The Magnificent Seven: The Top 7 WWE One-Night Tournaments

There’s something special about the professional wrestling tournament. It’s a classic structure that hearkens back to the illusion of pro wrestling as legitimate sport. It’s a mechanism for epic storytelling—a hero making his way through a field of competitors, a variety of challenges, a gauntlet of overwhelming odds, often as not going head to head with heels who fortune has favored. Heels who had shorter matches or absorbed less punishment en route to the late stages of the tournament, maybe lucking their way into a bye or two and so having wrestled fewer matches than the face.

There’s an unpredictability to the tournament. Often there are odds on favorites and likely routes to victory, but there also exists the possibility that something strange will happen, including an upset along the way or a rare face vs. face or heel vs. heel confrontation.

I’ll be the first to admit that tournaments—particularly one-night ones—don’t always deliver on their potential. For the sheer number of matches a tournament demands, it’s not unusual for a tournament-centric show to feature some strangely short matches with weird finishes just to get through the bracket. As such, there are a number of entries that did make this countdown that aren’t objectively great shows. Some of the lower-ranked entries made it in simply on account of not being as poor as the worse options (see the King of the Ring tournaments from 1995 or 1999, respectively resulting in Kings Mabel and Billy Gunn). Just the same, I stand by the higher-ranked tournaments as some truly excellent storytelling, including some killer matches and moments.

The criterion for what qualifies for this countdown was largely arbitrary, so let me explain it here. I decided to only include tournaments that had at least three rounds on the same night. As I mentioned earlier, for me, part of the draw of a tournament is the unpredictable scenarios and the long test of endurance for our hero—these dynamics are difficult to replicate when competitors only wrestle two matches. In addition, I’m only counting the action that occurred on the night of three or more rounds and the finals—so, for example, King of the Ring 1993 would qualify for the countdown, the but qualifying matches that happened on free TV were not in consideration, just the three rounds on the PPV. Finally, to qualify, the tournament must have been televised or be available via video footage. So, no WWE house show tournaments.

In ranking these tournaments, my primary consideration was overall entertainment value as a package of unified storytelling and booking, which included but was not limited to match quality within the tournament, performances by the tournament’s standout performer(s) and satisfaction of the conclusion. As always, personal opinion weighed heavily in this ranking.

Kurt Angle vs Chris Jericho at King of the Ring… by sportsvipwiner

#7. King of the Ring 2000

I’ll be the first to admit that, particularly from a historical perspective, there are some real oddities in this tournament. For example, let’s consider that future world champions and all-time great workers Chris Jericho, Eddie Guerrero, and Chris Benoit were in the field, and yet none of them made it out of the first round. Meanwhile, Rikishi, Val Venis, and Crash Holly did make it to the semis. I don’t mean to much away from the latter set of stars,each of whom I actually feel was quite good in his role (Venis, in particular, was arguably underutilized), but they simply weren’t at the level of the former grouping.

This show was, however, largely the Kurt Angle story. For we had reached the mid-point of a particularly glorious rookie campaign for Angle, during which he’d already won the Intercontinental and European Championships, and was on the cusp of the main event scene here. Winning of the King of the Ring gave his character that final extra push that would make him viable at that level in the months ahead, and eventually set him up to win his first world championship before the end of the year.

Angle put on what was probably the MOTN with Jericho in the opening round, went on to all but squash Crash Holly in the semis and then faced off with Rikishi in the finals. I get the story the WWF was trying to tell, casting Rikishi as the valiant face with the odds stacked against him, highlighted by Benoit and then Venis assaulting his arm and attacking at the end of each of their matches to stack the deck against him. Just the same, Rikishi was a bit too big of a man to earn babyface sympathy quite the way I suspect the WWF meant for him to, and the final match is probably better remembered for the spectacle of Angle’s belly-to-belly to the big man off the top rope than any arm work that directly followed from the preceding rounds.

And so, you have a tournament with some strange creative choices, and no exceptional matches, but a reasonable attempt at hero’s journey for Rikishi, and the spectacle of Angle running through the field as he gathered steam and prepared to ascend to the next level.

Randy Savage vs. The Dynamite Kid – The… by WWFOldSchool

#6. Wrestling Classic 1985

This four-round tournament is largely lost to the sands of time—an early PPV effort that occurred the November between WrestleManias 1 and 2, two years before the launch of Survivor Series. In addition to time, this is an event easily overlooked for the lack of long-term impact any of the matches had on storylines, not to mention that the matches were short—the majority three minutes or less and none longer than nine—with no classics to report.

