There is a poll on WWE.com listing all the Wrestlers to have won KOTR since 1993....It asks who is the most successful since winning. Ken Shamrock is currently in the lead with almost 30%!
Anyone agree? Bret Hart was 2nd and Austin 3rd.
Owen Hart and Mabel take the bottom 2 spots.
Do that many ppl really think Shamrock was THAT successful since winning KOTR? Who do you ppl think should be winning?
Austin has to be the winner in this poll....there must be some voting chicanery at work, since I doubt that WWE would fix it so Shamrock, of all people, would win.
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Oliva: You are the weakest link! Goodbye!
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Austin, Angle, Brock, possibly even Edge. B. Hart was already well established when he won it.
Edit: Hell, Owen turned it into one of his most successful gimmicks, he was more successful than Shammy too.
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I haven't been to the site yet, but why hasn't Triple H been mentioned? He won it the year after Austin did, and I can't think of anyone that's done more with his career since then.
Tribal Prophet
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Originally posted by Tribal ProphetI haven't been to the site yet, but why hasn't Triple H been mentioned? He won it the year after Austin did, and I can't think of anyone that's done more with his career since then.
Could be fixed! Shamrock, from what I heard, left on good terms with the WWF. And until they teamed him with the Bossman he was always over. Would it be far fetched to think he may be another part of the nostalgia movement? Stranger things have happened.
edit: Oh, as far as greatest king of the ring, I'd have to vote Owen. That pretty much solidified Owen as a strong main eventer, though they did drop the ball with him shortly after the bret fued.
Didn't do a thing for Austin except spawn a catch phrase. Austin was wrestling a dark match against Yokozuna by that Summerslam.
Angle, maybe, but he was so good anyhow that it wouldn't have mattered. Factor that in with the fact KOTR2000 was the most poorly booked tourney of them all.
'93- Bret Hart. It wasn't necessary for him to win the tournament at that time. He already was tag champ, IC champ, and world champ. Easily the top face of the company at that time. In some ways, garnered more fan reaction than Hogan.
'94- Owen Hart. It further solidified his career. It was a launching pad for him to win the tag title and IC title. Too bad he died so young. RIP
'95- Mabel was a joke at KOTR champ, obviously. DUD
'96- Austin. The KOTR tournament did more for Austin than it ever has for anyone, IMHO.
'97- HHH. His KOTR victory was a career-saver of sorts. He was a rising star until the Kliq broke kayfabe at MSG in 5/96. After that he was sent down the ladder to lower-midcard status.
'98- Shamrock. The KOTR victory didn't do much for him. It seemed that after his KOTR victory, his WWF career went down the toilet. A great athlete though.
'99- Billy Gunn. His KOTR victory didn't do much for him either.
'00- Kurt Angle. Really helped launch his career. Same year he won the European Title, IC title, and World Title.
'01- Edge. The Kotr helped him too. His victory allowed for him to be thought of as a legitimate main-eventer.
'02- Brock Lesnar. Next to Austin, this guy received the biggest boost from his KOTR tourney. Proved he was a beast. Not long thereafter, he won the Undisputed WWE World Title.
Overall, I'd say the KOTR helped Austin the most.
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Well, not to nitpick, but everyone here is comparing who got the bigger push because of the tournament, and who the tournament helped the most. The *actual* poll just wants to know which King had the best overall career.
That explains Bret Hart being so high... but not Shamrock...
Tribal Prophet
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I don't see how there is even a question that it's Steve Austin
Winning KOTR not only spawned the "Austin 3:16" catchphrase, but it layed the groundwork for his feud with Bret, which was the groundbreaking feud that made him a name. He was wrestling Yokozuna by SummerSlam, but only because the WWF was building him up. He beat a former WWF Champion, then plowed through everyone before saying "If you put an 'S' in front of 'Hitman', you'll get my opinion of him!"
Austin, more or less, started targeting Bret after he won KOTR. He just had to waste time fighting other people until Bret came back.
When he unexpectedly won KOTR, that was the moment the WWF first put him on a pedestal and said "Hey, look at this guy. He's a star." And, unlike most of the others, this time it actually worked.
Secondly, not only did he have the most successful career out of anyone else on that list, but he had the most successful career out of anyone else in WWF history with the exception of Hulk Hogan. I'd say that ranks him pretty high up there.
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If I had to rank it (using the imaginary criteria of `this is what being chosen to win KOR did for their future careers), I'd say:
-Austin (just on his post-win interview alone; but really overnight, he was taken much more seriously after this win) -HHH (can anyone argue that his career didn't take off after this?) -Brock (he was already going to be pushed, but this helped build up his SummerSlam match with Rock) -Angle (same thing with Brock) -Owen (gave him a great nickname and this added fuel to the fire with Bret) -Edge (kicked off what has been so far a great singles run; the trophy also played as a great catalyst for his feud with Christian) -Bret (he was already top dog; this was just to make up for jobbing to Yokozuna; I'm sure.) -Shamrock (What on earth good did this do for his career?) -Gunn (See also Shamrock, Ken) -Mabel (Launched a title push, sure, but may have actually more harm than good for his career, I think)
Best overall career is a no-brainer. Who besides Steve Austin carried an entire era on his back? As for who benefitted most from KOTR, it has to be Owen Hart. Even the guys like HHH, Angle, and Brock had other things contributing to their main event rise. With HHH, it was a couple more years of midcard push. With Angle, he had already held multiple titles. Brock was an unbeatable monster and KOTR just happened to go down when his streak was going. All Owen had separating him from opening match jobber status was one (perceived to be) fluke win over Bret at WM. KOTR put him up to where he factored into the main events of the next three PPVs and was a believable uppercard guy from then on.
I've always liked Shamrock, but I even forgot he won KOTR, so I don't think he should be in top 3... ON the other hand Owen should be much higher on the list. He played "King of Harts" gimmick really well.
Austin would get the top spot for me... Bret being number 1, I guess he's winning the popularity contest on WWE.com. He was already established so winning this didn't really add too much. But he did have an awesome match with Curt Hennig in the semi's. And pretty lame booked match with Bigalow in the finals. (remember Bigalow wins. NO restart the match LoL)
Poor Edge, Billy Gunn with more votes then him. That just ain't right.
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PS. KOTR was the peak of Shamrock's career. Before that he was one of the top 3 faces behind Austin and Undertaker, having challenged Michaels for the title on a PPV and been involved in a red hot IC title feud with Rocky. After KOTR Shamrock got to be an interchangeable McMahon flunky, a Union member, and extended Steve Blackman rival. What KOTR supposedly did for this guy I don't really know, but hey, at least he wasn't Mabel.
I enjoy RAW. Why does every one feel the need to start five or six of these threads a day? If you want to bitch about RAW or Triple H there are a few threads which you can post in if you'd like.