Ken Shamrock had an awesome physique back then, with him being a good grappler and strong in the ring. Shamrock’s matches against The Rock, Vader are a proof of him being a decent in ring worker. Shamrock was definitely seen as the next big thing in the initial years of his WWE career with him winning the 1998 King of The Ring Tournament.
As Ken Shamrock appeared to be moving up the card, WWE lost interest in him and made him kind of a side thing. With him not seen as a main eventer, Shamrock departed in late 1999 with his last feud against Chris Jericho. The Former Intercontinental Champion’s sole match for the WWE Championship was at In Your House 19 PPV in 1997 against Shawn Michaels, which he won via DQ.
During a recent interview with Steve Fall of Wrestling News, Ken Shamrock revealed the reason behind him not becoming the WWE Champion. Shamrock feels that he had temper issues back then and as a WWE champion would have put someone in the hospital. He feels that this would have hampered the company’s reputation, and so he wasn’t the right person to become the champion at the time.
“I had a lot of other stuff going on too. The company’s got to depend on you if you’re carrying the strap, right? For me, I had a temper. I was wild. If I go up and I get that strap, can I represent the company properly? Am I going to lose my temper and beat somebody up severely and put them in the hospital? That’s not going to represent the company well. So, like I said, there’s a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes where, you know, I was an aggressive guy and I was violent. Being a wrestler sometimes, you know, you got to be able to control those things.”
Ken Shamrock
After leaving WWE, Shamrock resumed his MMA career as he always had on his mind to get back to MMA someday. In addition to resuming his MMA career after WWE, he also wrestled around Independent circuits and had stints at TNA. Shamrock making a name in the Attitude Era is definitely a big thing and deserves a place in the WWE Hall of Fame someday.
H/T to Ringside News
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