HHH was supposed to win the King of the Ring in 1996. To quote Tyson Kidd, FACT. As to why this didnt happen? Well, a little incident often referred to as the Madison Square Garden Curtain Call happened. At that point in 96, Hunter was a member of the backstage group known as The Kliq. The issue was two members of the group, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall, were leaving the WWF for the greener pastures (in more ways than one) of Ted Turners WCW. Before Nash and Hall, then known as Diesel and Razor Ramon, respectively, left the company there was a live event in Madison Square Garden. Bad guy Hunter Heart Helmsley went up against babyface Razor, whilst the main event saw the villainous Diesel losing to good guy Shawn Michaels. After the Diesel/Michaels match, Razor came out to hug HBK. Then came HHH to the ring. The four competitors, Diesel, Shawn Michaels, Razor Ramon and HHH, would all embrace in the middle of the ring. At the time, this was deemed to have exposed the wrestling business as being a work and left WWF management seething. HHH was due to win that years King of the Ring event, only this was then shelved. The WWF needed to punish somebody for the MSG Curtain Call Shawn was the WWF Champion and so near-enough untouchable, and Nash and Hall had left the company. And so the fallout of that event landed at the door of Hunter. What followed for Helmsley was a hefty run of jobbing and a few Godwin sloppings. As for the King of the Ring, the 1996 crown would go to a bald headed chap by the name of Steve Austin you may have heard of him. HHH took his punishment like a man and would end up finally claiming the King of the Ring crown at the 1997 event.