Best/Worst King of the Ring Winners

[Dead2009]

With the King of the Ring Tournament starting back up, lets look at the best and worst of the winners the tournament has produced. Note I am only including the ones that started on PPV up until now.

1993: Bret "Hitman" Hart
1994: Owen Hart
1995: Mabel
1996: Stone Cold Steve Austin
1997: Hunter Hearst Helmsley
1998: Ken Shamrock
1999: Billy Gunn
2000: Kurt Angle
2001: Edge
2002: Brock Lesnar
2006: Booker T.
2010: Sheamus
2015: Bad News Barrett
2019: Baron Corbin
2021: Xavier Woods

My picks for best winner....Brock and Booker T. Both ended up with world championships being won while the worst ones are Billy Gunn and Baron Corbin. That did nothing for either man.

[Majingir]

Re: Best/Worst King of the Ring Winners

With the King of the Ring Tournament starting back up, lets look at the best and worst of the winners the tournament has produced. Note I am only including the ones that started on PPV up until now.



1993: Bret "Hitman" Hart

1994: Owen Hart

1995: Mabel

1996: Stone Cold Steve Austin

1997: Hunter Hearst Helmsley

1998: Ken Shamrock

1999: Billy Gunn

2000: Kurt Angle

2001: Edge

2002: Brock Lesnar

2006: Booker T.

2010: Sheamus

2015: Bad News Barrett

2019: Baron Corbin

2021: Xavier Woods



My picks for best winner....Brock and Booker T. Both ended up with world championships being won while the worst ones are Billy Gunn and Baron Corbin. That did nothing for either man.

Best I'd say Lesnar or Austin.

This obviously launched Austin/Austin 3:16, and Lesnar was the winner during the short lived "winner gets a SS title shot" days, where he'd get the shot and beat Rock as he left for Hollywood and ended his full time run.

Worst I'd say Mabel and Corbin.

[SmashMan]

Re: Best/Worst King of the Ring Winners

Best can go two ways. In terms of launching someone up the card? Austin, no question. In terms of just taking the tournament and making a good King gimmick out of it? Booker.

Billy Gunn is by far the worst

[Majingir]

Re: Best/Worst King of the Ring Winners

Best can go two ways. In terms of launching someone up the card? Austin, no question. In terms of just taking the tournament and making a good King gimmick out of it? Booker.



Billy Gunn is by far the worst

At least Billy winning led to this

https://youtu.be/_KX5UxHB7Xg?feature=shared

[reyes the roof]

Re: Best/Worst King of the Ring Winners

I thought Owen made a good king

[dubcity]

Re: Best/Worst King of the Ring Winners

To me King of the Ring was only relevant for the first 5 years or so of its existence as a PPV. At some point it felt like it was just a yearly excuse to throw a silly gimmick on someone who they weren't sure what to do with. Booker T at least had the good sense to lean in to the stupidity of it lol.

Best was probably Owen Hart, because it added to his story with Bret. And it was proceeded by that amazing title match in the cage at Summerslam. It was a main event storyline.

Austin had the single best moment, but honestly he didn't need that tournament to validate how great he was by then. And he really didn't move up the card until months later. But it was a career defining moment for sure.

Worst... idk, I always thought Regal's run as King was pretty lame. It made his character extremely dull. He was this monotone heel GM figure, which was a waste considering how entertaining he could be. So the gimmick was actually a net negative. The tournament itself had some great matches though, looking back. Especially considering it was just a random Raw.

Oh, and Corbin sucked obviously.