The 2002 King of the Ring was the final time, to date, that the single elimination tournament was featured on it's own pay-per-view. Perhaps feeling that, due to lacklustre King of the Ring tournaments in recent years, the gimmick needed a rest, WWE would replace this in the annual PPV schedule with Bad Blood in 2003. Held on June 23, 2002 in Columbus, OH, King Of The Ring nethertheless has plenty to tempt wrestling fans with: most notably, the continued rise of 'The Next Big Thing' Brock Lesnar.

Rob Van Dam became the first KOTR final qualifier after defeating the first ever Undisputed Champion Chris Jericho in a spirited affair. The second semi-final saw heel take on heel, a match-up I personally am never too keen on, when Brock Lesnar overcame the stiff test of, erm... Test! The tourney final was set up, it would be RVD versus Lesnar for the King of the Ring title, and perhaps more importantly, a WWE Championship shot at Summerslam in two months time.

Relative newcomer Jamie Noble, playing the "Southern hillbilly" character with great aplomb with on-screen girlfriend Nidia, won his first (and as of yet, only) championship in WWE when he defeated the Hurricane for the Cruiserweight title in a fine bout. Next came a match thrown together under controversial circumstances. Stone Cold Steve Austin was scheduled to feud with and wrestle Eddie Guerrero, but walked out of WWE after disagreeing with Vince McMahon over being forced to lose to Brock Lesnar on Raw (that match never actually took place). Vince still wanted a big name opponent for Guerrero at King of the Ring, so a hurried series of events occured where Ric Flair, after a brief stint as heel, turned babyface and lost control of the Raw brand to Mr. McMahon on a Monday Night episode, thus forcing The Nature Boy to become a full-time wrestler again. Vince would, of course, soon after the KOTR PPV, appoint General Managers of both Raw and SmackDown. But back to Flair vs. Guerrero. A decent match, with Naitch getting a somewhat surprising victory with an assist from Bubba Ray Dudley. I still can't help wishing Austin hadn't left the company at this point, Stone Cold vs. Eddie Guerrero would have been a real treat on pay-per-view.

Another title change saw the Women's Championship pass from Trish Stratus to Molly Holly. This was a good match, but was ruined by Jerry 'The King' Lawler's misogynistic commentary pertaining to Molly's supposed large backside. Obviously WWE were using the King to get Molly over as an "unattractive" heel, but foolishly failed to realise that Molly's bottom wasn't actually that big, in fact, it looked on television to be even smaller than Trish's! The announcing from Lawler, the unflattering camera angles ordered by the directors, and the whole stupid storyline in general, was an insult to a genuine female talent like Molly, and it's little wonder that, so far, she has resisted the opportunity to come back to the company.

Hollywood Hogan's penultimate PPV appearance of 2002, and first King of the Ring match in nine years, came against the bewigged Kurt Angle. Despite looking like a cretin with an unconvincing toupee, Angle got a good match out of the not-very-mobile Hulkster, and took the win via Ankle Lock submission. Interesting to note that Hogan, reknowned in the wrestling business for rarely agreeing to lose cleanly, made 5 in-ring PPV appearances in `02, and lost in 4 of them. Plus Hollywood would go on to put Brock Lesnar over on SmackDown before leaving the company for a while, although the rumours at the time were that Hogan was to return to WWE by Survivor Series and defeat Brock for the WWE Championship, thus "getting his win back". This, of course, never ended up happening.

Speaking of Lesnar, he won the King of the Ring final by pinning Rob Van Dam. This meant that Brock would challenge whoever the Undisputed Champion might be at Summerslam in August. Paul Heyman decided to stick around on guest commentary during the main-event, much to the evidently real annoyance of J.R and Lawler, as Undertaker defended his Undisputed WWE title against Triple H. The Rock had arrived earlier in the evening, and was expected to put in an appearance during the final match of the night. 'The Great One', back from Hollywood, didn't disappoint, coming to chase Heyman out of the arena after Paul E. had suggested that Lesnar had attacked the Rock and left him in a heap backstage. As for the match itself, the Undertaker retained the title, and neither he nor 'The Game' were thankful to the Rock for his continued interference.

King Of The Ring 2002 was an enjoyable PPV. The tournament itself suffered once again from mediocrity until the final match, but there was plenty of great action on the show anyway, and the tourney final and WWE title match both lived up to expectations.