AEW’s Billy Gunn has accomplished plenty in his career, including winning the 1999 King of the Ring tournament during a time WWE was at its zenith in popularity. Unfortunately for Gunn, he was one of the few King of the Ring winners to never rise above his level at the time, leading to him becoming one of the more forgotten winners in the history of WWE’s long-running tournament.

Over the years, some have attributed Gunn’s failure to move forward due to his feud with The Rock, where Rock’s insults towards Gunn in certain promos were thought to have made Gunn look weak. But while speaking at a “Monopoly Events” Q&A, Gunn seemed uncertain that was the cause of him losing momentum, instead suggesting it was because he wasn’t supposed to be in that spot to begin with.

“I don’t know, I honestly don’t know,” Gunn said. “I don’t even think I was supposed to win King of the Ring in 1999. I think somebody got in trouble, and it was just like ‘Who do we put it on? Oh, there’s Billy. Let’s put it on him.’ I wish I could answer that, I just don’t know. I mean, every time Rock jumps on you, especially me. If you’ve followed my career, I ain’t really a talker. That’s why I had Brian, cause he could do all the talking. 

“So when you have someone that’s really good at cutting promos, and you can’t really answer at that level, I’m just being for real right now, is I just wasn’t at that level. So did it halt my momentum? I don’t think so. I think I got in my own way. It’s what it is. Like I said before, I don’t have any regrets. It’s what I did. They put it on me, I did what they asked me to do, so they can never say that I didn’t do business. I did what I could do, and that was it.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit “Monopoly Events” and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription