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

19. Tito Santana (1989)

Tito Santana
wwe.com

Former Intercontinental and WWF Tag Team Champion Tito Santana won the fifth King of the Ring tournament in 1989, and if you weren’t among the 4,500 in attendance at the Providence Civic Center in Rhode Island, you probably had no idea that this ever happened.

At the time, the KOTR was still a house show deal that didn’t necessarily carry over to television, so you can’t fault Santana or the company for not pushing Tito after his victory.

Santana’s tournament triumph was notable for only one reason: he bested former Strike Force teammate Rick Martel to capture the crown a few months after their breakup at WrestleMania V. The two wrestled nearly 50 times – almost entirely on house shows – throughout 1989, with Martel almost always defeating Tito.

Santana’s King of the Ring victory over Martel marked the effective end of their feud that year. But beyond that, this didn’t even register on television.

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.