5 WWE King of the Ring runners up that should've won
The King of the Ring tournament has made many a star in WWE, with the winners often going on to bigger and better things. Perhaps the most prominent example of this is Stone Cold Steve Austin's King of the Ring win in 1996 which truly catapulted him to superstardom.
The winners are often well-remembered, and have their names added to quite a lucrative list of Superstars. Sadly, the runners-up are often forgotten, even though they were just one more win away from being winners themselves.
In fact, there are several instances throughout WWE history where you could argue that the wrong person won the King of the Ring tournament and that WWE should have gone with the runners up instead.
Here are five instances where I believe that WWE made a mistake with their King of the Ring winners and that the runner ups should have won instead.
#5. Chad Gable should have won King of the Ring 2019, not Baron Corbin
The feud between Chad Gable and Baron Corbin looked like it was intended to get Chad Gable over as a mid-card, if not top, babyface. Especially since Corbin already had plenty of main event level storylines and moments, like the time he was RAW General Manager.
We move forward then to the 2019 King of the Ring tournament that was centered around these two men. Baron Corbin as the slimy heel and Chad Gable as the extremely talented underdog building momentum and popularity. So what does WWE do? In true WWE fashion they have the bad guy defeating the plucky underdog.
This wouldn't have been the worst thing in the world if they had handled the rest of the storyline well. But they would go on to have the newly crowned King Corbin humiliate Chad Gable on a regular basis which eventually led to the now infamous name change for Gable to Shorty G.
Chad Gable was winning people over with his fantastic in-ring ability, his underdog aura and his likability. WWE all but buried it when they had Baron Corbin and not Gable win the 2019 King of the Ring tournament.