So the King of the Ring is going on right now. It's the 2026 edition. And most people think that Oberfemi is going to win, so I'm sure by the time you have seen this. And it could be after we have had that final end night of champions, I'll be totally wrong. Do not get me wrong. Oberfemi should win King of the Ring and he should also be WW champion yesterday. But of course we have had a bunch of winners over the last couple of decades or so I am Simon Miller and on behalf of what coach wrestling we are going to rank them from worse to best. Let's get it to it. Number 23, Mabel in 1995. So everybody says that Mabel was the nicest do-whatever so I think we should start there because professional wrestling is the most important or the least important things but you should be a good human and actually this was a bit of a Jinder Mahal situation. Much like what happened with Jinder in modern times, Mabel went from being a tag team guy in Men in the Mission to all of a sudden being at the top of the cart. How many times have we talked about this, you can take anybody and slowly build them up and see if they are going to contact them with the fans. But if you are just going to go, I know what we were doing last week, but now we really would appreciate it. If you do accept this person, as a main eventor, do you know what human beings are going to do? They're going to turn around and say no. Don't forget either that one year after this, Steve Austin was going to be the King of the Ring, which shows that times they were a change in. But yes, I think Vincent Mann realized, well, we need to do something when it comes to business

and... After this, Steve Austin was going to be the King of the Ring, which shows at times they were a change in.

But yes, I think Vincent Mann realized, well, we need to do something when it comes to business. And in the past, big guys have always done very well for me. And Mabel, well, he was the biggest guy on the roster, so we'll just do some with him. And he won the King of the Ring. He eventually would face champion Diesel at Somerslam, where he did not win. And the issue here is that Kevin Nash actually got quite beaten up during this match.

You can read about it.

And I... would face champion Diesel at Somerslam, where he did not win. And the issue here is that Kevin Nash actually got quite beaten up during this match. You can read about it. And right on to this, Mabel went into a feud with The Undertaker. And do you remember when Mark Calloway wore that face mask thing of a jig over his face, obviously, for a little while? Well, it's because Mabel broke his orbital bone. And when you have hurt Kevin Nash and the Undertaker in the mid-90s, well, his push at the top was about to come to an end. It's why within seven months of all of this, he did have another match with Diesel on Raw, and he lost in seven seconds, because yes, Vincent McMahon had looked at his failed experiment and decided, I don't want to try it anymore. There was always who knows where Mabel could have got if WW had just been a bit patient, but in terms of allowing somebody to win the King of the Ring, and then I guess expectations, and when we did end up, well, this one wasn't very well executed, number 22, Bad News Barrett in 2015. Now this one is totally different, because when W.W. did decide to crown Wade Barrett as the King of the Ring,

it was such a good decision, because Wade Barrett was awesome. The problem with Wade Barrett's WWE run is that they would pull the rug from underneath his feet time and time again. Look at what they did with the Nexus. Look what they did with Bad News Barrett. He got so over, he was becoming a baby face when Vince McMahon went, well, we don't want you as a baby face, so we're just going to kill the character. I'm sorry, but that is anti-entertainment. It also didn't help the 2015 King of the Ring came out of nowhere, like it was a random two-night tournament, mostly because WWE had gone, oh my gosh, we do have the WW Network and what everybody seems to love is content, so let's give them some content. And it was great to see Wade Barrett become King Barrett too, but then yes, he didn't really win any of his feuds after this. And before long, he was also put in the League of Nations. And if you know anything about that group, I think WWE just pulled a bunch of random names out of a hat, stuck them together, and then looked to them and said, well, we don't actually have a plan. We're just going to wheel you out there and you can do stuff. This is why we should all be rejoicing about the fact that Wade Barrett was able to come back as a commentator, because he has reminded you how good he is at this professional wrestling stuff. But yeah, when it comes to his in ring days, W WW did not do right by that bad. Number 21, Billy Gunn in 1999. So go with me, Billy Gunn today, if you can. That's a weird thing to say. Do it through like a convention. Don't you go to his house or anything. When you do see him, you'll go, ha ha, no wonder WWE wanted to push this guy. you do not understand how gargantuan he is. He's also a way better worker than people give him credit for. And yes, listen, I totally understand what WW was trying to do in 1999. The new age outlaws have come to an end. They did need some Tiffany top single stars. They went, okay, well, Billy Gunn can win the king of the ring, and then we can see what's going to happen. That's exactly how you should run your wrestling promotion. As ever though, WW wanted to fast track this. So as soon as Billy had won, he went into a feud with The Rock, and you know this, and if you don't make sure you go and Google it today. But basically, on this night, Dwayne Johnson had decided I'm going to cut one of the most memorable promos of all time and nobody could have come back from this. So the only issue was, Billy Gunn was on the receiving end and yeah, that was basically the end of it. You should absolutely go watch it for yourself because I'm never going to be able to do it justice, but essentially the Rock talked to the Lord Almighty as he pretended that the Lord Almighty was having a conversation with Billy Gunn. And by the end of it, it was like, I don't really know what we can do after that, because it was an absolute destruction. And you can also go and watch Billy Gunn talk about this in interviews. Even he is like, listen, it was super duper funny. What the hell was I ever going to retort with? I would say as well, the WWE never really gave him a chance to pick himself and dust himself off either. And by the fall, the New Age outlaws were back together. So yeah, in terms of taking a King of the Ring win and tried to make something of it, it was kind of over before we even began. Number 20, Baron Corbin in 2019. So always get a little bit annoyed when I do think about Baron Corbyn's run on the main roster, because there were so many moments where we could have pulled a trigger and set them off in a brand new direction, but much like Wade Barrett, it just never came to pass. Remember when he was sad, Corbin, and he was getting over, and we killed that gimmick too, because fans were enjoying it, or at least being sympathetic to Baron. I mean, once again, that is ridiculous. The best way to sum this up as well is in 2019, Baron Corbyn did win the King of the Ring. I think everybody agreed that was a good idea. He could absolutely be in that position and he wore a crown for a while and he called himself King Corbin. Now, I said for a while, I'm lying to you because he used this gimmick for 21 months.

