7 Ups And 8 Downs From WWE King Of The Ring 2002

15. Down - Forgetting Someone?

We start off with a video package that shows highlights of all the King of the Ring winners and them celebrating their victory. We see iconic moments such as Owen Hart’s coronation, Austin’s famous 3:16 promo, and a young Edge finally making a splash as a singles competitor. Year after year, WWE shows the prestige of King of the Ring.

But hang on a minute, it appears there are some years missing from this. Notably absent from this video package are the years of 1995, 1998, and 1999. Those are the years where Mabel, Ken Shamrock, and “Mr. Ass” Billy Gunn respectively earned the prestigious title.

Now, one could make a defense for omitting them. After all, Mabel and Billy Gunn’s wins are seen as massive embarrassments and emblematic of terrible booking philosophies. Shamrock, meanwhile, was gone from the company, and days earlier, had just won the NWA World Heavyweight Championship at the inaugural TNA pay-per-view.

However, they’re still glaring omissions, and they don’t hide the fact that most King of the Ring wins don’t really mean much. Seriously, who here even knew that Triple H, Kurt Angle, and Edge won the King of the Ring tournament? You don’t, because they are so low on the totem pole of accomplishments for all of those men. If WWE wanted to make King of the Ring seem important, instead of omitting the outright duds, they should have actually make the ones they think mattered actually matter.