Ranking All 19 WWE King Of The Ring Winners

6. Harley Race (1986)

King Of The Ring Winners Bret Hart Brock Lesnar Kurt Angle
WWE.com

When former NWA Champion Harley Race came to the WWF in 1986, the company had a dilemma: Race had a long pedigree as a champion, but the promotion could not acknowledge any of it.

So how do you portray a multi-time world champion as a threat without referring to his past? By having him win the 1986 King of the Ring tournament, clearly. Race became King Harley Race, donning a crown and cape and making it his entire persona. Harley would feud with Hulk Hogan, Junkyard Dog and “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan over the next year-plus.

In 1988, Race was injured, so his “king” title was transferred to fellow Heenan Family member Haku, who subsequently lost the title to Duggan, who lost it to “Macho Man” Randy Savage in 1989.

Now that was a kingship that had staying power, hanging around years after it was initially bestowed.

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.