DEJ Experience District Ask the Experience Blog: Bette Davis eyes, Best ever King of The Ring and Havoc or KOTR?
May 18, 2008 - 3:04:23 PM
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By D,E,K & J, The DEJ Experience
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BigRoundWizard asks: Who was the best King of the Ring?
William E. Gunn? Big Daddy Man-Boobs? Hacksaw Jim DOOOOOOGAN?
Haku? Harley Race? Macho King? Ryan Shamrock's "Brother"
Eric responds: I'm not even going to try to be funny here (and fail miserably as usual, M I RITE?): Macho King Randy Savage is one of the best things to ever come down the pike. He was out of his mind, delusional, a little scary, was paired up brilliantly with Sensational Sherri, and managed to be a top heel attraction while Hulk Hogan was wrestling Earthquake, Ultimate Warrior was wrestling Rick Rude, and while Savage didn't even wrestle at Survivor Series 1990 or Royal Rumble 1991. How awesome is that? Well, maybe not so much for the paying customer, but hey, good for him. And come on, his crown said "MACHO" on it. That is rad.
Dusty responds: Eric already nailed it here by saying the Macho King, which is the absolute dead on right answer to this question. So, having taken that away from me, I will use this here space to tout the greatness of Harley Race. Even an old, broken down Moolah chasing Harley Race was better than 90 percent of the talent roster they have right now. SOMEBODY TAKE THE DAMN MONEY!
Kevin responds: I'd have to go with Ryan Shamrock's "Brother" if for no other reason than the fact that she got brought into the WWE at the time. We even got her to flash her Scooby Doo panties on that awful show that aired after Raw that was hosted by one Zappa brothers. As for Kenneth, he was a good enough wrestler that was pretty limited in the promo department. I still think one of the better matches I ever watched was when he wrestled Jeff Jarrett in a straight jacket and he looked credible with his offense.
Jeremy responds: I’ll take the unpopular choice here and go with “The Ass Man” William E. Gunn. See, William was given every single chance possible to become a major singles star. He had already been part of an incredibly popular tag-team and naturally, it seemed he would be the logical breakout star. So they gave him the King Of The Ring victory in the hopes it would finally sky rocket him to the main event. This was his final chance and he failed miserably after this. You see what I am getting at? This was his final chance to run with the proverbial ball and he not only fumbled it, he picked it up and then fumbled it again and then, after picking it up again, he handed it off to the opposing team and blocked their way to the endzone.
We, the fans, were finally rid of the albatross known as Billy Gunn or William E. Gunn. Sure it stinks he had to win the KOTR moniker but it lead to the correct and joyous conclusion. Yes he may be the worst KOTR ever in some people eyes but in these blue/green/grey/whatever colored eyes he was perfect.
BigRoundWizard asks: Which is better, Halloween Havoc '95 or King of the Ring '95? How can you go wrong with a Monster-Truck Sumo Match or Savio Vega vs. Mabel?
Dusty responds: Eric already knows what I'm going to say here, but that's fine, I'll say it anyway. I always kind of liked King of the Ring '95. Well, maybe liked is too strong a word to attach to it, but I seem to have liked it much more than most people. I thought the booking was solid, and I definitely understand what they were trying to do. Shawn Michaels didn't need that win. Undertaker didn't need that win. Yokozuna didn't need that win. All three of those guys were already established top tier talent by that point. They could have credible main event matches against other top talent without having to be the king. So use them to put other people over. No way should Roadie or Bob Holly have won this tournament. So that leaves us with Kama, newbie Savio Vega and Mabel as the three people who should have been under consideration to win the tourney. With Diesel being the World Champion at the time, it was the absolute right thing to do to have a heel win the tournament to set up a new top contender for his belt. That, along with the fact that Savio was so new and just being established in his new character, eliminates him from consideration also. So we're down to Kama or Mabel. One could make a solid argument (and I believe Eric has in the past) that Kama should have been the one to win. And that's fine. He's a better worker, and already had something going with Undertaker, so it would have been a natural progression to move him along to the other top big man babyface in the company. Note also that his manager (Ted DiBiase) was a better interview than Mo, too.
