair also faced each other in a qualifying match for the King of the Ring tournament on the May 23 episode of WWF Superstars. The match ended in a double countout, however, and both wrestlers were eliminated from the tournament. It was later announced that they would wrestle each other at King of the Ring 1993, with Michaels's championship on the line.
The event also featured an eight-man tag team match that pitted the fan favorite team of The Steiner Brothers (Rick and Scott Steiner) and The Smoking Gunns (Billy and Bart Gunn) against the villain team of Money Inc. (Ted DiBiase and Irwin R. Schyster) and The Headshrinkers (Samu and Fatu). The Steiners and The Headshrinkers had faced each other at WrestleMania in a match won by the Steiners. The Steiners then moved on to feud with Money Inc., the WWF Tag Team Champions. The Gunns made their WWF debut in the spring of 1993 and faced The Headshrinkers in a series of matches. The match was not a standard tag team match so the championship was not on the line.
Read more about this topic: King Of The Ring (1993)
Famous quotes containing the word background:
“... every experience in life enriches one’s background and should teach valuable lessons.”
—Mary Barnett Gilson (1877–?)
“They were more than hostile. In the first place, I was a south Georgian and I was looked upon as a fiscal conservative, and the Atlanta newspapers quite erroneously, because they didn’t know anything about me or my background here in Plains, decided that I was also a racial conservative.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)
“In the true sense one’s native land, with its background of tradition, early impressions, reminiscences and other things dear to one, is not enough to make sensitive human beings feel at home.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)