Every WWE King of the Ring PPV Ranked
Many wrestling fans are fond of WWE’s signature tournament, King of the Ring. The number of competitors may differ, but the result not only places the spotlight on the winner but often results in bigger opportunities in the promotion. Additionally, many KOTR winners have adopted a “King” gimmick in the aftermath, such as Booker T, Harley Race, Mabel, and Wade Barrett.
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Originally wrestled at house shows starting in 1985, in 1993, King of the Ring became its own pay-per-view event, often running a majority of the tournament in one night. WWE hasn’t made the tournament a consistent annual thing, but they’ve produced 11 devoted KOTR shows.
11 1995
The 1995 King of the Ring pay-per-view is considered by many fans to be WWE’s worst show, even for an overall weak year. The tournament itself suffers from a rotten bracket where all the stars got knocked out, leaving the final match to be decided between Savio Vega and Mabel. The latter would win, earning a singles push as King Mabel where he’d legitimately injure Diesel and The Undertaker before getting fired. The only notable non-tournament bout here is the “Kiss My Foot” match between Bret Hart and Jerry Lawler.
10 1999
The 1995 show has some neck-in-neck competition, however, thanks to King of the Ring 1999. While Steve Austin battled Vince and Shane McMahon for ownership of WWE in the main event, the tournament itself had Billy Gunn attempting to break free of D-Generation X by... competing in a tournament featuring every non-Triple H member of DX. It doesn’t help that Billy Gunn’s singles push after winning KOTR was abortive at best. After a SummerSlam loss to The Rock, it wasn’t long before Gunn was back in the tag team division with Road Dogg.
9 2000
One year after the 1999 debacle, King of the Ring returned for a slightly better, but much stranger affair. There are strong competitors like Eddie Guerrero and Chris Jericho, but they both get knocked out of the quarterfinals while Crash Holly and Val Venis wrestle TWO matches over the course of the evening. Then there’s the main event, which is a six-man tag match for the WWE Championship, which is an extremely late-period WCW thing to do. At least the tournament started off Kurt Angle’s big push.
8 2015
After 2002, WWE kept the KOTR tournament a sporadic, TV-exclusive affair, but brought back King of the Ring as a special on the WWE Network, making it something between a PPV and a TV show. Relatively short and forgettable, this 2015 show would present only the semi-finals and finals, with even the final match lasting only seven minutes.
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The last two competitors in this King of the Ring would be Neville and Bad News Barrett, with Barrett coming out on top and rechristening himself King Barrett. This would be a needless addition to a pretty strong gimmick and also fall by the wayside once he was thrown into the League of Nations stable.
7 2002
The 2002 King of the Ring PPV starts off pretty strong thanks to a tournament bout between Chris Jericho and Rob Van Dam, but the rest of the show fails to live up to its opener. The finals come down to Brock Lesnar obliterating RVD in five minutes, and the main event is an endless match between The Undertaker and Triple H. On the bright side, this is the show where Kurt Angle does the impossible and makes Hulk Hogan tap out.
6 1997
Neither WWE’s strongest or weakest effort, King of the Ring 1997 is a pretty mixed bag of throwaway bouts and some standout material. The finals of the tournament come down to Mankind and Triple H, and the result ends up kicking off Triple H’s road to forming D-Generation X. There’s also a really fun singles match between Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels to decide the leader of their tag team that ends in a Double DQ because they can’t stop attacking referees.
5 1994
The second King of the Ring pay-per-view ever is a pretty strong effort, with a consistent lineup of tournament matches that include Razor Ramon vs. Bam Bam Bigelow and a great final between Owen Hart and 1-2-3 Kid. Hart came out on top, which perfectly tied in with his storyline at the time of proving he was better than his brother Bret. Outside of the tournament, horrid matches like the Roddy Piper vs. Jerry Lawler main event are canceled out by better efforts like Diesel defending the WWE Championship against the aforementioned Bret Hart.
4 2001
The 2001 edition of King of the Ring boasts a fun main event where Steve Austin defended the WWE Championship in a triple threat with Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho. This bout would feature interference from a debuting Booker T.
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While Kurt Angle had won KOTR the year before, he was actually the MVP of 2001’s show, wrestling all the way to the final match of the tournament. After THAT, he took on Shane McMahon in their classic Street Fight where Angle suplexed Shane through some plate glass windows.
3 1998
Easily the best KOTR of the Attitude Era, the 1998 show is best known for the classic Hell in a Cell match where The Undertaker threw Mankind off the top of the cage -- less so for the First Blood main event between Steve Austin and Kane. Justifiably overshadowed by Mick Foley being “broken in half” is the tournament final between Ken Shamrock and The Rock, which is a great match definitely worth revisiting.
2 1996
The Attitude Era had not yet started when the 1996 King of the Ring pay-per-view aired, but it did deliver a crucial moment. In the aftermath of the tournament itself, winner Steve Austin delivered his infamous “Austin 3:16” promo, kicking off a tremendous push that would make Stone Cold the top wrestler in the company. Other than that, there are some great matches on this card, including an Undertaker vs. Mankind bout and a great main event title match between Shawn Michaels and British Bulldog.
1 1993
The 1993 King of the Ring pay-per-view is the first one ever, but it still manages to be the best one. While the non-tournament matches aren’t much to write home about -- Yokozuna/Hogan, Michaels/Crush -- the actual tournament matches are the strongest ever. There’s a low-key classic in the card with Bret Hart vs. Mr. Perfect, with the finals coming down to Hart vs. Bam Bam Bigelow for a strong finish.