Now, as always, if you are going to have an accolade like the King of the Ring, you should lean into it. But if somebody is not going to allow you to change after 21 months, where it's the law of diminishing returns, after a while, people can't care because deep down in our tootsy toes, we always want something new. There was also no follow-up either. There was no big feud, no big program, no big championship match. He just won King of the Ring and then he pretended to beat a King. I hope all these rumours about Baron Corbyn and coming back to the WWR true. Because if anybody does deserve a second go, it's that guy. He's got more he can show. Number 19, Tito Santana in 1989.

So the fifth ever King of the Ring was won by Tito Santana. Unless you were in the building on this evening, you probably didn't know this. Because in terms of what the WWF, as it was back then, was doing on television. Well, they definitely didn't talk about the King of the Ring. It was mostly done to sell some local tickets. The reason it gets in here, though, is that actually the final was very poignant because it was Tito taking on Rick Martel, and of course, up until WrestleMania that year, they had been strike force, and all the house shows you would do Tito versus Rick Martel, like, oh my gosh, I can't believe they're not friends anymore, and usually Rick Martel would win, which was not the case on this night, because not only Tito Santana beat his former best friend, but now he was the king of the ring. And that's it, really. There's not much else to say about it, because WWE did not continue this on to television. But isn't that a nice story? I suppose because back then especially, WWE did in many ways live or die by their house show business. If you were kind of following it as best as you could, well you got a nice ending to the story. So yeah, I like this one, but then it just kind of died and we never talked about it again. Number 18, Ted DiBiosey in 1988. Ted DiBiopiotti had quite the 1988 because not only did he main event WrestleMania 4, He was technically the WWF champion after all those shenanigans with Hulk Cogan and Andre the Giant, and yeah, he went on to become the King of the Ring. And given that the main event of WrestleMania 4 at the end of that tournament had been Ted DiBiotti versus the Matro Man, we ran it for the King of the Ring, but this time the Matroner Man Randy Savage got counted out, meaning that Ted was standing tall. And I was like, yeah, good for you, Ted. I mean, there's nothing else we are going to do, because again, this was before the King of the Ring meant anything, but at least he had won. Six months after this, though, do you know what DiBiossi did? He did introduce the million dollar championship because of reasons like this. He didn't feel like he was going to be respected by the wrestling community. So he essentially used his money so he could respect himself.

That's not a euphemism. But you can kind of argue these two things tied together. So yeah,

it worked out for Ted. Number 17, Don Maracco at 1985. So Don Maracco was indeed the very first

King of the Ring winner and you can kind of compare it to Jim Doug and when he won the Royal Rumble.

This was just a concept of the WWF tried and then they kind of finessed it over the next few years or over the next decade.

So even though you were number one, that's kind of it, just a trivia point.

In 1985 as well, it was all done on a single night.

There were 16 matches and it went down in Massachusetts.

And look, before Don did win this, he had already been the icy champion. So it wasn't like this was going to make or break him. I guess he was just a big jackd dude, so why not? I mean, to be fair, the WW didn't plan to do anything with this either. again, it was just to say, hey man, you should come down to see who the King of the Ring is going to be.

But once more, if you are doing a pub quiz, you probably need to know this. So now you know it. It didn't hurt Don Maracco's career. In fact, he was probably quite happy with it. He more than likely got a good payoff. Number 16, Seamus in 2010. So when Seamus did with the King of the Ring in 2010, it was super intriguing,

because as you

shall see as we go down this list, usually when you do win that tournament, it's to propel you up the card. But by this point, well, Shamus has already been the WWE champion. It was kind of different, though, because we were still in that era where you would dress up like a king. if you did win the king of the ring and the clues in the name. But Seamus, because he was Irish,

well, he started to dress like an Irish king, and as you can see here, it actually looks quite cool, or at least less nerdy than the usual king. It was a really weird follow-up, though, because he lost a John Morrison, and then he got into a feud with Triple H, we did go through WrestleMania, and he did hold the US Championship, so it wasn't a total

bust. It was just a little bit wibbly wobbly. It wasn't until 2012 that Seamus got back on the mountain as the WWE champion, but I will say the 2010 King of the Ring did help because it kept him on TV, and if nothing else, if you're a super nerd, it told you, well, they are still behind him. I thought Shameless did a decent enough job with this, so yep, we whacked him in here. Number 15, Xavier Woods in 2021. So this should have been so much more, because if anybody understood the power of the King of the Ring, it was Xavier Woods. He had walked around for ages saying, hey man, you can take your world championships and stick them up your ass. I want to be the king of the ring. And we gave him the king of the ring. And well, we did not follow up on this and the way we should have done. Now it was an eight-man tournament and Woods actually beat Finn Baller in the finals and of course he started to dress up like a king. But because he understands the goofy wrestling is for life, I tell you man, this was so damn entertaining. And look, hey,

maybe this would have gone somewhere until life decided to be a right asshole, because Xavier Woods got injured and he was off TV for two months. By the time he did return, everybody had forgotten about this, so we did just move on. So I tell you, this probably could have been top five. This hadn't have gone down. Sometimes we really do get screwed No, 14, William Regal in 2008.

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