9 Wrestlers Who Would Have Won King Of The Ring In The 2000s

9. 2003 - King Chris Benoit

The King of the Ring pay-per-view was disestablished in 2002, with Brock Lesnar being the final king crowned. From 1996 until then the tournament was used to further establish someone seemingly moving towards the upper echelons of the card, although Billy Gunn's reign in 1999 stands out as something of an anomaly.

The final three kings were Kurt Angle, Edge and Lesnar, so for the 2003 winner I'll go with a man who was involved with all three at various points of his career. Chris Benoit was on his way to a career-defining moment at WrestleMania XX, but in 2003 he was still gaining the momentum that would see him finally reach the top of the mountain.

This could feasibly have led to him unsuccessfully challenging Kurt Angle or Brock Lesnar for the WWE Championship at SummerSlam, or even both in a triple threat. This could have bled nicely into his Royal Rumble win and subsequent WrestleMania triple threat, with the added story element of his past three-way failings.

As for the KotR tournament itself, let's have Benoit defeating Rey Mysterio in the semi-finals, followed by a win over Chris Jericho in the final.