Should King of the Ring return as an NXT event?

[TheMainEvent]

King of the Ring has always been a favorite of mine growing up and I hate that the WWE has dropped the concept and event. It was a great stepping stone for mid-card guys to elevate to main event level and the tournament structure was alot of fun and exciting. With WWE not having any interest in doing it on the main roster would it be a good idea for former King of the Ring and NXT Commissioner William Regal bring it to the brand? The CWC showed that a proper done tournament can draw alot of interest and great matchups. Maybe the NXT version can award the winner a WWE Roster spot, #1 contendership, Royal Rumble spot, etc...

It would be something that gives the guys not in the title contention a storyline to run with and build to a TAKEOVER: KING OF THE RING event.

 

[sMark]

And the winner get a main roster contract or titleshot. Every tournament must have a goal after all.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

Not sure this should be an NXT exclusive... The way I see it, it should be like the Mae Young/Dusty Classic/Cruiser Tourney... 16 names.. 2 from RAW, 2 From SD, 1 from 205 and the UK divisions 2 From NXT 2 "legends", 2 returning starts and 4 "guests" from other places.

Imagine this as a list of participants

RAW
Matt Hardy
Samoa Joe

SD
Sami Zayn
Dolph Ziggler

205/UK
Neville
Pete Dunne (status as champs let both in)

NXT
Drew Galloway (Status as champ allows him in)
Adam Cole

Returning
Damien Sandow
Davey Boy Smith Jr.

Legends
Kurt Angle
Chris Jericho

Guests
Nick Aldis/Magnus
Ricochet (said to be leaving LU)
Cody Rhodes (strict one off)
Jay Lethal (assuming they could do the deal with ROH)

That would be a ratings draw for the network and even getting guys like Cody in on a short term deal for the event would get interest, even if it didn't go further. It'd be a great way to push someone like Neville or Adam Cole into the mainstream or to debut someone like Jay Lethal or Ricochet if they can get them.

 

[Psykohurricane55]

No, i don't want to see this in NXT. It's mostly because the gimmick itself as been tarnish so much in the last couple of time that it would make whoever won it a joke and pretty much put whoever won the tournament in a huge disavantage.

The king of the ring tournament was a great thing during the 80's and 90's and while their some winners that you want to forget (mabel and Billy gunn) for the most part it help some of the guy get to the next level. Then came the 2000's and let face it, if you look at the winners of the first three edition of the tournament (edge,angle and lesnar) Edge was push to the midcard because of the tournament and it took a couple of year and some personal drama to make him a main event talent, Angle was already a main event star when he won and Lesnar was going to be a a megastar anyway and it was just a stepping stone to advance his story.

Then look at what the king of the ring produce since then, The last great winner was Booker T. He took the gimmick and recreated himself with him which lead to a main event push, then you got Regal, Sheamus and Barrett. Three guys that won the tournament and it hurt their career instead of helping them. That'S what i'm scared would happen in NXT with this tournament. Plus they really don'T need another tournament on NXT anyway. They have the dusty classic every year for the tag teams which is enough for me.

For me if they want to bring it back and i doubt they would want to after the last debacle, i would bring it back on the main roster for which ever brand doesn'T get the money in the bank PPV. You could use the tournament the same way the money in the bank contract works. The winner of the tournament get a title shot at any event he want until the next tournament. It would help them create drama for which ever brand get the tournament.

In NXT the tournament would just be a waste and wouldn't help anybody in the long run.

 

[Jeff Deliverer of Mail]

If it came back they need to take it way more seriously. Remember the last winner King Barrett and how much of a joke he was after winning? What a waste of time that was. He was basically the King of Jobbers and lost to anyone midcard and up. Make it a big deal again with the winner getting a World Title shot on Raw or Smackdown. Their choice. Simple as that. Still use it as a vehicle to elevate midcarders though. No John Cena, Roman Reigns victories. More like long shots like Big E or Jason Jordan.

 

[sMark]

Wade Barrett should be in this tournament. Previous King should always be included in my opinion.

Main roster have MitB.

