Throwback Thursday: Looking back at WWE King of the Ring 1994

Each and every Thursday I will look back at a different pay-per-view event from the past via the WWE Network. Want to see a certain event covered? Send your suggestions to @VaughnMJohnson on Twitter.

Last week, I covered the WWE No Mercy 2002.

WWE King of the Ring 1994

Date: June 19, 1994

Venue: Baltimore Arena (now Royal Farms Arena), Baltimore, Md.

Some random notes

Although WWE had held the King of the Ring tournament off and on since 1985, this was only the second time the tournament was held as its own pay-per-view.

This particular event is somehow kind of timely, as it took place only two days after O.J. Simpson's infamous ride in his white Ford Bronco. There was no mention of that on this program. WWE did make a parody of sorts about the famous chase two years later at WrestleMania 12 during the match between Roddy Piper and Goldust. As usual, WWE was late when it comes to trying to be cool.

Speaking of former football players, Gorilla Monsoon and Randy Savage were joined in the commentary booth by Baltimore Colts legend Art Donovan. Why? Because he played for the Baltimore Colts and the show emanated from Baltimore. When watching the show, you'll soon realize that is the only reason why he was there.

I guess Donovan being on commentary meant something to the fans in Baltimore, who did not have an NFL team at the time and were probably happy to see one of the men they used to cheer for every Sunday, but it meant nothing to the rest of the world.

There were probably people in Baltimore that didn't know who Donovan was, as he had retired from professional football after the 1961 season, more than 30 years prior to this event.

Heck, even the Colts had left Baltimore for Indianapolis a decade prior. Like I said earlier, it was clear to me that the Baltimore connection was the only fathomable reason Donovan was in the commentary booth because he had no knowledge of what he was watching. Donovan clearly wasn't a WWE fan. As a matter of fact, I highly doubt he was a fan of wrestling in general.

He didn't seem to know what was happening most of the time. He had little to no knowledge of the wrestlers or stories and spent most the broadcast asking silly questions and making funny sounds.

I can't tell you how many times he asked in his New York accent, "How much does this guy weigh?" or "Who is this guy?" It felt like June 19, 1994 was the very first time Arthur James Donovan had ever watched professional wrestling.

To be fair, none of this was Donovan's fault. It was WWE's fault for putting Donovan in such a position to fail. It's like WWE figured that the local connection would be worth it, even if he were awful.

By the way, Baltimore did have a professional football team in 1994 called the Baltimore Football Club of the Canadian Football League. They eventually became the Baltimore Stallions and won the Grey Cup in 1995, which was the only time the trophy was won by an American team.

Of course when the Cleveland Browns moved to Baltimore and rebranded themselves as the Ravens, the Stallions saw a significant drop in business and they, along with the CFL's American expansion, folded up shop. Well, they didn't fold up entirely, as they moved to Montreal and rebooted the Alouettes.

The show opened with a sports-like presentation with a video package previewing all of the quarterfinal matches. Speaking of the quarters, I like having the quarterfinals on the pay-per-view.

Having just watched the 1996 King of the Ring, when there were only the semifinals and finals, the pay-per-view barely felt like it was about the tournament, as there so many other matches on the show that had nothing to do with winning the crown.

When it came to 1994, the majority of the matches were King of the Ring matches, adding extra importance to the title.

Ricky Medlocke, member of Lynyrd Skynyrd and Blackfoot, sung the national anthem before the show. I don't know why he was chosen to sing the national anthem in Baltimore of all places, but whatever.

With that said, let's get to the matches.

King of the Ring quarterfinals – Razor Ramon def. Bam Bam Bigelow

The one thing I always loved about this period in WWE was the entrance themes for the wrestlers and two of my favorites were in this match.

I always like Bigelow's simply because he yelled "Bam Bam" throughout the song. Even better than Bigelow's was Ramon's, which is a song I wish I could just walk down the street to. You hear that song and the proverbial swag gets turned up a couple of notches every time.

As for the match itself, I liked the way it was structured and I also enjoyed the finish. It made sense given Bigelow's size advantage over Ramon. I honestly tried to enjoy the match, but Donovan's terribleness distracted me. Again, it was not totally his fault.

King of the Ring quarterfinals – Irwin R. Schyster def. Mabel

Like I said earlier, Donovan spent most the night asking who people were and he began doing so with I.R.S. Apparently, Donovan thought he was just another business man in a suit.

I loved how Mabel's music was a knock-off version of a classic EPMD song. I also thought Oscar had bars.

Donovan thought the fact that Mabel weighed more than 500 pounds at the time was unfair for I.R.S. Savage's response: "Life's not fair."

I tried to enjoy the match, but I routinely burst into laughter at Donovan asking who everyone was. He didn't know anyone. Despite the fact Oscar rapped Mable's entire song to the ring, Donovan still didn't know who he was. Donovan thought Oscar, who was wearing an all white suit, was there to take someone to the hospital.

King of the Ring quarterfinals – Owen Hart def. Tatanka

This match was much more fast-paced than the others and was one of the better ones of the night. That should come as no surprise given the talent in the ring.

