The 1988 King of the Ring was the fourth annual King of the Ring professional wrestling tournament produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE). The tournament was held on October 16, 1988 at the Providence Civic Center in Providence, Rhode Island as a special non-televised house show. The 1988 tournament was won by Ted DiBiase. In addition to the tournament, there was only one other match during the night. In this match Jim Duggan defeated Dino Bravo (with Frenchy Martin) in a flag match. Duggan pinned Bravo when Martin accidentally hit Bravo with the flag.
| King of the Ring | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Promotion | World Wrestling Federation | ||
| Date | October 16, 1988 | ||
| City | Providence, Rhode Island | ||
| Venue | Providence Civic Center | ||
| Attendance | 6,700[1] | ||
| King of the Ring tournament chronology | |||
| |||
Production
editBackground
editThe King of the Ring tournament was an annual single-elimination tournament that was established by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) in 1985 with the winner being crowned the "King of the Ring." The 1988 tournament was the fourth King of the Ring tournament. It was held on October 16, 1988 at the Providence Civic Center in Providence, Rhode Island and like the previous years, it was a special non-televised house show.[2]
Storylines
editThe matches resulted from scripted storylines, where wrestlers portrayed heroes, villains, or less distinguishable characters in scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches. Results were predetermined by World Wrestling Federation's writers.[3]
Results
editTournament bracket
edit| First Round | Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Final | ||||||||||||||||
| Ken Patera | Pin | ||||||||||||||||||
| Nikolai Volkoff | 10:20 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Ken Patera | Pin | ||||||||||||||||||
| Ted DiBiase | 5:42 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Brutus Beefcake | Pin | ||||||||||||||||||
| Ted DiBiase | 7:32 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Ted DiBiase | Forfeit | ||||||||||||||||||
| Ron Bass | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||
| The Barbarian | DQ | ||||||||||||||||||
| Ron Bass | 7:02 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Ron Bass | Pin | ||||||||||||||||||
| Shawn Michaels | 7:39 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Dangerous Danny Davis | Pin | ||||||||||||||||||
| Shawn Michaels | 3:37 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Ted DiBiase | CO | ||||||||||||||||||
| Randy Savage | 6:11 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Bad News Brown | DCO | ||||||||||||||||||
| Hercules | 6:05 | ||||||||||||||||||
| BYE | |||||||||||||||||||
| Randy Savage | |||||||||||||||||||
| Randy Savage | Pin | ||||||||||||||||||
| Virgil | 5:43 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Randy Savage | Pin | ||||||||||||||||||
| The Red Rooster | 7:21 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Marty Jannetty | Pin | ||||||||||||||||||
| The Red Rooster | 11:00 | ||||||||||||||||||
| The Red Rooster | Sub | ||||||||||||||||||
| Iron Mike Sharpe | 3:27 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Mike Sharpe1 | Pin | ||||||||||||||||||
| Boris Zhukov | 6:27 | ||||||||||||||||||
1. ^ Mike Sharpe substituted for The Warlord.
2. ^ DiBiase paid Bass off to fake an injury.[6]
References
edit- ^ a b c WWF King Of The Ring 1988
- ^ Beaston, Erik (August 18, 2019). "WWE King of the Ring: Everything You Need to Know About Historical Tournament". Bleacher Report. Retrieved April 9, 2021.
- ^ Grabianowski, Ed (2006-01-13). "How Pro Wrestling Works". HowStuffWorks. Discovery Communications. Archived from the original on March 6, 2012. Retrieved March 5, 2012.
- ^ "King of the Ring 88 - Providence, RI - Civic Center - October 16, 1988 (6,700)". The History of WWE. Retrieved October 8, 2019.
- ^ "WWF King of the Ring '88 at Providence Civic Center wrestling results - Internet Wrestling Database". www.profightdb.com. Retrieved 2019-10-08.
- ^ Ted DiBiase: The Million Dollar Man, p.162, Ted DiBiase with Tom Caiazzo, Pocket Books, New York, 2008, ISBN 978-1-4165-5890-3