 

[Dagger Dias]

No. If King Of The Ring returns then it should be as a main roster event. I'm still not sure why Money In The Bank ended up being Smackdown exclusive instead of dual-branded. For this reason, King Of The Ring should go to Raw this year. They could make it a show exclusive to the red brand with two tournaments going on. One for this year's King Of The Ring and one for the first Queen Of The Ring. The two Finals would take place on a Raw PPV with the tournament matches taking place on Raw events leading up to it. There is too much history with King Of The Ring on the main roster to do it in NXT. If they do a tournament in NXT it should be for a new #1 contender to the NXT Championship. A tournament for who gets a main roster promotion seems silly and it would not make any sense to use King Of The Ring for it. Then again, it can't be worse than what they did with Barrett when he won King Of The Ring....

 

[Spidey Revivey]

I don't see a problem with it going to NXT. At least then I can feel more comfortable that Trips won't turn it into a stale gimmicky medieval monstrosity. I don't trust the main roster would use it any differently, with how one-dimensional they've made the tournament in the last four times they've done it. So yeah, let NXT take it. Not like Raw or Smackdown could do something worthwhile with it anyways.

 

[Headman]

No. It should return as the Feb ppv to decide who gets a shot at the title not chosen by the Rumble winner.

 

[shooter_mcgavin]

No. It should return as the Feb ppv to decide who gets a shot at the title not chosen by the Rumble winner.

Too much happening at that period with WM being so close so I would say it's only June would be a good place to put it.

It should also be as event for the main roster since historically it's been done to crown guys like Austin, Bret Hart, Savage, among others.

Have 8 participants from RAW and 8 from Smackdown! have the 1st round in their respective shows than have the quarter, semi, and finals in the PPV.

Personally i'd like to the KOTR replace the Money in the Bank PPV. For me the MITB gimmick has ran it's course and in the last 4 cash ins 2 were transitional short term Champions and 1 failed their cash in .

Problem with MITB is that when you give the briefcase to someone usually it's either they aren't ready to be Champions (Corbin, Dolph Ziggler, Sandow, CM Punk (first cash in), Jack Swagger) or it doesn't make sense to give the belt to them at that point in time (Sheamus, and Del Rio).

From what I've seen I have seen more misses and hits in the MITB. And the reason for this, I think, is because once you win the Briefcase in a 6 or 8 person ladder match there's also an expectation that you will be Champion whether you are ready for it or not. So it's possible the winner could easily crash and burn.

At least in the KOTR you don't have the same level of high expectations. The KOTR can be a way for someone to take the next step w/o necessarily being a World Title contender. And hey it's benefited guys like Austin and Triple H all who won the KOTR giving them an added boost w/o being a main eventer yet.

So yeah I'd like to see the KOTR return and replace the MITB. Only, this time, it should be done to put someone in the next level and not so they are given a "king" gimmick.

 

[King Patrick Star]

Ever since the Intercontinental and United States Championship Titles were reactivated in 2003, I always felt that the 8 Champions in the WWE should be the competitors in the King Of The Ring Tournaments. It only made logical sense to me that the best of the best should battle for the WWE Crown. If the KOTR was brought back, it should begin on Raw and Smackdown, and end at a dual-branded pay per view / Network special, and the brackets would look like this.

Quarter-Finals

Match 1
WWE Universal Champion, Brock Lesnar vs. Intercontinental Champion, The Miz

Match 2
Raw Tag Team Champion, Seth Rollins vs. Raw Tag Team Champion, Dean Ambrose

Match 3
WWE World Champion, Jinder Mahal vs. United States Champion, A. J. Styles

Match 4
Smackdown Tag Team Champion, Jey Uso vs. Smackdown Tag Team Champion, Jimmy Uso

Semi-Finals

Match 5
Winner of Match 1 vs. Winner of Match 2

Match 6
Winner of Match 3 vs. Winner of Match 4

Finals

Match 7
Winner of Match 5 vs. Winner of Match 6

The winner of the King Of The Ring Tournament would also be the Champion of Champions.

 

[Aeon Mathix]

Some pretty headache inducing ideas I am reading. Keep it simple. Hold it in June over the course of the month leading into July's pay per view. It can be single branded doesn't matter and have the winner become number one contender to the world title of their respective brand at SummerSlam. I believe this is how it worked back in the day or at least I know that was what Brock got when he won. Kind of like a Royal Rumble style win with the winner getting a main event title shot at one of the biggest shows of the year.

