7. Harley Race (King of the Ring 1986)<\/a><\/strong><\/h2>\nHarley Race was a virtual unknown in the WWE community. In fairness, that\u2019s more of a comment on how WWE brass ignored anything that didn\u2019t involve its company. Organizations like WCW and the AWA might as well not have existed, and thus, a great like Harley Race needed a big win under his belt to gain more notoriety from the WWE audience.<\/p>\n
The King of the Ring tournament was the perfect proving ground for Harley Race, and he made short work of George \u201cThe Animal\u201d Steele and Billy Jack Haynes on his way to the finals. There, he had a great match against former WWE Champion Pedro Morales, where he went over, becoming King of the Ring. It was a huge victory for Race, and it gave him a gimmick that he ran with for the rest of his WWE career.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
6. Triple H (King of the Ring 1997) <\/strong><\/h2>\nTriple H\u2019s loyalty to his friends had this accolade coming a year later than it should have, but it was still a career-defining moment for the Game. He had been a huge part of WWE\u2019s mid-card since his debut, and while he had won Intercontinental gold, many were unsure if he was ever going to get his big push. Around this time, he may not have been in the good graces of WWE, but his talent was undeniable, and Triple H got the push he had waited for.<\/p>\n
Ahmed Johnson was defeated twice by Triple H, but it was in the finals that he earned his crown. His bought opposite Mankind was a fantastic match, and one that continued a feud that would make both men stars.<\/p>\n
In true Triple H fashion, he cheated his way to victory over Mankind and secured a win that would push him to the top of the company. Since winning King of the Ring, Triple H became an upper-echelon talent. He partnered with HBK to create D-Generation X and would become a vital part of the Attitude Era.<\/p>\n
5. Kurt Angle (King of the Ring 2000)<\/strong><\/h2>\nKurt Angle\u2019s start with WWE has become legendary. In a year, Kurt Angle captured all the major singles championships in WWE. It was a feat that no one had accomplished, to that point, but that was not all for the Olympic Gold Medalist.<\/p>\n
In the summer of 2000, Kurt Angle turned in an incredible performance, defeating three men in one night to become the first King of the New Millennium.<\/p>\n
The King gimmick worked very well for Kurt Angle<\/a>. He had the smug character traits necessary to hold himself above the rest of the wrestling world. Kurt Angle already had a ton of heat on him, but this gimmick just increased that. There is nothing worse than a man who thinks he\u2019s better than everyone and constantly proves that fact. Kurt Angle was the perfect man to carry the King of the Ring crown.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
4. Booker T (King of the Ring 2006) <\/strong><\/h2>\nThere might not be a man who benefited more from winning King of the Ring than Booker T. He maintained a strong presence at the mid-card level, but his chances at winning the big strap were few and far between.<\/p>\n
Then luck hit when SmackDown was weak on main event heels, and Booker T was tapped to enter the King of the Ring tournament. Booker T only had to go through two men on his way to victory, but those men were Matt Hardy and Bobby Lashley, two of SmackDown’s biggest stars.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/01\/Booker_t-1024x768.jpg\")
A photo of former WWE King of the Ring Booker T. (Photo Credit: By shstrng – originally posted to Flickr as Booker T, CC BY 2.0, https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=4183389)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nWhen Booker T won the tournament, his character shifted to King Booker<\/a>. His head grew three sizes that day, and King Booker became the worst kind of insufferable heel. His entrance to the ring drew so much heat, and that was amped up to eleven when his wife, Sharmell, started to announce her husband.<\/p>\nThe delusional nature of his character was spot on and was backed up by his great in-ring work. It wasn\u2019t too long before King Booker was wearing gold around his head and a World Championship around his waist.<\/p>\n
3. Owen Hart (King of the Ring 1994) <\/strong><\/h2>\nThe youngest Hart sibling\u2019s time spent in his older brother’s shadow was coming to an end. Owen Hart had the talent to be one of WWE\u2019s best, but being a member of the Hart family was going to follow him every step of the way. He needed his moment to break away from his family and become his own wrestler.<\/p>\n
That momentum started when he viciously turned on his brother and then beat him in a WrestleMania 10 stunner, and it was completed when Owen Hart became the King of Harts.<\/p>\n
Becoming the King of Harts was a shot in the arm to Owen Hart\u2019s push. His character blossomed into a main event talent and was seen as a legitimate threat to any championship. It\u2019s also a moniker that he kept for years, becoming the true King of Harts.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
