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.

 

[MC74]

Stone Cold's KOTR victory marked a pivotal moment in history, so I'd have to go with that one at #1, with Brock Lesnar & Booker T coming at #2 & 3 respectively.

For the worst, it's Mabel hands down. The 1999 KOTR tournament had a disappointing end, but my reasoning behind picking Mabel is that he was the KOTR during one of the worst years in wrestling history, and also because the bracket for that year's tournament was incredibly lacklustre. Outside of Shawn Michaels and the Undertaker, there was virtually no competition.

 

[VashTheStampede]

Stone Cold is the clear #1 in my book.

When I think about KotR my first thought us the memory of Bret Hart winning the first one, so I gotta go Bret at 2.

Edge making his trophy a Stanley Cup knockoff was pretty great but it's no KING BOOKAHHHHH so I go Booker at 3 then Edge at 4.

Brock at 5.

Worst to me is Billy Gunn. Mabel at least ended up moving up the card a bit and got involved in that whole Undertaker storyline.

Billy Gunn was supposed to get launched to the main event but the Rock absolutely cut him off at the knees.

 

[Andy]

Agreeing with the points in here. Austin winning because of his post-victory promo. The birth of 3:16 and “that’s the bottom line” will always mean that’s number one for me.

As Vash said, The Rock absolutely obliterated Billy Gunn in a promo and I don’t think Billy ever really recovered.