Eric responds: I'll tell you one thing that's not better: a Dr Pepper from Dairy Queen. Yecch. Maybe it was just the fountain at the DQ down my block, but it tasted like a household cleaner. Anyway, Halloween Havoc 1995 was an exponentially better PPV than King of the Ring 1995, and for all the wrong reasons. Let me get this out of the way: There was not one positive thing about the booking and presentation of KOTR 1995. The only redeeming part of that show was the Philadelphia crowd, who started an audible "E-C-Dub" chant during the Mabel vs. Savio Vega tournament final, and then threw garbage at Mabel while Mo proclaimed him king. Halloween Havoc, on the other hand, included a match between Randy Savage and Lex Luger that only lasted 5 minutes (genius), a Johnny B. Badd vs. Diamond Dallas Page match (always surprisingly good), and one of a thousand never-gets-old angles where the Four Horsemen made Sting look like a dope. And for all the grief that it receives, at least the Sumo Monster Truck angle had me on my phone to all of my friends, which is more than King Mabel can say. Now, sure, both Randy Savage and Lex Luger wrestled one more match on this show, yet Dean Malenko, Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit and Steven Regal were relegated to dark matches, and sure, this show featured the debut of the Hogan-humping Yeti, but at least this show was so bad it was funny; KOTR 1995 was so bad, I'm about to make a special trip to the garage.
Kevin responds: I wasn't watching wrestling at the time so I have no idea which one was better. I was holed up in Taylor Hall working on models for architecture class. The best wrestling match I saw that year was between an oven toasted hoagie and myself. I hadn't slept for about 70 hours when the hoagie started talking trash to me so I attacked it with a spork. The hoagie got the win via disqualification because of use of a foreign object. I may have lost the match, but I won the war since the hoagie ended up in my belly.
Jeremy responds: I am in the same boat with Kevin on this as I had yet to get back in to wrestling. I was on the fringe, if you want to call it that, and did catch Raw here and there and could not believe it when I saw that Mable, the giant fat guy from Men On A Mission, had won the KOTR tournament. I have now done my homework and read the results of both shows so I can compare the two though. I do remember catching this Halloween havoc since we had, um, means of seeing all PPV’s free at our apartment. So here we have one card with a kiss my foot match, while the other had a monster truck showdown. This is much harder to choose than I anticipated. You also have The Yeti, Sting the rube and the Zodiac while on the other hand you get King Mable, Tatanka in a main event match and an audible ECW chant from the crowd. I hate to sit on the fence but this is basically a wash. How can you choose between two such stellar PPV’s and not feel like you are slighting the other?
SteveMHW asks: Is there any truth to the rumor that Captain Evers has Bette Davis eyes?
Dusty responds: Yes
Eric responds: Yes, and it's also true that he's as pure as New York snow, he's precocious, and he knows just how to make a pro blush. That might be the worst rhyme in popular music history.
Kevin responds: Not a lick of truth to it. They're more like James Dean's eyes. He even has that cool swagger about him that just screams rebel.
Jeremy responds: It was hard to tell. We spent most of the time in dark places where eye contact was not appropriate. On top of that, I was too busy staring in to the bottom of empty shot and beer glasses to pay that much attention. On a side note, don’t offer to buy rounds of shots in a tourist town without paying cash first. What a f***ing mistake. This makes two years in a row that has happened. I’m stupid.
Ask the Experience was brought to you by the letters D, E, J and K, is a production of the Experience Workshop. You got a question that has been weighing on your heart and soul? Well, send it to us and we’ll answer it. To submit a question, post it in the "Official Ask the Experience Thread" in the PWTorch.com VIP Forum, or e-mail us at theaudioexperience@gmail.com.
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