King Of The Ring: A Royal History

Few staples of professional wrestling have as much of a prestigious history as the King of the Ring. An iconic tournament like no other, the event has been the making of many notable moments, matches, and superstars. Let us now reflect on the history of this sacred crown jewel of wrestling, looking at the regal records and monarchial memory of the tournament. 

The House Show Era (1985-1991) 

The first several King of the Ring tournaments took place at live events. The first two events, in 1985 and 1986, took place in Foxborough, Massachusetts whilst the rest occurred in Providence, Rhode Island. 

These early encounters were rather low-key affairs, as evidenced by enhancement talent The Duke of Dorchester’s 30-second squash loss in the 1991 tournament and 1988’s tournament final ending in a count-out. 

The first tournament was won by Don Muraco in 1985, who defeated fellow heel The Iron Sheik. 

Although the tournament was not widely acknowledged on WWF programming, Harley Race did utilise his 1986 win to create the on-screen character of King Harley Race. Subsequent kings Haku, Jim Duggan, and Randy Savage were crowned on WWF TV but not as a result of winning the tournament (although Randy Savage did win the tournament in 1987).

Pay-Per-View Era (1993-2002) 

King of the Ring debuted as the fifth of the colloquially titled “Big Five” WWF PPV events in 1993. The PPV ran annually up until 2002. 

The first televised event was won by Bret “The Hitman” Hart in his second consecutive tournament victory, making him the only man to win the tournament twice. 

During this time, the mammoth competition was used to elevate up-and-coming superstars the company had high hopes for up the card. The tournament served as an easy vehicle for dream matches, storytelling, and career-defining performances. 

It is notable, however, that only 1993 saw the namesake PPV actually main-evented by the KOTR finals, due to the budding status of the stars in the match and the fact the booking tool was most often used to push heels, with a triumphant villain unlikely to close the show. 

During its tenure, its PPV buyrate ranged between 150,000 during the dark years of the mid-1990s and 475,000 during the boom year of 2000. The event has sometimes been competitive with more established PPV events, beating Survivor Series in 1993 and 2000 and even outselling perennial number two supercard SummerSlam in 1996. 

Others (2006-2021)

Since 2006, the King of the Ring tournament has been far rarer and more staggered, taking place in 2006, 2008, 2010, 2015, 2019, and 2021.  

In 2006 and 2021, the tournament held its final on a separate PPV event whilst qualifying stage matches took place on TV. In 2006, it was exclusive to the SmackDown brand, whilst 2021 featured wrestlers from both SmackDown and Raw. 

In 2008, 2010, and 2019, the tournament was held on Raw. In 2008 and 2010, the whole tournament was held on a single edition of Raw; in 2019, it was held over a month of weekly programming.  

In 2015, after five years without a tournament—the longest King of the Ring-less draught in its history—the tournament returned as a one-off WWE Network special. 

Every Winner & Who They Beat 

1985: Don Muraco (def. Iron Sheik)—House Show 

1986: Harley Race (def. Pedro Morales)—House Show 

1987: Randy Savage (def. King Kong Bundy)—House Show 

1988: Ted DiBiase (def. Randy Savage)—House Show 

1989: Tito Santana (def. Rick Martel)—House Show 

1991: Bret Hart (def. Irwin R. Schyster)—House Show 

1993: Bret Hart (def. Bam Bam Bigelow)—King Of The Ring 1993 

1994: Owen Hart (def. Razor Ramon)—King Of The Ring 1994 

1995: Mabel (def. Savio Vega)—King Of The Ring 1995 

1996: Steve Austin (def. Jake Roberts)—King Of The Ring 1996 

1997: Hunter Hearst Helmsley (def. Mankind)—King Of The Ring 1997 

1998: Ken Shamrock (def. The Rock)—King Of The Ring 1998 

1999: Billy Gunn (def. X-Pac)—King Of The Ring 1999 

2000: Kurt Angle (def. Rikishi)—King Of The Ring 2000 

2001: Edge (def. Kurt Angle)—King Of The Ring 2001 

2002: Brock Lesnar (def. Rob Van Dam)—King Of The Ring 2002 

2006: Booker T (def. Bobby Lashley)—Judgement Day 

2008: William Regal (def. CM Punk)—Raw 

2010: Sheamus (def. John Morrison)—Raw 

2015: Bad News Barrett (def. Neville)—WWE Network Special 

2019: Baron Corbin (def. Chad Gable)—Raw 

2021: Xavier Woods (def. Finn Balor)—Crown Jewel 

Queen’s Crown Tournament

2021 witnessed the first all-female version of the King of the Ring tournament, named the Queen’s Crown. 

The long-awaited prospect was contested on weekly TV, with the final held at Crown Jewel, won by Zelina Vega.  

However, the women’s iteration was far from perfect and came under criticism for its match lengths. The final, lasting 5:55, was more than double the length of the longest tournament match to that point. The quarter-finals and semi-finals had six matches, two of which were under two minutes, with all six matches having an average run time of 2 minutes 15 seconds. 

By contrast, all King of the Ring matches on the male side lasted over eight minutes. Forbes noted that the AEW TBS title tournament had three times as much action too. Cageside Seats described it as “highlighting the sad state of WWE’s Women’s Evolution” whilst TheSportster commented that it may be the worst tournament in WWE history. 

It also took place in Saudi Arabia, a country with a rather fundamentalist attitude toward women, meaning that performing female wrestlers cannot show ‘promiscuous’ skin under the nation’s Draconian laws. 

