Ranking All 19 WWE King Of The Ring Winners

15. Tito Santana (1989)

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

Former Intercontinental and WWF Tag Team Champion Tito Santana won the fourth King of the Ring tournament in 1989, but save for notable aspect, his reign was a total flop.

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. However, Santana’s tournament win was newsworthy for one critical reason: He defeated Rick Martel in the finals. Any longtime fan will recall Santana and Martel as Strike Force, former tag champs who broke up at WrestleMania V with Martel abandoning Tito.

The duo feuded throughout 1989, and Santana defeating Martel to win King of the Ring was a victory and laudable thing by itself. Beyond that though, Santana didn’t do much beyond hover around the midcard for a couple years before being rebranded as El Matador.

And that’s where this story should end.

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.