Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
Superstation WTBS and professional wrestling….it went together like peanut butter and jelly. From Georgia Championship Wrestling to World Championship Wrestling (With a brief cameo from the World Wrestling Federation as well) wrestling has been a big part of TBS’ programming through the years. In 1992, TBS celebrated 20 years of pro wrestling on the super station. TBS executives in conjunction with WCW, decided to celebrate the anniversary the only way they knew possible…..with a wrestling tournament.
The King of Cable tournament was created to showcase WCW’s top wrestlers of that time. It was an eight man/ single elimination tournament with the winner being declared the reigning King of Cable. They would receive a trophy that would be displayed at the CNN Center in Atlanta, Georgia as a part of their studio tour. The eight wrestlers were supposedly randomly chosen by the editors of WCW magazine. Fifteen names were entered, but only eight were selected by picking out of a hat.
The eight wrestlers selected were as follows….Brian Pillman, Sting, Rick Rude, Dustin Rhodes, Tony Atlas, Big Van Vader, Jake Roberts and Barry Windham. The tourney got kicked off on WCW Saturday Night and continued on WCW programming on TBS including the Clash of Champions. The finals…oddly enough….would culminate….not on TBS…but on pay per view at Starrcade ’92. The King of Cable tournament was not without issues.
Rick Rude was working with nagging injuries that eventually had him miss his world title match against Ron Simmons at the pay per view. Jake Roberts, who was booked against against Dustin Rhodes…had a falling out with WCW management. He was removed from the tourney and replaced with an alternate in The Barbarian.
The finals were set with WCW’s most popular wrestler Sting facing off against WCW’s biggest heel at the time…Vader. Sting made it to the finals by defeating Brian Pillman and Rick Rude, while Vader defeated Tony Atlas and Dustin Rhodes to advance. The two squared off against each other at Starrcade ’92 in what was considered by many critics as a stiff, yet solid match.
In the end, by really no one’s surprise….Sting beat Vader and won the King of Cable trophy. The Stinger was WCW’s top star at that time and the backbone of their company. The tourney was a way to showcase Sting’s talent and give him a big push while Ron Simmons was the reigning WCW world champion. The King of Cable was a one shot deal and was never used again by the company in the years after.