The match was pretty standard with Owen Hart beating Tatanka in a clean fashion.

King of the Ring quarterfinals – 1-2-3 Kid def. Jeff Jarrett

Donovan believed 1-2-3 Kid looked like a boxer for some reason. To most people, he looked like a kid, so maybe he looked like a kid boxer.

I don't see how anyone could have ever taken Jarrett seriously with that awful outfit he was rocking back in 1994. He had lights on his hat and I don't what to call that shirt he was wearing. I'm not even sure I could call it a shirt. I think I'll just refer to it simply as a top.

1-2-3 Kid squeaked out a victory, but Jarrett delivered three pile drivers to him after the match, leaving everyone unsure of whether Kid would be able to compete in his semifinal match against Owen Hart.

WWE championship – Diesel def. Bret Hart via disqualification

Diesel's music was just a diesel horn. He didn't have the actual music yet. It was very, very annoying.

Diesel was the Intercontinental champion heading into this match, but his title was not on the line. Only Bret Hart's WWE championship was at stake.

While Diesel had Shawn Michaels in his corner, Bret Hart brought out his brother-in-law and longtime tag team partner, Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart. It was weird seeing Michaels as essentially Diesel's little sidekick. Being Diesel's little buddy could have hurt Michaels in the long run, but he was so talented that he still managed to become the top guy only a couple of years later.

Michaels helped out Diesel a ton during this match, but Neidhart was pretty useless, despite the fact that he was there to nullify Michaels' presence. Michaels got involved on multiple occasions without Neidhart having much to say about it.

Eventually, Bret Hart had to take care of Michaels himself by punching him off the ring apron, forcing Michaels to take a big bump from the apron to the guardrail.

I did like the story that was told during this match. Bret Hart worked on Diesel's legs not only to take away the big man's size advantage but to also soften him up for the sharp shooter. Diesel worked on Bret Hart's back in an effort to soften him up for the jackknife power bomb.

All of this storytelling made this the best match of the night, in my opinion. Everything just made sense and nothing seemed out of place.

It would all make sense later on, but Neidhart strangely got Bret Hart disqualified and then left him in the ring to get beaten up by Diesel and Shawn Michaels.

King of the Ring semifinals – Razor Ramon def. Irwin R. Schyster

I just noticed that I.R.S. didn't have any theme music. He always talked his way to the ring. Anyway, Ramon won this match with the Razor's edge.

King of the Ring semifinals – Owen Hart def. 1-2-3 Kid

1-2-3 Kid went into the match badly injured from Jarrett's attack earlier. Owen Hart didn't care anything about that though.

However, 1-2-3 Kid gutted it out and even pinned Owen Hart, but the referee noticed Owen Hart's leg got on the rope just as he counted to three. He quickly waved off the decision and the match continued.

Eventually, Owen Hart locked in the sharp shooter and forced 1-2-3 Kid to submit.

WWE Tag Team championship – The Headshrinkers def. Crush & Yokozuna

The only non-Samoans involved in the match were Jim Cornette, Crush and Lou Albano. Yes, for those that don't know, Yokozuna was not actually Japanese. He was Samoan and first cousins to both of the Headshrinkers. Afa of the Wild Samoans accompanied the Headshrinkers to the ring. He was their uncle. He was also Yokozuna's uncle.

Everyone knew that the Headshrinkers were impervious to pain when it came to their… heads, which is why it looked silly for Yokozuna and Crush to constantly attack that part of their bodies.

Late in the match, Lex Luger came out to distract Crush. He didn't have to do much to distract anyone with those awful-looking tights he had on. He could have distracted the guards at Buckingham Palace with those things.

King of the Ring finals – Owen Hart def. Razor Ramon

Donovan had picked Ramon to win the King of the Ring in the beginning of the night and stuck with his prediction throughout the show, but for whatever reason, he decided to switch and pick Owen Hart during this match.

The reason why Neidhart had left Bret Hart for dead earlier on was because he was siding with his evil brother Owen Hart, and this became clear when he helped the younger Hart defeat Ramon to win the King of the Ring.

It was the third time someone named Hart had won the King of the Ring. Bret Hart had won it in 1991 and 1993, but now it was Owen Hart's turn to wear the crown.

After the match, Owen Hart and Neidhart attacked Ramon and even did the Hart attack finishing move. He then proudly put on the crown and proclaimed himself as the King of Harts.

Roddy Piper def. Jerry Lawler

WWE spent the entire show hyping up the "New Generation," but put Piper and Jerry Lawler in the main event. Let me just say that these two did not represent a new generation of talent in the company. They were very much the old guard.

For some reason some kid that did a pretty good Piper impersonation was involved in the story of this match.

There was a point in the match when Piper tried to shield the kid from bodily harm from Lawler. This would have been nice if the kid couldn't have escaped Lawler's wrath on his own 700 times before Piper finally pushed him out of harm's way.

There were some pretty good matches on the card, but this one did not live up to the standards they all had set. The logical main event would have been the championship match between Bret Hart and Diesel, but given the story that was told with Neidhart, I understand why it wasn't the final match.

Because of that, this was a weird way to end what was a pretty entertaining show.