King of Kings...

[JohnOldSnake4]

So as most of us know, Triple H has called himself the King of Kings since about late 2005-early 2006. I was watching some old RAW from summer 1998 though and something struck me as interesting. In summer '98, Ken Shamrock became the King of the Ring, beating The Rock in the tournament final. On RAW shortly after, Triple H and Owen Hart - both former Kings of the Ring themselves - challenged Shamrock to a triple threat "King of Kings" match!

Owen Hart was the winner of the King of Kings match and as we all know, tragically Owen died in May 1999 at Over The Edge. Fast forward to the 2000s and Triple H calls himself the King Of Kings. Bearing the fact that Owen won that match and his subsequent death, my question to you is: do you find it in any way disrespectful to Owen that Triple H uses that moniker, or was that triple threat just a meaningless match (despite it being thoroughly entertaining in my view) and think it means nothing?

 

[Eyebrows]

I don't think it's disrespectful, it's a pretty generic title. I don't remember much about '98 but rewatching '99 recently I don't think they referred to Hart as King of Kings at all. Doesn't mean anything in my view.

 

[Rasslin_fan]

That was supposed to be Owen's moniker. Unfortunately & obviously he didn't get to keep it though. Kinda curious to how his career would've played out if he was still here now.

 

[ianrapleyuk]

If my memory serves me right HHH started calling himself the king of kings when he beat the current king of the ring booker t.if i remember booker kept calling himself the best king or something and hhh returned to face him for the title of king of kings

 

[Macho Mans Beard]

Here is a question to ask: Who would be King of Kings right now?? Lets say HHH faces Bryan at WM30 (Which could happen, given the Authority storyline) Would that make DB the new King of Kings???

 

[CaptainZaltan]

I don't think that moniker has anything to do with professional wrestling. I always thought it had something to do with Conan the Barbarian, who HHH was hoping to play in the remake. He didn't get the part, but apparently he really wanted to cosplay the role anyways, because he ended up dressing like him for Wrestlemania 22. Which is around the time he started the whole "king of kings" thing. I'm not sure if Conan was ever referred to by that title in the books (I haven't read them), but I do know that he was a king. And Conan was the first thing to spring to my mind when I heard the title, so I may have heard it in either the movies or the cartoon when I was a kid. I always figured (given the film background and the Conan costume) that he just lifted the title from some Conan story and decided it sounded cool, but I could be wrong. Anyways, the whole thing really just makes him look like a jackass. But I don't think it's disrespectful to Owen Hart.

 

[zwbruno]

I think there are a lot of influences. The triple-threat probably being one and the feud with Booker obviously being the catalyst. It's also possible he was honoring/one-upping his trainer "The King" Harley Race.