So why does this one get the nod? There’s the combination of ambition and experimentation. This show took place during a red hot period for the WWF as the promotion still found its legs in booking PPV-style events, and was arguably an important stepping stone toward more successful efforts in the years to follow. Moreover, the show’s roster is iconic (though their performances at the show weren’t necessarily great), with a bracket including intriguing matchups like Ricky Steamboat vs. Davey Boy Smith, Randy Savage vs.The Dynamite Kid, and an earlier, less famous iteration of Steamboat vs. Savage. The matches tended to be too short and rely to heavily on DQs and countouts to really capture the imagination in most cases, but nonetheless functions a something of a time capsule for the era, working with the fun, unpredictable structure of the tournament bracket.

That Junkyard Dog would emerge victorious from this field is a historical anomaly, considering that he beat Savage in the finals to do so, that guys like Paul Orndorff (probably the most over performer in the tournament at the time) didn’t make it past round two, and that Terry Funk and The Iron Sheik wouldn’t make it past the first round. JYD was never treated like a main event talent in the WWF, this match did mark his lone one-on-one WWF PPV main event match and he stood tall in a moment that seemed to very much bespeak the WWF still booking PPVs like house shows, putting over an unlikely fan favorite to send the fans home happy.

#5. King of the Ring 2008

King of the Ring 2008 stands as the first one to occur completely free on TV, packed into one live, (then-rare) three-hour Raw special.

One-night tournaments with more than two rounds are what they are, and true to form, this one featured a lot of short matches, none going over seven minutes, including the tournament final in which both performers sold exhaustion despite neither having gone more than twelve minutes when the opening bell rang, and neither ultimately working more than seventeen minutes for the night, with extended breaks between rounds. Putting aside that logical issue, WWE did assemble a compelling story here, and a strong field of competitors featuring William Regal, CM Punk, Chris Jericho, Matt Hardy, MVP, and Finlay (plus The Great Khali and Hornswoggle).

The stars of the tournament were clearly Punk and Regal. Punk battled valiantly through two very good short bouts to open the tournament, opposite Hardy and Jericho, before facing a fresher Regal in the finals. Regal played his heel part masterfully, first bullying and brutalizing Hornswoggle in a non-comedy match built to get Regal over as a bastard in the first round, then getting the best of Finlay as he aimed at avenging Hornswoggle in the semis.

Part of the appeal of the final match was that it could have gone either way. If anything, Punk looked a bit like a favorite, still carrying his first Money in the Bank briefcase that signaled an ascension up the card, while Regal was undeniably the cleaner fit for the king gimmick. Again, the lack of a test of endurance for either man made the finals and the way they were sold come off a bit oddly, but nonetheless, the performers told the good story of Punk battling the odds, but the veteran Regal ultimately proving too much for him in this exhausted state, ultimately locking in the Regal Stretch to force the submission.

It’s unfortunate that Regal was suspended for a Wellness Policy violation shortly thereafter, as this may have been his last and greatest push if he’d stayed on the straight and narrow—his GM and King gimmicks snowballing on one another to make him a masterful villain and potential main event contender before they were cut short—Regal losing prematurely to his budding rival Kennedy, and then going off TV for an extended stretch. Were the resulting angle to have gone better, I expect we might remember this tournament more readily and more fondly.

#4. WrestleMania 4, 1988

This world title tournament is one of the more famous entries in the countdown, though I’m sure some folks call it infamous instead. The twelve-man configuration (structured to give two men a bye to the quarterfinals) was unusual, the matches followed the old one-night tournament pattern of being quite short, and there were a number of countouts and DQs to protect participants.

Given that the entire WrestleMania show as anchored around this tournament, it quite arguably resulted in one of the worst ‘Manias of all time. The bar for WrestleMania is pretty high, though, and if we look at this show more through the lens of one-night tournaments—and particularly four-round ones—I’d argue it holds up well.

Though hindsight tells us we probably should have been looking out for Ted Dibiase as a tournament favorite and Randy Savage as the dark horse, for those of us caught up in the wonder of Hulkamania at the time—particularly kids like me–Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant were the pair most likely to win, with Hogan resuming his tidal wave of a run atop the business, or Andre, his most worthy rival, picking up the title for Hogan to chase him. The fact that they each got a bye to the second round seemed to support the theory—either man would only need to fight through three rounds, not four to win the belt.

While the Hogan-Andre match wasn’t great—a far cry, even, from their WrestleMania 3 encounter that had the mystique of 93,000 live fans to carry it to iconic status—the double disqualification booking was a master stroke of creative decision making to neutralize both big stars while protecting them against losses, besides setting them up to clash again in the background of the main event. The loss also gifted Ted Dibiase a bye all the way from the quarterfinals to the final round.

