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

14. William Regal (2008)

william regal layla.jpg
WWE.com

Oh, what could have been.

William Regal could have been one of the greatest kings WWE ever had, if not for a wellness policy violation.

You see, in April 2008, Regal, then the Raw GM, won a one-night tournament to become King of the Ring. The tournament was immaterial. It was the potential that was laid at his feet: a GM, a Brit and a crown, all rolled into one. You don’t need an active imagination to figure out where this was headed with Regal descending into a mad king.

But a month into his reign, Regal was dinged with a 60-day suspension, which derailed his entire push as king. Even after returning, it was a slog to get back into the swing of things. But the GM/king push was gone, and he never really achieved a main-event focus again – at least as a wrestler.

Modern WWE fans more likely recognize Regal not from his wrestling, but from his onscreen role as NXT GM at the height of its popularity in the 2010s.

Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.