2. Steve Austin (King of the Ring 1996) <\/strong><\/h2>\nSteve Austin\u2019s WWE career didn\u2019t get off to the best of starts. He came in as a protege of the Million Dollar Man, but failed to gain much traction with the WWE audience. As the WWE product shifted to a more mature tone, Steve Austin went along with them. His character became the perfect antihero, and the money started to pour in. All he needed was his career-defining moment, which came at King of the Ring 1996.<\/a><\/p>\nStone Cold\u2019s path to the crown was this side of perfection. His matches against Bob Holly, Savio Vega, and Jake Roberts were good, but his banger with Marc Mero made him a star. Busting his lip open and coming back to compete was a great story. It showed Steve Austin as a tough-as-nails wrestler, and it endeared him to the WWE Universe. Following that performance delivered the Austin 3:16 promo that made his career.<\/p>\n
1. Bret Hart<\/a> (King of the Ring 1991 & 1993) <\/strong><\/h2>\nOnly one choice can be made for number one on this list. Bret Hart is the only man to have won the King of the Ring title twice. His first was in 1991, which was an untelevised event. In that he scored victories over Pete Doherty, Skinner, and I.R.S. The fanfare wasn\u2019t there for this victory, but that was rectified two years later.<\/p>\n
<\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\nWhen King of the Ring became a PLE, WWE needed to start with a bang. They did that with the help of Bret Hart putting on fantastic matches against Razor Ramon, Mr. Perfect, and Bam Bam Bigelow. It was a string of contests that showcased just what the New Generation was all about.<\/p>\n
Bret Hart was the company’s workhorse, and his body of work speaks for itself. It may not have been the WWE Championship that the Hitman wanted, but it was a great accolade to achieve, for the second time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In WWE, championships are not the only accolades that are considered important. Yes, winning titles is the pinnacle of what each wrestler aspires to, but there are other achievements that one can have to be considered great. WWE has done a tremendous job of creating events that, while not championship-worthy, are just as important. King […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4518,"featured_media":154691,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7205,2192,3],"tags":[629,1613,362,75,9744],"class_list":["post-162955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wwe","category-history","category-wrestling","category-wwe-universe","tag-stone-cold-steve-austin","tag-booker-t","tag-bret-hart","tag-triple-h","tag-wwe-king-of-the-ring"],"modified_by":"Michael Joseph Sugue, Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4518"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162955"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":162965,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162955\/revisions\/162965"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Triple H\u2019s loyalty to his friends had this accolade coming a year later than it should have, but it was still a career-defining moment for the Game. He had been a huge part of WWE\u2019s mid-card since his debut, and while he had won Intercontinental gold, many were unsure if he was ever going to get his big push. Around this time, he may not have been in the good graces of WWE, but his talent was undeniable, and Triple H got the push he had waited for.<\/p>\n
Ahmed Johnson was defeated twice by Triple H, but it was in the finals that he earned his crown. His bought opposite Mankind was a fantastic match, and one that continued a feud that would make both men stars.<\/p>\n
In true Triple H fashion, he cheated his way to victory over Mankind and secured a win that would push him to the top of the company. Since winning King of the Ring, Triple H became an upper-echelon talent. He partnered with HBK to create D-Generation X and would become a vital part of the Attitude Era.<\/p>\n
5. Kurt Angle (King of the Ring 2000)<\/strong><\/h2>\nKurt Angle\u2019s start with WWE has become legendary. In a year, Kurt Angle captured all the major singles championships in WWE. It was a feat that no one had accomplished, to that point, but that was not all for the Olympic Gold Medalist.<\/p>\n
In the summer of 2000, Kurt Angle turned in an incredible performance, defeating three men in one night to become the first King of the New Millennium.<\/p>\n
The King gimmick worked very well for Kurt Angle<\/a>. He had the smug character traits necessary to hold himself above the rest of the wrestling world. Kurt Angle already had a ton of heat on him, but this gimmick just increased that. There is nothing worse than a man who thinks he\u2019s better than everyone and constantly proves that fact. Kurt Angle was the perfect man to carry the King of the Ring crown.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
