King Of The Ring 1996

[8.0] "The storytelling in the final 3 matches amongst the 4 guys to me is why I rate it so highly. Austin was the dark horse, Mero was the rising star, Vader was the killer, and Jake was the aging veteran looking for that one more big moment in the sun. The high spot in the Mero / Austin match where Steve got kicked in the mouth was the finish of the mero vs owen quarter final on RAW. Vader injured Jake's ribs in their match and got DQ'd, so he'd look like a killer and Jake would go in to the final as even more of an underdog. Then of course Austin went over Jake in the finals with the stunner to win the whole thing. And to me, this tournament pretty much help define who "Stone Cold" Steve Austin the character was. The stunner was created in the Davio match, he dropped some of his most famous signature lines in the speech afterwards, and the way he trash talked Jake with that Texas style trash talk is more or less the promo.style he'd use going forward. A star was definitely born here."

[7.0] "Probably the most famous King of the Ring Tournament. The winner Steve Austin cut a great promo after winning the which put him over huge and the tournament pretty much accomplished it's goal. The best match was easily Austin vs. Mero and the rest of matches are just kinda there for the tournament to progress but all in all it made for a fun tournament."

[7.0] "Very rememberable tournament but not that good like some people think. There are no really good matches expect from Mero Vs Austin. However I can give it seven points for Austin 3:16."