Meanwhile, Savage faced a tough and shrewdly booked road all his own. In the opening round, he overcame a bruising challenge from the bigger Butch Reed. I the second round, he pinned Greg Valentine whom commentary nicely put over as a wrestler defined by his endurance. Savage was outsized twice over by the One Man Gang in the semis, not to mention that Gang had gotten a bye past the quarterfinals and so was fresher. And finally, Savage arrived at the finals against a fresher Dibiase, who was also backed by both Virgil and Andre the Giant.

While this tournament didn’t deliver any truly great matches, I’ll stand by the tournament final as an underrated piece of work featuring two of the most talented workers of the day, backed by the fun sports entertainment shenanigans of Andre and Hogan interjecting themselves into the match and ultimately affecting its outcome. In the end, Savage winning was satisfying both as a mark at the time who saw an underdog prevail against the odds, and as an adult critic watching an exceptional performer get his just desserts (though it it is sad to reflect on this being the night Dibiase missed out on his best shot at ever winning a world title). On top of all of that, the tournament finish nicely set us up for a year-long story of Hogan and Savage growing tighter as best friends only to fall apart and set up their war at WrestleMania 5.

#3. Deadly Game, Survivor Series 1998

Here we have a bad wrestling tournament, that I would nonetheless consider the most creatively successful one-night tournament in WWF history. It was a chapter in the Austin vs. McMahon saga that had seen McMahon strip Austin of the WWF Championship he had won under admittedly spurious means (counting the pinfall for a match in which he was guest referee and awarding himself the title). The tournament had the foreboding promise of McMahon working against Austin and seemingly having selected a chosen one to represent him as new champ.

One-night tournaments are notorious for having short matches in order to protect performers who have to go to the ring multiple times and to wedge in a relatively high number matches (particularly for a four-round tournament like this). The WWF shrewdly built in a mechanism to explain and justify the quick encounters, instituting a ten-minute time-limit for all matches leading up to the finals to kayfabe push the action and practically keep the show moving (not to mention justifying some time limit draws, though interestingly enough that never came into play as a double-disqualification yielded the only draw).

The opening round didn’t feature any particularly great matches, but did include The Big Boss Man playing a pivotal role as Mr. McMahon’s hired gun. First, Boss Man brutalized Austin with his nightstick to sacrifice the match but kayfabe injure Austin in an effort to soften him for the rest of the tournament. Later, McMahon rewarded Boss Man with another tournament berth, only for him to drop the fall to The Rock in a record four seconds, running straight into a small package. In the moment, that bit came across as comedic fodder, but when it turned out at the end of the night that The Rock was turning heel to join McMahon, the lighting quick victory was revealed as a part of the master plan to keep Rock fresh while the fans were none the wiser about the scheme.

From there, his tournament features its share of iconic match-ups, from The Undertaker vs. Kane, to Ken Shamrock vs. The Rock, to The Undertaker vs. The Rock, to Steve Austin vs. Mankind, to The Rock vs. Mankind, but with the arguable exception of Austin-Mankind, none of the matches wound up particularly great, or even good. For me, all of the lukewarm in-ring action gets redeemed by an all-time great swerve. The fans were led to believe McMahon was backing Mankind in this tournament, only for the reveal that he was in cahoots with The Rock all night long, capped by McMahon calling for the bell with Rock had Mankind in the Sharpshooter, directly playing off the Montreal Screw Job incident that launched the Mr. McMahon character one year earlier.

I know some critics disagree with me, but for all of the Attitude Era shenanigans, surprisingly cohesive storytelling, and fast-moving matches, I actually find this show a very easy one to rewatch, and an important one to see for its historical implications.

#2. King of the Ring 1994

This was a tournament with a mission: put over Owen Hart.

Hart had feuded with his brother Bret throughout the year to begin his ascension from the lower-card to the main event, culminating in a pin fall factory in the fantastic WrestleMania 10 opener between the two. But there was still something a little off about The Rocket at the top of the card, when a year earlier he’d been wearing baggy pants and suspenders to the ring to team with Koko B. Ware.

Winning the King of the Ring tournament—the very same accolade Bret had accomplished to shore up his own main event status one year earlier after he had temporarily dropped out of the world title picture—was the perfect ticket to both push Owen hard, and to poetically get at him being just as good as his brother.

