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Better Late Then Never

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

(06.23.96)Live from Milwaukee, WIAttendance: 8,762Your hosts are Vince McMahon, Jim Ross & Owen HartKing of the Ring: Semi-Finals"Stone Cold" Steve Austin Vs Marc MeroAustin advances to the finals with a stunner. This is such an underrated match! Why is this not mentioned more often? These two just clicked right from the outset. Mero's high-flying style meshed very well with Austin's. You could tell this night was gonna be special for Austin with the way he moved, his mannerisms, etc. I'm gonna give this fantastic match four stars.****King of the Ring: Semi-FinalsVader (W/Jim Cornette) Vs Jake "The Snake" RobertsJake nails Vader with the DDT, but Vader grabs the referee on the way down. As a result, Jake wins by DQ. Vader injures Jake's ribs after the match. Weak finish aside, the aftermath was really effective. It gives Jake a Cinderella run to the finals and maintains Vader's status as a monster. *1/4Tag Team ChampionshipThe Smoking Gunns (C) (W/Sunny) Vs The Godwinns (W/Hillbilly Jim)The Gunns win after Bart nails Phineas from behind with his boot. This match is too inconsistently paced for my liking. Some times it was exciting, others it teetered on boredom. It didn't help that I had no interest in it to begin with.**Jerry Lawler delivers some epic insults to some of the fans in Milwaukee before the match. Jerry "The King" Lawler Vs The Ultimate WarriorWarrior wins with a flying shoulder tackle. This was complete crap. Warrior got his ass kicked for most of the match! All Warrior did was no-sell a piledriver from Lawler and hit a shoulder tackle, and that was it. Warrior's comeback run in 96 was very lame, even if the fans loved him.*Mankind Vs The Undertaker (W/Paul Bearer)Mankind wins with the mandible claw after Paul Bearer accidentally nails Taker with the urn. Even though it wasn't promoted as such, this was a no-holds barred brawl. There were a lot of hardcore elements at play here and I felt it suited both of them. This may not be on the level of their match at King of the Ring, but it's pretty good. Mankind winning was a shocker.***1/4Intercontinental ChampionshipGoldust (W/Marlena) Vs Ahmed JohnsonAhmed wins the title after a Pearl River Plunge. This was a pretty boring match for the most part. It's filled with too many rest holds and redundant psychology from Goldust. I loved the Goldust character back then, but he overdid it at times. *1/2Brian Pillman delivers a wonderfully eccentric promo about his arrival in the WWF. He was quite chilling to watch and said stuff you wouldn't see on TV today.In a cool moment, Austin and Pillman sharing a knowing exchange on Austin's way to the ring. For those that don't know, they were a tag team in WCW called The Hollywood Blondes. King of the Ring: Finals"Stone Cold" Steve Austin Vs Jake "The Snake" RobertsGorilla Monsoon tries to stop the match, but Jake says no. Austin becomes King of the Ring with a stunner. The match was short, but it had wonderful psychology. Austin was pugnacious, unrelentingly attacking the ribs of Roberts. Roberts had the heart of the lion for his fighting spirit. If you don't know about Austin's legendary, Austin 3:16 promo, be ashamed of yourself. In any case, here it is. "The first thing I want to be done is to get that piece of crap out of my ring. Don't just get him out of the ring, get him out of the WWF, because I've proved, son, without a shadow of a doubt, you ain't got what it takes anymore. You sit there, and you thump your bible, and you say your prayers, and it didn't get you anywhere. Talk about your psalms, talk about John 3:16-Austin 3:16 says I just whooped your ass! All he's gotta do is go buy him a cheap bottle of thunderbird, and try to take back some of that courage that he had in his prime. As the King of the Ring, I'm serving notice to everyone of the WWF superstars, I don't give a damn what they are, they're all on the list, and that's Stone Cold's list, and I'm fixing to start running through all of them. As far as this championship match is concerned, I don't care if it's Davey Boy Smith or Shawn Michaels. Steve Austin's time has come, and when I get that shot you're looking at the next WWF Champion. And that's the bottom line, because Stone Cold said so"Thoughts: It's one of the greatest promos ever, plain and simple. WWF ChampionshipShawn Michaels (C) (W/Jose Lothario) Vs The British Bulldog (W/Jim Cornette & Diana Hart Smith)Mr. Perfect is the guest referee. Shawn wins after a superkick. This was better than their previous match at the In Your House PPV. Everything flowed better and there was more excitement. They started off a little slow, but this match delivered. ***1/2Shawn Michaels tries to fend off a 2 on 1 assault by The Bulldog and Owen Hart. Ahmed Johnson runs down to even the odds but Vader runs down and makes it 3 on 2. The Ultimate Warrior runs down to even it at 3 a piece as the faces celebrate to end the show.Thoughts: This was SUPPOSED to be Shawn Michaels, Ahmed Johnson & The Ultimate Warrior Vs Vader, Owen Hart & The British Bulldog at In Your House: International Incident, but Warrior was too undependable and Sycho Sid replaced him.8/10 ranking overall

Wrestling sucks today.If you like good wrestling watch this event.I thought this was in the top two events of the year.Stone cold and Marc mero had a great match. Taker and mankind had a good match and saw usage of a chair. It was a solid ppv and Michaels and bulldog had a great match as well but the sweet chin music was botched at the end and looked fake (if you see previews of k.o.r. on another wwf source it'll show you a different camera angle other than the one on the event)hahaha But doesn't matter the match made up 4 it.Other mentions Lawlers match with Warrior was dumb in retrospect because Lawler just choked warrior the whole match with his wrist tape and the ref didn't even call for a disqualification even after seemingly forever.The gunns vs. godwinns was good for a wwf tag match.Vader beat up Jake but too bad the ref called a disqualification because Austin and vader woulda been better but heel vs heel was unheard of at the time. Ahmeds match with goldust was boring i still haven't watched the whole match there's a lot of sleepers pardon the pun. Austins 316 phrase is born after he stone cold stunner's Jake the snake. good ppv.

