Every WWE King Of The Ring Winner Ranked From Worst To Best

4. Brock Lesnar (2002)

When Brock Lesnar was bestowed with the nickname “The Next Big Thing,” it wasn’t hyperbole.

Bursting onto the scene the day after WrestleMania 18, Lesnar plowed through everyone put in front of him until he won the King of the Ring tournament three months after debuting. Two months after that, he parlayed that KOTR victory to become the youngest WWE World champion (at the time) when he defeated The Rock at SummerSlam.

If you’re keeping track, that’s five months from debut to beating The Great One for a World title. Lesnar would triumph in a feud with Undertaker before losing the WWE Championship at Survivor Series.

Brock would regain the title from Kurt Angle at WrestleMania 19, lose it to Angle in July, and regain it again in September 2003.

Lesnar’s meteoric rise was unprecedented in WWE, and his King of the Ring victory really was the clear launching point to the top of the card. This was during a period when winning KOTR signified you were destined for great things – though few could have anticipated how quickly those great things would materialize.