The tournament matches were, at worst, pretty average for a WWE PPV tournament, and leaning toward good. Part of what I appreciate about this tournament was the absence of DQs, countouts, draws, and byes. The tournament got seven PPV matches, six of which ended in pins, one by submission. Razor Ramon going over Bam Bam Bigelow and Owen going over Tatanka in the quarterfinals each over-performed for the environment. IRS beating Mabel was a bit underwhelming for Mabel’s limitations and IRS not quite being able to work around them (for example, not really being able to get out from under Mabel’s pin attempts). The 1-2-3 Kid beating Jeff Jarrett was fine, and its aftermath—Jarrett destroying Kid—both got Double J more over as a menacing heel and facilitated the second round story of The Kid as not only an underdog, but a badly beaten one at that.

In the semis, Ramon over IRS and Hart over Kid were both fine, if not particularly memorable. And then there was the final encounter between Hart and Ramon. Each performer was a worthy enough stars that he’d be believable as king, even though, by that point, the writing was on the wall that Hart was going over. The match was just OK, but this one really thrived on its closing angle—a returning Jim Neidhart, who had helped Bret retain the world title earlier in the show, now interfering on Owen’s behalf, for the larger reveal that Neidhart felt Bret abandoned him when he left the original Hart Foundation, and now was doing everything he could to help ensure Owen beat Bret for the title. While the swerve was a little complicated, it made logical sense and actually honored history—great steps for this angle and further establishing Owen. Coming out of this tournament, he was the King, a bona fide star, and the subject of intrigue given his new henchman.

#1. King of the Ring 1993

While I feel you could make a reasonable argument for any of the top three tournaments in this countdown winding up in the number one spot on account of storytelling (Deadly Game) or the combination of storytelling and in-ring action (KOTR 1994), the 1993 KOTR tournament gets the nod for me because of pure in-ring quality, and because, as a Bret Hart mark—particularly for his work in this era—you don’t get much better than this showcase for his versatility, ring generalship, and stamina.

To put things in context, the King of the Ring tournament had been going on for years as an annual house show event, but this was its televised debut, becoming the fifth PPV to add to the traditional four the WWF had been marketing since the late 1980s. Bret Hart had been relieved of the WWF Championship and demoted from the title picture coming out of WrestleMania 9, and this show would feature a world title match in which Yokozuna challenged Hulk Hogan, arguably at his least over as a WWF performer.

The tournament was built around Hart, fitting for a workhorse technician like The Hitman who didn’t have Hogan’s sizzle but had way more steak to his matches, and particularly so in this era. While the action away from Hart in this tournament was middling—a lukewarm Mr. Perfect-Mr. Hughes bout, a forgettable five-minute encounter between Bam Bam Bigelow and Jim Duggan, and a drawn out no-contest between Lex Luger and Tatanka, all three of the tournaments other bouts featured Hart, and Hart did what he did best—wrestling serious matches against diverse opponents, and telling beautiful stories in the ring.

In the opening round, Hart battled old rival Razor Ramon in what was probably the least of his offerings that night, but still a perfectly inoffensive bout with a fun finish that saw Hart counter Ramon’s signature second rope back suplex by shifting his weight and landing on top of the big man in a pinning predicament. From there it was Hart-Perfect in a rematch of their SummerSlam classic from two years earlier. Some folks like this one better than the original; I say it was a just a small step behind it. Regardless, there’s no argument it was an excellent match that landed safely in four-star-plus territory. There’s the added intrigue of this being a face vs. face match, which was particularly rare at the time (though Perfect edged toward heelery in becoming the aggressor and feigning injury at one point. Overall, it’s a brilliant technically grounded match that ends nicely with Hart reversing a small package.

The tournament ended with Hart duking it out with Bam Bam Bigelow, who was fresher off a second-round bye, and completely believable as a challenger given he was still relatively newly returned to WWF, still well-protected, and still in position so we could believe him getting pushed up to the main event ranks—not to mention that he was a damn solid worker. The two told an excellent underdog story with Bigelow brutalizing his smaller opponent who had the legit excuse of already having worked a half hour in the ring, relative to Bigelow’s five minutes going into this one. It was a solid match, and ended nicely with Hart scoring the pin off a victory roll.

It’s always stood out to me that Hart won this tournament decisively and yet somehow never used the his finisher, the Sharpshooter, to pick up a single fall. It was a testament to his well diversified move set and pure skill in the ring that he could do this convincingly and without any of those finishes looking contrived. And its based on Hart’s work that I call this the best single-night tournament in WWF history.

Which one-night tournaments would you add to the list? Let us know what you think in the comments.