4. Booker T (King of the Ring 2006) <\/strong><\/h2>\nThere might not be a man who benefited more from winning King of the Ring than Booker T. He maintained a strong presence at the mid-card level, but his chances at winning the big strap were few and far between.<\/p>\n
Then luck hit when SmackDown was weak on main event heels, and Booker T was tapped to enter the King of the Ring tournament. Booker T only had to go through two men on his way to victory, but those men were Matt Hardy and Bobby Lashley, two of SmackDown’s biggest stars.<\/p>\nA photo of former WWE King of the Ring Booker T. (Photo Credit: By shstrng – originally posted to Flickr as Booker T, CC BY 2.0, https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=4183389)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nWhen Booker T won the tournament, his character shifted to King Booker<\/a>. His head grew three sizes that day, and King Booker became the worst kind of insufferable heel. His entrance to the ring drew so much heat, and that was amped up to eleven when his wife, Sharmell, started to announce her husband.<\/p>\nThe delusional nature of his character was spot on and was backed up by his great in-ring work. It wasn\u2019t too long before King Booker was wearing gold around his head and a World Championship around his waist.<\/p>\n
3. Owen Hart (King of the Ring 1994) <\/strong><\/h2>\nThe youngest Hart sibling\u2019s time spent in his older brother’s shadow was coming to an end. Owen Hart had the talent to be one of WWE\u2019s best, but being a member of the Hart family was going to follow him every step of the way. He needed his moment to break away from his family and become his own wrestler.<\/p>\n
That momentum started when he viciously turned on his brother and then beat him in a WrestleMania 10 stunner, and it was completed when Owen Hart became the King of Harts.<\/p>\n
Becoming the King of Harts was a shot in the arm to Owen Hart\u2019s push. His character blossomed into a main event talent and was seen as a legitimate threat to any championship. It\u2019s also a moniker that he kept for years, becoming the true King of Harts.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
2. Steve Austin (King of the Ring 1996) <\/strong><\/h2>\nSteve Austin\u2019s WWE career didn\u2019t get off to the best of starts. He came in as a protege of the Million Dollar Man, but failed to gain much traction with the WWE audience. As the WWE product shifted to a more mature tone, Steve Austin went along with them. His character became the perfect antihero, and the money started to pour in. All he needed was his career-defining moment, which came at King of the Ring 1996.<\/a><\/p>\nStone Cold\u2019s path to the crown was this side of perfection. His matches against Bob Holly, Savio Vega, and Jake Roberts were good, but his banger with Marc Mero made him a star. Busting his lip open and coming back to compete was a great story. It showed Steve Austin as a tough-as-nails wrestler, and it endeared him to the WWE Universe. Following that performance delivered the Austin 3:16 promo that made his career.<\/p>\n
1. Bret Hart<\/a> (King of the Ring 1991 & 1993) <\/strong><\/h2>\nOnly one choice can be made for number one on this list. Bret Hart is the only man to have won the King of the Ring title twice. His first was in 1991, which was an untelevised event. In that he scored victories over Pete Doherty, Skinner, and I.R.S. The fanfare wasn\u2019t there for this victory, but that was rectified two years later.<\/p>\n
<\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\nWhen King of the Ring became a PLE, WWE needed to start with a bang. They did that with the help of Bret Hart putting on fantastic matches against Razor Ramon, Mr. Perfect, and Bam Bam Bigelow. It was a string of contests that showcased just what the New Generation was all about.<\/p>\n
Bret Hart was the company’s workhorse, and his body of work speaks for itself. It may not have been the WWE Championship that the Hitman wanted, but it was a great accolade to achieve, for the second time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In WWE, championships are not the only accolades that are considered important. Yes, winning titles is the pinnacle of what each wrestler aspires to, but there are other achievements that one can have to be considered great. WWE has done a tremendous job of creating events that, while not championship-worthy, are just as important. King […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4518,"featured_media":154691,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7205,2192,3],"tags":[629,1613,362,75,9744],"class_list":["post-162955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wwe","category-history","category-wrestling","category-wwe-universe","tag-stone-cold-steve-austin","tag-booker-t","tag-bret-hart","tag-triple-h","tag-wwe-king-of-the-ring"],"modified_by":"Michael Joseph Sugue, Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4518"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162955"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":162965,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162955\/revisions\/162965"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/p>\n
