411’s WWE This is Awesome Report: Most Awesome King and Queen of The Ring Moments

-Obviously an appropriate episode, but kind of weird to include Queen of The Ring since there had only been 1 Tournament finished by the time this episode dropped. No matter though as it’s all about the nostalgia. Let’s get to it!

-Run Time: 42:52
-Host: Greg Miller

-Sam Roberts calls King of The Ring, the March Madness of the WWE. KING BAD NEWS BARRETT! He notes he was elated when he won and it was another box he could check in his career. Baron Corbin said it was fun to craft the role as his own. KING ANGLE! KING RACE! KING HAKU! KING MABLE! KING SHEAMUS! KING DUGGAN! Basically, just running down all the men who won that are honorable mentions. KING ASS! KING SHAMROCK! KING REGAL! This is definitely an honor that works so much better for a heel to win.

King Bret Hart

-The WWE had been running King of The Ring Tournaments for years, but decided to make it a PPV in 1993. Bret beats Razor Ramon first, then Mr. Perfect (great match), and ends the night beating Bam Bam to become King of The Ring. This was basically the first step of apologizing to Bret for what happened at WrestleMania IX. I was 12 at the time and didn’t know they had been having KOR Tournaments prior to this, so I bought that Bret won the first Tournament until the internet came along.

-Peacock commercial!

The King of Harts

-The next year, Owen wants to match what his brother did as he enters the tournament. He knocks of Tatanka first, then The 1-2-3 Kid. Priest puts over the Owen/Kid Match as does Owens. It was a short match, but they crushed! Owen beats Razor in the Finals which is kind of a cool touch as Bret beat Razor the previous year in his opening match. They have doctored footage here of Owen winning thanks to help from Neidhart, but I don’t buy that. Owen took the King gimmick and ran with it and showed again that a heel winning this is the best. CM Punk: “King of Harts is a bad ass name.” It’s great to have Punk as a talking head for this shows. Owen rules and the world is a sadder place without him here.

Macho King

-Randy Savage beats King Duggan to take his crown at a live event in 1989. Again, heels are awesome in this role and Savage KILLED it as The Macho King. His coronation was fantastic as The Genius read a poem and obviously as a kid, I had no clue that Genius was Savage’s brother. CM Punk again, and of course he was all about Randy Savage. Of course the greatest thing about Savage being King was the scepter shot he delivered to Warrior to end his WWF Title run. That looked amazing! We also had Queen Sherri, who had no problem matching the craziness of Savage. They were great together and it was a brilliant way of keeping Savage fresh after losing the WWF Title to Hogan. Savage should be around as well to receive his flowers!

-Peacock commercials!

King Edge

-Not a fan of this one as Edge didn’t need this! We all knew Edge was going to get pushed up the card and this was the next step. It also set up the Edge/Christian split, but again, babyfaces winning kind of sucks. Edge didn’t even get a crown and instead was presented with a trophy that looked like The Stanley Cup. The Canadian talking heads thought it was epic. Christian became jealous and acted like the trophy belonged to him. We all knew where it was going and finally, Christian snaps, hits Edge in the head with a chair, and beats him with his trophy. Thus their feud begins and it’s still rolling along to this day.

King Woods

-This was a cool moment just because Woods was very public about his goal to win King of The Ring. Kofi says that is the goal Xavier always wanted and Woods says that winning King of The Ring is the first step to becoming World Champion. Woods beats Ricochet in Round 1 and Jinder in Round 2 with both matches being on RAW. At Crown Jewel it was Woods vs. Balor of The Crown and I was kind of hoping for a Demon King, but they went with the dreams come true ending with Woods getting the win. Woods says it was the most nervous he had ever been as it was the culmination of a life long dream. Again, a cool moment as you knew it meant a lot to him. My man spoke it into existence! Big E being backstage (as WWE Champion) to celebrate with him is a sweet moment. Woods starts to cry backstage as he talks about winning The Crown. Again, heels work better, but a genuine emotional moment is pretty awesome as well.

-Peacock commercials!

Queen Zelina

-The first Queen of The Ring as WWE decided to give the women their own tournament. It totally made all the sense in the world. Zelina gets past the first few rounds and faces Doudrop. Man, I forget Piper had that name. The smart thing they did with the Queen’s Crown was let two women who weren’t featured all that much get through and face each other in the Final Match. They talk about how the match was in Saudi Arabia and how little girls were watching history being made. Zelina gets the win and she remembers seeing all the men in the crowd bowing down to her. Cole said it best as there is only one first and Zelina will always be the first Queen’s Crown/Queen of The Ring Winner. Good moment for Zelina!

King Hunter

-Miller mentions that HHH was pegged to win King of The Ring 96, but The Curtain Call happened and he was punished for it. Some bald headed dude that curses too much ended up winning in 96. I’m sure it ended up being a DUD. Meanwhile, HHH has to wait a year and now gets his chance as he beats Mankind in the Final to become King. My review of the entire PPV can be found here. Just think, it still took a little over two years for HHH to become WWF Champion. It did start off a fantastic Chapter 1 of the long rivalry between HHH and Mick Foley. They would beat the stuffing out of each other the rest of the summer and then again years later.

-Peacock commercials!

King Booker

-This may be the greatest King of The Ring winner of all time just because it gave us KING BOOKAH! Nobody went all in with the gimmick like Booker did and it finally gave Booker what he needed for the WWE to push him to the top of the card. That accent was just genius! Queen Sharmell was integral in the entire package as well. Chelsea loved King Booker and Queen Sharmell and doesn’t think you can get much better than that. Again, this saved Booker in WWE and in short order he knocked off Rey Mysterio to become World Champion. Corbin calls Booker the greatest King of all time in WWE. Booker says his goal was to make the role so memorable that people thing of him first when discussing King of the Ring. Such great stuff!

-Peacock commercials!

Austin 3:16

-You know the story as Jake Robets cuts a religious promo and Michael Hayes lets Steve Austin know. Austin gets taken to the hospital after his match with Marc Mero to stitch his lip and then returns to SQUASH Jake in short order to become King of the Ring. Austin was the first to not wear the crown and robe and it was the right call as he would have looked like an idiot. Instead we get the iconic promo that births Austin 3:16 and makes the WWE and Austin countless millions of dollars. Austin still making a ton of money to this day from that promo. We also have to note that this was a massive star making moment and the next night Austin was immediately the man. Gargano says it changed the business. Not really, but I’ll stop trying to rail against that idea. It did show again though that heels winning is for the best.

-Miller wraps things up and next time it’s Most Awesome Tag Teams!

-This was a breeze to watch and really should have just focused of King of the Ring as we have only had one Queen, but I understand why they include both. I was curious since this was listed as Most Awesome Moments if they would cover Taker/Mankind Hell in a Cell or Yokozuna turfing Hulk Hogan from the WWF, but they stuck to those who won the crowd. As is, they covered all the heavy hitters though Brock probably could have been mentioned as he won his Crown only two months after debuting and two months later beat THE ROCK to become WWE Champion. Not many people get pushed that fast and have it be 1000% the right call. Again, the main point (besides the nostalgia) is that a heel winning makes for the best King/Queen. That’s why I had no issue with Nia winning earlier. She can be the obnoxious monster that someone will have to conquer down the line. GUNTHER winning is the right call as well, but I thought Randy had a shot when they announced the winner gets the SummerSlam Title Match. I am getting off track! This show continues to be a joyful watch, but I am sucker for nostalgia as I love pro-wrestling. Thanks for reading!