The 5 Most Disappointing WWE King Of The Ring Winners

Winning the King of the Ring should be a grand and prestigious honour where wrestling royalty is crowned, and where the superstars who win climb to greater horizons of success within the WWE. For some however, winning King of the Ring barely meant anything at all, or the win would begin a silly persona where the victorious superstar ponces around with a crown for a little bit and nothing more comes of it.

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Sure we've had stinkers like Mable's 1995 King of the Ring win, but here we're looking at superstars who fought valiantly through the tournament and toppled everybody on their road to glory, but should've been propelled to much greater success thereafter. Not everybody who wins King of the Ring has a regal resurgence to their career, and the following five examples prove this unequivocally.

Ken Shamrock

In 1998, the WWE was blessed with a phenomenal talent from the world of the UFC, The World's Most Dangerous Man, Ken Shamrock. They made Shamrock a force to be reckoned with and Shamrock became the Intercontinental Champion at one point, which was a whole lot more than what his fellow MMA protoge Dan Severn got. Shamrock entered the 1998 King of the Ring and won tournament bouts against the likes of Kama Mustafa, Mark Henry and Jeff Jarrett. In the tournament final, Shamrock faced off with Nation of Domination member The Rock, and although the charismatic nepo baby had all the hype and talent to win, ultimately it was Shamrock who would make The Rock tap out to the much-vaunted ankle lock submission.

Where did this huge win take Shamrock? Well it certainly didn't take him to any greater success, though he did win the tag titles with The Big Bossman......That's something at least right? Kenny boy didn't do much in 1999 besides enter the 1999 tournament and lose to that year's winner Billy Gunn, as well as competing in a couple of Lion's Den matches with Vince McMahon and Steve Blackman. The latter of which was an insidious rival of Shamrock, beating him with a kendo stick and running him down with a car. Shamrock loved bleeding from the mouth so much that Jericho assaulted him with a hockey stick in his last match. For someone with such a fantastic MMA background, Shamrock deserved so much better after his King of the Ring victory.

Billy Gunn

Whether you call him Mr Ass or Billy Gunn, he was crowned King Ass in 1999 after overcoming Ken Shamrock, Kane and old DX running buddy X-Pac in one night. Knocking off the 1998 KOTR winner, the Big Red Machine and a former friend in a single night is remarkable, but unfortunately this win didn't do anything for Billy Gunn. Yes, he did win the tag titles again and over a year later he beat Eddie Guerrero to win the Intercontinental Championship, but it seemed like WWE didn't know what to do with a superstar who loves asses.

What made matters so much worse for Billy is The Rock cut a huge roasting promo on him, which was so vicious it made Billy's KOTR win seem absolutely meaningless. The cruel reality is that The Rock was right- it was meaningless, and Mr Ass certainly deserved better fortune than to be totally owned by a promo from The Great One. Edge would do similar two-years later after he won the 2001 King of the Ring, when Billy bitched about not being entered into the tournament, burying his win even further. Next to Mabel, you could argue that Billy Gunn's was one of the worst KOTR winners, but what is more hurtful is Billy Gunn wasn't given direction towards anything greater, so effectively his KOTR success was ass-just like his namesake.

Sheamus

Don't get it twisted, Sheamus found success before and after his King of the Ring victory and is the most-successful superstar on this list in terms of championship wins, but when WWE decided to crown King Sheamus, well it felt more like a mid-90s gimmick than a properly meaningful ascent.

Sheamus claimed quarterfinal and semi-final victories over R-Truth and Kofi Kingston, and managed to get a free pass to the finals when Drew McIntyre and Ezekiel Jackson got counted out in their quaterfinal encounter. Sheamus would then square off with John Morrison in the finals, where Sheamus countered a Starship Pain by putting his knees up, then followed up with a Brogue Kick and a Celtic Cross for the one-two-three, and thus became King Sheamus.

The main qualm with King Sheamus is he didn't really have a presence or authority like William Regal did when he won King of the Ring in 2008. Sheamus simply felt like just another man bearing wrestling royalty for a bit until the persona ran dry. At that point in time he was mired in the mid-card, and it wasn't until he switched to SmackDown in the 2011 draft where fortunes began to change for him.

With all the criticism aside though, Sheamus was the best fit to be King of the Ring. King Morrison just doesn't seem grand enough, and heels always make better King of the Ring winners anyway. JOMO's athleticism is great but it's hard to picture him as a king.

Wade Barrett

I'm afraid I've got some bad news- King Barrett was an awful downgrade on the Bad News Barrett gimmick. When Wade Barrett became Bad News Barrett, he was red hot and he was a very entertaining part of RAW back in 2013 and 2014. However, winning the King of the Ring tournament and becoming known as King Barrett didn't add anything meaningful on top of the Bad News Barrett brilliance.

The problem like with Sheamus's King of the Ring win, is that Barrett was turned into more of a caricature than a king. King's rule and have a sense of dominion about their presence, but both Barrett and Sheamus were effectively weakened by wearing the King of the Ring garb. Barrett even teamed with Stardust at SummerSlam to face Stephen Amell and Neville-which was like a huge comic book tag-team match. Interesting pivot perhaps, but Barrett was still a mid-carder and the King of the Ring crown ultimately didn't propel him to greater heights in any way. Regal didn't win the WWE Championship when he won King of the Ring, but at least he was the General Manager and king, and he was vicious, whereas Barrett's win just made him more of a cartoon character.

Xavier Woods

The New Day's third wheel, Xavier Woods never had a properly decent singles run and did not win any singles championship in the WWE. However, back in 2021 he was chosen as the winner of the King of the Ring tournament for some reason, and you guessed it-nothing came of it and did not elevate Xavier in any way... Besides heightening his hubris.

We gotta face hard truths in life, and the hard truth for Xavier Woods is that he is to the King of the Ring what McDonald's is to a Michelin Star restaurant. He's not the King of the Ring perse then, he's more king of the pancakes that The New Day like throwing to the audience like dog bones. This isn't to discredit Xavier's talents, it's just very clear the 2021 King of the Ring wasn't taken seriously and like Barrett and Sheamus above, his win seemed more about entertaining the children rather than serving anything with substance. Entertaining the children is part of the WWE product whether we grown adults like it or not, but when we've seen King of the Ring winners who were dominant ring technicians and powerhouses, seeing someone like Xavier claiming the crown is an automatic sign it's going to be diminished to silliness.

Woods could've blazed a path like his New Day brothers did and won the WWE Championship, but with Xavier being the least-experienced of the three, his career trajectory stayed pretty much the same as ever. At least he became more prominent in single matches if anything, but he could've won a singles championship to give him some personal credibility.