4. Booker T (King of the Ring 2006) <\/strong><\/h2>\nThere might not be a man who benefited more from winning King of the Ring than Booker T. He maintained a strong presence at the mid-card level, but his chances at winning the big strap were few and far between.<\/p>\n
Then luck hit when SmackDown was weak on main event heels, and Booker T was tapped to enter the King of the Ring tournament. Booker T only had to go through two men on his way to victory, but those men were Matt Hardy and Bobby Lashley, two of SmackDown’s biggest stars.<\/p>\nA photo of former WWE King of the Ring Booker T. (Photo Credit: By shstrng – originally posted to Flickr as Booker T, CC BY 2.0, https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=4183389)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nWhen Booker T won the tournament, his character shifted to King Booker<\/a>. His head grew three sizes that day, and King Booker became the worst kind of insufferable heel. His entrance to the ring drew so much heat, and that was amped up to eleven when his wife, Sharmell, started to announce her husband.<\/p>\nThe delusional nature of his character was spot on and was backed up by his great in-ring work. It wasn\u2019t too long before King Booker was wearing gold around his head and a World Championship around his waist.<\/p>\n
3. Owen Hart (King of the Ring 1994) <\/strong><\/h2>\nThe youngest Hart sibling\u2019s time spent in his older brother’s shadow was coming to an end. Owen Hart had the talent to be one of WWE\u2019s best, but being a member of the Hart family was going to follow him every step of the way. He needed his moment to break away from his family and become his own wrestler.<\/p>\n
That momentum started when he viciously turned on his brother and then beat him in a WrestleMania 10 stunner, and it was completed when Owen Hart became the King of Harts.<\/p>\n
Becoming the King of Harts was a shot in the arm to Owen Hart\u2019s push. His character blossomed into a main event talent and was seen as a legitimate threat to any championship. It\u2019s also a moniker that he kept for years, becoming the true King of Harts.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
2. Steve Austin (King of the Ring 1996) <\/strong><\/h2>\nSteve Austin\u2019s WWE career didn\u2019t get off to the best of starts. He came in as a protege of the Million Dollar Man, but failed to gain much traction with the WWE audience. As the WWE product shifted to a more mature tone, Steve Austin went along with them. His character became the perfect antihero, and the money started to pour in. All he needed was his career-defining moment, which came at King of the Ring 1996.<\/a><\/p>\nStone Cold\u2019s path to the crown was this side of perfection. His matches against Bob Holly, Savio Vega, and Jake Roberts were good, but his banger with Marc Mero made him a star. Busting his lip open and coming back to compete was a great story. It showed Steve Austin as a tough-as-nails wrestler, and it endeared him to the WWE Universe. Following that performance delivered the Austin 3:16 promo that made his career.<\/p>\n
1. Bret Hart<\/a> (King of the Ring 1991 & 1993) <\/strong><\/h2>\nOnly one choice can be made for number one on this list. Bret Hart is the only man to have won the King of the Ring title twice. His first was in 1991, which was an untelevised event. In that he scored victories over Pete Doherty, Skinner, and I.R.S. The fanfare wasn\u2019t there for this victory, but that was rectified two years later.<\/p>\n
<\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\nWhen King of the Ring became a PLE, WWE needed to start with a bang. They did that with the help of Bret Hart putting on fantastic matches against Razor Ramon, Mr. Perfect, and Bam Bam Bigelow. It was a string of contests that showcased just what the New Generation was all about.<\/p>\n
Bret Hart was the company’s workhorse, and his body of work speaks for itself. It may not have been the WWE Championship that the Hitman wanted, but it was a great accolade to achieve, for the second time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In WWE, championships are not the only accolades that are considered important. Yes, winning titles is the pinnacle of what each wrestler aspires to, but there are other achievements that one can have to be considered great. WWE has done a tremendous job of creating events that, while not championship-worthy, are just as important. King […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4518,"featured_media":154691,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7205,2192,3],"tags":[629,1613,362,75,9744],"class_list":["post-162955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wwe","category-history","category-wrestling","category-wwe-universe","tag-stone-cold-steve-austin","tag-booker-t","tag-bret-hart","tag-triple-h","tag-wwe-king-of-the-ring"],"modified_by":"Michael Joseph Sugue, Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4518"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162955"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":162965,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162955\/revisions\/162965"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