The Best King Of The Ring Winners 

The King of the Ring has produced a swathe of worthy winners, with some using the trajectory of the win to shoot to the main event whilst still incorporating the kingship into their gimmick such as “King of Harts” Owen Hart and King Booker. The latter reflected on his win: “I really want[ed] to make this special because I want people to remember one hundred years from now when they think about the King of the Ring tournament, the first king they think about is Booker T, the most royal king of them all, the most majestic king of them all.” 

Even those who ditched the crown-donning character would see immense success in their future, with Brock Lesnar, Kurt Angle, and Steve Austin citable examples of this phenomenon. All three are some of the most acclaimed, decorated, and well-known performers in the history of the industry, catapulted into stardom by prevailing in the kingly contest. 

In regards to Steve Austin’s win and famous Austin 3:16 promo afterwards, Jim Ross explained: “It was so monumental on so many fronts, but Austin was anointed at that point in time. You heard the crowd respond when he said he was gonna be the next champion…it was pivotal in the growth of the brand leading into the Attitude Era, and I would dare say, the company going public as well.” 

As such, we can see the King of the Ring has become one of the most pivotal and successful devices in professional wrestling, even if it has had a few misfires throughout its tenure. 

The Worst King Of The Ring Winners 

Edge has reflected on his anxiety and doubts over his 2001 King of the Ring triumph, reflecting in the book WWE 50: “I knew it was a big stepping stone and a bit of a test. I knew “Stone Cold” and Bret and those guys had won it but I also knew it didn’t work for some guys, like Mabel and Billy Gunn.” Indeed, after Edge won, he subsequently held host to an on-screen burial of “Billy Bitchcakes”, proclaiming he would not “Billy Gunn” his momentum post-victory.  

After his 1999 victory and failed solo push, Gunn found himself trapped in the mid-card, soon conceding defeat and returning to D-Generation-X. He did have a feud with The Rock, dragging him down into the mid-card in an angle The Rock hated, seeing it as a demotion, although this ended with “Mr. Ass” having his face shoved into a fat woman’s posterior.  

Universally thought to be the worst winner was Mabel. Although he was able to give The Undertaker his first pinfall loss in three years, the Men On A Mission member won in a laughably poor bracket, defeating the newcomer Savio Vega in the finals. The fans clearly thought it was crap too, with the live crowd chanting for ECW and pelting the WWF’s sovereign with a wad of paper as he sat on the throne. The PPV sold just 150,000 copies, the then-lowest PPV buys in WWF history. 

Mabel would be shoved undeservingly into the main event scene, where he stank up SummerSlam with WWF champion Diesel before taking Undertaker out of action with an orbital injury. After shelving ‘Taker’s friend Henry O. Godwinn, Mabel was out of the door just six months after winning the prestigious tournament. Prolific wrestling writer James Dixon called Mabel “the one lame duck amidst a lake of regal swans.”    

King Of The Ring: By The Numbers 

The following are the statistics of King of the Ring across its multi-decade history. 

1 – Only one wrestler, Bret Hart, has won the tournament twice, which he did in 1991 and 1993. 

2 – Two men have nearly won the tournament twice. Both consecutively, Randy Savage and Kurt Angle were finalists trying to retain the crown in 1988 and 2001 respectively. 

3:16 – The famous line Steve Austin delivered after winning the 1996 King of the Ring. Mocking the born-again Christian Jake Roberts, he remarked: “talk about your psalms, talk about John 3:16. Austin 3:16 says ‘I just whipped your ass!’” 

5 – The longest period of years without a KOTR tournament. 

6 – In all, only six KOTR winners were babyfaces (‘good guys’) although only four made it to TV; these are Tito Santana, Bret Hart (twice), Ken Shamrock, Edge, and Xavier Woods.  

7 – The wrestler with the most appearances in the ceremonial contest is Bob Holly, who appeared under the guises of Thurman Plugg, Bob Holly, and Hardcore Holly. He was a part of the brackets in 1994, 1995, 1996, 1999, 2000, 2001, and 2002. 

8 – Eight KOTR winners have a 100% win record. These competitors are Harley Race, Bret Hart, Steve Austin, Billy Gunn, Bad News Barrett, Brock Lesnar, Baron Corbin, and Xavier Woods. 

9  – The wrestler with the most tournament victories is Kurt Angle, who has won nine such tournament matches, winning five in 2000—due to the enlarged bracket—three in 2001, and one in 2006. 

22 – In all, there have been 22 winners from 1985 to 2021. 

32 – The most men to ever compete in a KOTR tournament was in 2000 when the tournament was a stacked—some might say bloated—32-man affair (rather bizarrely, despite featuring workhorses such as Chris Jericho, Eddie Guerrero, and Chris Benoit, three of the final four were made up of Crash Holly, Val Venis, and Rikishi). 

47 – The number of minutes Bret Hart wrestled in one night in 1993 to win the tournament, the longest single-night effort in the televised history of the event. He defeated Razor Ramon, Mr Perfect, and Bam Bam Bigelow throughout the course of the night, putting in an astonishing feat of resilience.  

53 – Percentage of televised winners who went on to become world champions in WWE. 

1985 – The first year the tournament was contested, where it would be won by Don Muraco. 

1993 – The first televised event. 

2002 – The final PPV version of the event to date. 

2019 – The first women’s equivalent event (although Chyna competed in the 2000 edition) 

150,000 – Lowest buyrate, occurring in 1995. 

475,000 – Highest buyrate, occurring in 2000. 

(Some data courtesy of Rich Kraetsch, Voices of Wrestling)