10 Best WWE Kings Of The Rings

8. Edge

The 16-man field for the 2001 King of the Ring was stacked with potential winners like Christian, either one of the Hardys, Rhyno, Kane, Big Show or even 2000 winner Kurt Angle. 

In the end, the honour went to Edge, someone that WWE had been high on for years and always saw as being a potential future headliner. 

After getting past Test and Perry Saturn in the earlier televised rounds, the former Tag Team and Intercontinental Champion bested The Man Beast and the Olympic Hero (thanks to help from Shane McMahon) at the pay-per-view. 

Edge was a great choice for King and the win came at just the right time. While there was still plenty of mileage in his tag team with Christian, he was also ready to swim solo and try his luck as a singles star. 

He took that massive King of the Ring trophy with him everywhere, made 1999's dud winner Billy Gunn look like an ass (man) and soon started having issues with his increasingly jealous kayfabe brother. 

Eventually, Captain Charisma turned on his kin, smashing the trophy over his head and launching a programme between the two. 

Becoming King was a big sign that WWE had plans to elevate Edge above the midcard, something they successfully did over the course of the next year or so.