When Booker T won the tournament, his character shifted to King Booker<\/a>. His head grew three sizes that day, and King Booker became the worst kind of insufferable heel. His entrance to the ring drew so much heat, and that was amped up to eleven when his wife, Sharmell, started to announce her husband.<\/p>\n The delusional nature of his character was spot on and was backed up by his great in-ring work. It wasn\u2019t too long before King Booker was wearing gold around his head and a World Championship around his waist.<\/p>\n The youngest Hart sibling\u2019s time spent in his older brother’s shadow was coming to an end. Owen Hart had the talent to be one of WWE\u2019s best, but being a member of the Hart family was going to follow him every step of the way. He needed his moment to break away from his family and become his own wrestler.<\/p>\n That momentum started when he viciously turned on his brother and then beat him in a WrestleMania 10 stunner, and it was completed when Owen Hart became the King of Harts.<\/p>\n Becoming the King of Harts was a shot in the arm to Owen Hart\u2019s push. His character blossomed into a main event talent and was seen as a legitimate threat to any championship. It\u2019s also a moniker that he kept for years, becoming the true King of Harts.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Steve Austin\u2019s WWE career didn\u2019t get off to the best of starts. He came in as a protege of the Million Dollar Man, but failed to gain much traction with the WWE audience. As the WWE product shifted to a more mature tone, Steve Austin went along with them. His character became the perfect antihero, and the money started to pour in. All he needed was his career-defining moment, which came at King of the Ring 1996.<\/a><\/p>\n Stone Cold\u2019s path to the crown was this side of perfection. His matches against Bob Holly, Savio Vega, and Jake Roberts were good, but his banger with Marc Mero made him a star. Busting his lip open and coming back to compete was a great story. It showed Steve Austin as a tough-as-nails wrestler, and it endeared him to the WWE Universe. Following that performance delivered the Austin 3:16 promo that made his career.<\/p>\n Only one choice can be made for number one on this list. Bret Hart is the only man to have won the King of the Ring title twice. His first was in 1991, which was an untelevised event. In that he scored victories over Pete Doherty, Skinner, and I.R.S. The fanfare wasn\u2019t there for this victory, but that was rectified two years later.<\/p>\n When King of the Ring became a PLE, WWE needed to start with a bang. They did that with the help of Bret Hart putting on fantastic matches against Razor Ramon, Mr. Perfect, and Bam Bam Bigelow. It was a string of contests that showcased just what the New Generation was all about.<\/p>\n Bret Hart was the company’s workhorse, and his body of work speaks for itself. It may not have been the WWE Championship that the Hitman wanted, but it was a great accolade to achieve, for the second time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In WWE, championships are not the only accolades that are considered important. Yes, winning titles is the pinnacle of what each wrestler aspires to, but there are other achievements that one can have to be considered great. WWE has done a tremendous job of creating events that, while not championship-worthy, are just as important. King […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4518,"featured_media":154691,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7205,2192,3],"tags":[629,1613,362,75,9744],"class_list":["post-162955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wwe","category-history","category-wrestling","category-wwe-universe","tag-stone-cold-steve-austin","tag-booker-t","tag-bret-hart","tag-triple-h","tag-wwe-king-of-the-ring"],"modified_by":"Michael Joseph Sugue, Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4518"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162955"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":162965,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162955\/revisions\/162965"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}3. Owen Hart (King of the Ring 1994) <\/strong><\/h2>\n
2. Steve Austin (King of the Ring 1996) <\/strong><\/h2>\n
1. Bret Hart<\/a> (King of the Ring 1991 & 1993) <\/strong><\/h2>\n