Bret Hart sets the standard for King Of The Ring tournament wins that few have been able to match since. He had a trio of solid matches on his way to the big win, including a good opening contest with Razor Ramon, a show-stealer with Mr. Perfect, and an excellent big man vs little man contest with Bam Bam Bigelow. He also managed to win each one by pinfall, never using his patented Sharpshooter to finish.
Yokozuna, even though it wasn't exactly a clean win, was the man to put the final nail in the coffin for Hulk Hogan's original WWF run, beating him with Hogan's own legdrop finisher, and then just squashing the Hulkster flat after the match with multiple Banzai Drops. By this point, Yoko was one of the most feared monster heels since André the Giant, and that's no mean feat.
1994
Owen Hart follows in his brother's footsteps to win the 1994 tournament, after taking down Tatanka, putting forth one of the shortest Match-Of-The-Year candidates ever with The 1-2-3 Kid, and then (with Jim Neidhart's assistance) toppling Razor Ramon in the finals. It was a catalyst of the biggest push of Owen Hart's career, and if his Wrestlemania X match with Bret didn't already make him a main-eventer, this cemented it.
1996
"Stone Cold" Steve Austin had just defeated Jake Roberts in the final of the King of the Ring tournament, and as Roberts (then doing a born-again Christian schtick) walked to the back, Austin uttered words that have since become immortal, and considered to have launched both his career and the Attitude Era: "Talk about your psalms, talk about John 3:16... Austin 3:16 says 'I just whipped your ass!'"
1998
Mick Foley's career is filled with these, but one especially stands out: the Hell in the Cell match versus The Undertaker at King Of The Ring 1998 (which, for better or worse, set the bar incredibly high for Garbage Wrestlers to come). As per the planning of the match, Foley (then wrestling as Mankind) started the match climbing up onto the roof of the Cell, while a rather hesitant Undertaker followed; after a minute of fighting, Undertaker threw Mankind off the side of the Cell, with Mick falling sixteen feet onto the DoomedSpanish Announcers' Table. For five minutes, replays of the stunt played as EMTs and trainers went to attend to Mick; Undertaker struggled to remain in character, and even Vince came out to see what happened. As Mick was being stretchered out, he stood up and literally ran to climb up the Cell again. Undertaker was legitimately shocked, but climbed back up as well (on a broken foot) to continue the brawl. Then the unexpected happened: Undertaker chokeslammed Foley through the roof of the Cell and onto the ring below; the chair that Foley was slammed onto followed suit, and did even more damage as it smashed into his face. According to all known sources (including Foley himself), that was unplanned (though some still believe that it was actually a worked spot, save for the chair). Mick chose to continue the match, which culminated with a dazed and confused Foley being slammed on thumbtacks. Twice. And Foley still managed to walk out rather than be carried on a stretcher.
After the second fall, watch his face. See that thing in his nose? That's his tooth.
Urban legend goes Foley had to tell his wife the second bump was unplanned as she was extremely angry at him for taking such a risk.
Foley would have been stretchered out after the match, but actually insisted on walking out instead of being stretchered out again.
According to WrestlingGoneWrong.com (a now-defunct website about all sorts of unplanned events happening during matches and shows), Foley was concussed and didn't remember anything after that fateful chokeslam. He regained consciousness after the match, and asked Undertaker if they actually used the thumbtacks. The story varies from place to place, but Undertaker told him, "Jesus Christ, Mick LOOK AT YOUR ARM!!!" which was still covered with tacks. Foley was still so out of it that he responded with "Yeah, but did we use the tacks?".
This match also cemented Jim Ross as the greatest announcer in wrestling. BAH GAWD! "Good Gawd Almighty, that killed him!", "As God as my witness, he is broken in half!" and "Will somebody stop the damn match?!" are some of the immortalized sayings J.R. said during the match.
Foley himself has said he believe that commentary - "As God is my witness..." - is the greatest in all of sports. To quote Foley, "Let the purists have 'The Giants win the pennant!'"
Jerry Lawler was pretty good as well. When Foley went through the Cell, he responded with a matter-of-fact "That's it. He's dead." (Keep in mind that this was at the height of Lawler's shamelessly pro-heel style of commentary. Lawler — who had repeatedly expressed disdain for Foley beforehand — broke character briefly, legitimately believing that Foley had been seriously injured ... or worse.) When Foley actually got back up, Lawler cried out "This is a man who is unbelievably indestructible!".
Undertaker and Mankind watched their match again in 2023. According to them now, Taker was telling Foley after the chokeslam to just go home, pleading to let it end, and Foley insisted they get to the thumbtacks. Mick also confessed he's afraid of heights and was scared the whole time they spent up on the cage. His will was as indestructible as his body.
2001
Shane McMahon's Street Fight with Kurt Angle in which he takes not one, but two suplexes onto a plate-glass window. The result of the first one? The glass doesn't break, and Shane lands horrifically on his neck and shoulders (just inches away from having some real damage done). Both men, during later interviews, admit to being extremely worried Shane was hurt and were about to stop the match, but Shane gets himself upright and tells Kurt "throw me again". The glass breaks this time. Shane loses the match, but seriously - balls of steel, that one. (Later on, Angle would reveal that Shane suffered no real injuries from the match, while Kurt ended up breaking his tailbone.)
By the time of King of the Ring 2001, the InVasion angle had already started off badly, with Diamond Dallas Page being utterly dominated by The Undertaker. There was one last great moment in the set-up however: late on during the Triple Threat main event between Stone Cold Steve Austin, Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit, it's reached a point where all men are down, with Austin on the outside. What happens next? Booker T launches a surprise attack on Austin after making his way through the crowd! The crowd gave the brief beatdown a great pop, and it's a shame that what happened later blurred the moment out. It was also sold brilliantly by Jim Ross and Paul Heyman, despite a minor error from JR:
Paul Heyman: Wait a minute! What the Hell!? Jim Ross: Th-th-that's Booker T! He's the WW- WCW Champion! Paul Heyman: The WCW Champion has just attacked the WWF Champion!