Here are the matches . . .Semi final match - 'Wildman' Marc Mero v 'Stone cold' Steve Austin: A technical start turns into a fast pace as Mero gets the hurricanrana. They slow things down with arm wringers and I think Austin gets overzealous with his Lou Thesz press. Highlights include Mero's timed butt shot from the turnbuckle into Austin, a Mero somersault plunge to the outside followed by a dive through the ropes and a power bomb by Austin that ends up a stun gun on the ropes. It's the first time on PPV Austin hit's the Stone Cold Stunner for the pin-fall. Austin's mouth bleeds about three quarters of the way through the match. 7/10 Jake 'the Snake' Roberts v Vader: I never liked the idea of Roberts finding God as Roberts always danced with the devil even as a face. This match isn't much as most of it is Roberts bouncing off Vader in one way or another. Roberts lands the DDT but Vader grabs the ref getting disqualified. After the match, Vader gives Roberts one heck of a beating and has to go and get his ribs taped up. Not much wrestling-wise but it furthers the story that 41 year old Roberts (we will never be allowed to forget his age during the PPV) is an underdog and Vader is a complete monster. 2/10 Godwins v Smokin' Gunns for the tag titles: The only person of interest here is Sunny who probably never looked better. The Godwins come out with 'Hillbilly' Jim carrying goat kids (even though they are pig farmers). Most of the match is taken up by a beat down on Henry that seems to last forever. Eventually he makes the tag and, about half a minute later, comes out full of life to do a double-team Irish whip move showing poor ring psychology. In fact, after watching all that with Henry it is Phinneas who gets pinned via Bart's boot and the Gunns retain the titles. Watch in fast forward if need be. 4/10 Ultimate Warrior v Jerry 'The King' Lawler: Lawler spends more time insulting the fans as he walks to the ring than he does wrestling though he does have some great lines: "Is that your head or did your neck throw up?" "It's girls like you that turn me into people like Goldust." The fun stops when the wrestling gets underway as most of the match is spent watching the Warrior get choked out. Warrior no-sells Lawler's pile-driver and hits him with clotheslines and a shoulder-block for the pin - not even a gorilla press slam or a splash in sight. Both wrestlers' work-rate at this time was none existent and the Warrior would leave the WWF for good after this PPV. 1/10 Undertaker v Mankind: This is the PPV debut of the famous Mankind v Undertaker feud and it's a nice little taster of things to come. The match actually starts with Undertaker on the turnbuckle and lays the boom on Mankind from the start. The best parts of the match happen outside of the ring with moves involving Mankind whacking Undertaker's face while propped against the steel steps and Undertaker's stiff chair-shot to Mankind's head. The match ends when manager Paul Bearer accidentally hits Undertaker over the head with the urn allowing Mankind to slap on the mandible claw. 6/10 Ahmed Johnson and Goldust for the Intercontinental title: Ahmed looks strong as he smacks Goldust across the steps and then removes them to drop them on his back. Marlena looks absolutely bored with everything that is going on around her. Goldust works on Ahmed's back and then attempts to give him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation which makes Ahmed go crazy giving the spine buster and Pearl River Plunge to Goldust before the pin to become new Intercontinental champion. 5/10 Final - Jake 'The Snake' Roberts v 'Stone cold' Steve Austin: Austin goes after Jake's ribs like an animal and Jake sells his injuries in a very convincing way. Austin starts tearing open Jake's bandages and president Gorilla Monsoon comes down the ring to ask Jake if he wants to go on. Jake does but falls foul to the Stunner. Austin is King of the Ring 1996. 1/10Austin's famous interview at the end was good but not as ground-breaking as everybody makes it out to be. He says; "Talk about your Psalms, talk about your John 3:16, Austin 3:16 says I just kicked your ass." If he were the first to swear on WWF TV (Warrior used the same term just before King of the Ring which is played back on the PPV) and used that line to conclude his interview he would have made the whole thing more effective. Regardless, for the first time Austin ended with "and that's the bottom line 'cause Stone Cold said so".Shawn Michaels v British Bulldog for the World title (guest referee - Mr Perfect): Monsoon is well used in this PPV as he appears again to state that Mr Perfect is the outside referee as Earl Hebner is the inside referee. A great fast-paced match full of spots and nice reversals including a Michaels hurricanranna on the outside, Bulldog gorilla pressing Michaels to the outside, Michaels twirling crucifix for a 2 count, a Bulldog surfboard turning into a pin attempt and Michaels reversing a belly-to-back suplex for a cross body pinning position. The highlight is a Bulldog superplex which he actually lets go of! A great match that ends with Michaels hitting a poorly executed Sweet Chin Music for the pin. Brilliant action all the way through. 8/10 This event is pretty good mostly with a strong storyline running through it. It will be forever known for making 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin.

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.