Who was the greatest King?

[Tenta]

As I was watching Raw last night, I happened to catch Rey Mysterio's match with William Regal. I also noticed that William Regal still has that King of the Ring moniker on his titantron, and while I didn't think much after it, I just thought it was a bit bizarre that he still had it more than eight months later. All, of course, while Jerry "The King" Lawler was doing commentary (albeit as a shell of his former self). It led to realize.... There have been alot of Kings in the history of Pro Wrestling. I would have to say it's been the most overdone gimmick in the history in the WWE. Yet, it's always given some of the best workers the WWE has seen. You had the Macho King Randy Savage. You had King Harley Race, King Haku, King Duggan, King Booker, and so on and so forth. Not only that, but there have been many Kings of the Ring in WWE history. You had Stone Cold Steve Austin, Bret Hart, Edge, Kurt Angle, Triple H. What's more, there have been many wrestlers who have used the King gimmick. How about the King of Harts, Owen Hart? Again, you had the King of Kings, Triple H. And of course, there is the original King. A man who is extremely underrated in making wrestling as mainstream as it is (See: His "feud" with Andy Kauffman). That man would be Jerry "The King" Lawler.

So with all of the choices you have, it's very simple.... Who was/is the greatest "King" the WWE has ever seen?

I would have to say I'd pick The Macho King. My rationale is this: For me, it came down to Steve Austin and Randy Savage. Both are comparable in talent, and how over they were with fans. They are both regarded as Hall of Famers. Both have had multiple reigns as Heavyweight champion (Steve won the WWF title six times. Randy won the WWF title twice and the WCW title four times). Both had classic matches at Wrestlemania that will live forever (Steve and Bret at WM 13, and Randy and Ricky Streamboat at WM 3). Both were classic on the mic. My tie-breaker is simple: In the time in which they were "King", who implemented the gimmick to the best of their ability. Steve, while he gave that amazing "Austin 3:16" promo, never really acknowledged the fact that he was King. The Macho King had it all. He had a witchy queen in Sherri, the crown and sceptor (which he would use), and even at times (I think) was carried to the ring on a throne. Macho Man actually implemented the concept of "King" into his gimmick, and therefore, that will be my tie-breaker between him and Steve. Otherwise, it'd be pretty dead even.

 

[fossi984]

First of all, if you can even think of putting Austin in the same talent class as Savage(before he started using steroids in WCW) and anyone else you mentioned, you are an idiot...Austin was, is and always will be one of the most beloved superstars in the history of the business...but thats it, superstar, not wrestler...and BTW, he only won the KOTR because HHH was being punished for his the stupid Clique celebrating in the ring, Austin was a nobody before that, and he was never supposed to be anybody, he got lucky

Secondly, you have to put Bret and Owen right up there with Savage, because while, Brett didn't have the mic skills and Owen didn't have the heavyweight titles won, they both far surpassed him in wrestling ability

 

[Mr. TM]

Well I assume the question here is who pulled of a king personal the best? There are a lot of great King of the Ring winners in the history of the WWE, as well as other characters who have used a King gimmick. But I would first eliminate all those who won King of the Ring, and never took up the gimmick, like Bret Hart and Stone Cold.

My choice will be- Owen Hart, King of the Harts. When he won the King of the Ring in 1994, he was in a great feud with his Brother. To be named the King of the Ring, he later shifted that over to become the King of the Harts. This gave him the opportunity to once again prove that he was better than his brother, which led them to their Summerslam match inside of the cage. The result, probably the best straight Cage match in history of wresting.

 

[Mr. TM]

Well I assume the question here is who pulled of a king personal the best? There are a lot of great King of the Ring winners in the history of the WWE, as well as other characters who have used a King gimmick. But I would first eliminate all those who won King of the Ring, and never took up the gimmick, like Bret Hart and Stone Cold.

My choice will be- Owen Hart, King of the Harts. When he won the King of the Ring in 1994, he was in a great feud with his Brother. To be named the King of the Ring, he later shifted that over to become the King of the Harts. This gave him the opportunity to once again prove that he was better than his brother, which led them to their Summerslam match inside of the cage. The result, probably the best straight Cage match in history of wresting.

 

[klunderbunker]

I'll go with the Macho King. The king was a totally different gimmick for him and he made it work just fine. The previous kings were people like Haku, Race and Duggan. Decent wrestlers (for Race I mean at that point in his career), but nothing that special. Macho had just come off a year long reign with the title and he gets thrown into this. Most people would see it as a step down but he went crazy with it. He got Sherri as his Queen and feuded with Dusty The Common Man Rhodes in a great rivalry and used this gimmick for over a year. Something so random that worked so well for so long, it's hard not to give it to him.

 

[Tenta]

First of all, if you can even think of putting Austin in the same talent class as Savage(before he started using steroids in WCW) and anyone else you mentioned, you are an idiot...Austin was, is and always will be one of the most beloved superstars in the history of the business...but thats it, superstar, not wrestler...and BTW, he only won the KOTR because HHH was being punished for his the stupid Clique celebrating in the ring, Austin was a nobody before that, and he was never supposed to be anybody, he got lucky

Secondly, you have to put Bret and Owen right up there with Savage, because while, Brett didn't have the mic skills and Owen didn't have the heavyweight titles won, they both far surpassed him in wrestling ability

Look, I'm going to put it simply.... You're an idiot, as before Austin's neck injury (one that was caused by one of your boys, Owen Hart, By the way. Owen's great, but if he does not botch that piledriver, Austin's neck is fine today), Austin was one of the better workers out there. Have you ever watched his tag matches with Brian Pillman? How about his matches with Bret Hart. And hey, here's words from one of your boys, Bret Hart: When Bret returned to the ring after his sabbatical after WM 12, he was referring to Austin as the second best worker in the WWF. Now then, of course he was biased against HBK, but that's still some pretty high praise.

Go watch some of Steve's early stuff. Then come back to be about the idea that Steve is not a "wrestler"

 

[fossi984]

Umm, Austin never could wrestle idiot, and neck injury, Greg Helms just came back from a broken neck, far worse than what Austin had, so don't blame the injury, everyone had huge injuries stupid...and Brett was talking about Austin being a hard worker, which I do not deny at all, he gave everything he had to Vince and WWF/E, Pillman carried the tag team, his matches with Bret were good because Bret is a wrestler and he was a brawler with the same 5 moves that the fans loved from him for some reason, but hate from Cena lol...those matches were good because their styles were different and they just beat the hell out of each other and then Vince had Bret make Austin into this tough guy god by him not tapping out to the the sharpshooter...this does not make him a wrestler, again, he may have tried to start as one, but he wasn't a good one, that's why nobody cared about him, he got a huge break out of Triple H's stupidity...There, I covered all your points, you have no validity in your statements, it's all based on you being a fan of him and that's ok, but don't say he was a talented wrestler, that offends the business

 

[agentmichaelscarn]

I gotta go with Jerry Lawler. Now obviously he wasnt as good in the ring as most of those guys but nobody used the king gimmick like him. When you think of Kings in wrestling most people will always think of Jerry "The King" Lawler. I dont know exactly how long he's used the gimmick but I know its gotta be atleast 16 years since confronted Bret Hart about it at KOTR 93. No other wrestler comes close to using it that long. I mean hell the guys been retired from active wrestling for a decade and he still brings a crown to the announce table every week. Now if the question was "Who was the best wrestler that ever was a King?" my answer would be different but "Who was the greatest King?" I think Lawler its gotta be Lawler.