I don't know if I would call it King of the Ring but it would be cool to see NXT utilize a tournament like this with a main roster contract on the line like someone previously mentioned. Or just like I said earlier have it over the course of a month or two and have the winner go on to a Takeover. Tournaments are good ideas in theory as it can establish someone easily by having them win 4 or so one on one matches leading to a title victory. Instantly gives them credibility and in fact, Jinder Mahal could have benefited greatly from it leading up to his title win rather than just winning a random battle royal.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

It could be an interesting idea, though I think the KOTR concept would need to be overhauled to get the most out of it as a means of keeping this tournament as feeling different from the CWC or the Mae Young Classic. For one thing, I'd do away with all the cheesy gimmicks of the crown, the scepter, the cape and throne. They're outdated, inaccurate and hokey stereotypes of old fashioned American takes on European monarchy, especially the British, and I don't think it's something that fits the modern age all that well.

I'd go the route of creating a nice, majestic looking championship belt that incorporates some of those aspects of royalty, including having a majestic crown as part of the center plate, have the KOTR logo in the plate as well, etc. The KOTR holds said championship until he gets his opportunity to challenge for his opportunity to go after the NXT Championship. I'd make it so that the winner gets to name when he gets his title opportunity, but the champion has to be informed in advance as I don't think they should make it just another MITB gimmick.

I'd also go the route of making it a round robin tournament consisting of 8 or 10 wrestlers who face each other over a period of maybe a couple of months, including NXT house shows. I feel a round robin tournament gives more of a feeling of "anything can happen" or at least the notion that upset victories can and will happen sometimes. I also think a key to making it feel like a significant deal is that all the wrestlers involved are booked to come off as credible, viable competitors rather than just being 2 or 3 legit contenders to win while the rest of them are just there as little more than window dressing. As for a point system, I'd keep it simple with each match having a 20 or 30 minute time limit, 5 points for win by pinfall, 7 points for win by submission, no points for count outs or DQ as I think it might help give the matches a sense of urgency in that you can't take a cheap way out and still expect to collect points. Every so often, some of the matches could be gimmick matches such as a last man standing match, maybe a falls count anywhere match, to throw a little variety into things. The two with the most points accumulated meet in a one on one match, a 60 minute ironman match, with the winner becoming King of the Ring and getting an opportunity at the NXT Championship of his choosing.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

It could be an interesting idea, though I think the KOTR concept would need to be overhauled to get the most out of it as a means of keeping this tournament as feeling different from the CWC or the Mae Young Classic. For one thing, I'd do away with all the cheesy gimmicks of the crown, the scepter, the cape and throne. They're outdated, inaccurate and hokey stereotypes of old fashioned American takes on European monarchy, especially the British, and I don't think it's something that fits the modern age all that well.

I'd go the route of creating a nice, majestic looking championship belt that incorporates some of those aspects of royalty, including having a majestic crown as part of the center plate, have the KOTR logo in the plate as well, etc. The KOTR holds said championship until he gets his opportunity to challenge for his opportunity to go after the NXT Championship. I'd make it so that the winner gets to name when he gets his title opportunity, but the champion has to be informed in advance as I don't think they should make it just another MITB gimmick.

I'd also go the route of making it a round robin tournament consisting of 8 or 10 wrestlers who face each other over a period of maybe a couple of months, including NXT house shows. I feel a round robin tournament gives more of a feeling of "anything can happen" or at least the notion that upset victories can and will happen sometimes. I also think a key to making it feel like a significant deal is that all the wrestlers involved are booked to come off as credible, viable competitors rather than just being 2 or 3 legit contenders to win while the rest of them are just there as little more than window dressing. As for a point system, I'd keep it simple with each match having a 20 or 30 minute time limit, 5 points for win by pinfall, 7 points for win by submission, no points for count outs or DQ as I think it might help give the matches a sense of urgency in that you can't take a cheap way out and still expect to collect points. Every so often, some of the matches could be gimmick matches such as a last man standing match, maybe a falls count anywhere match, to throw a little variety into things. The two with the most points accumulated meet in a one on one match, a 60 minute ironman match, with the winner becoming King of the Ring and getting an opportunity at the NXT Championship of his choosing.

This is interesting as the Super J Cup has had more of an airing recently... but lets not forget how horrible WCW and TNA made round robin formats... I'm not sure that I trust WWE to do it any better, especially with as many as 10 people. 6 maybe...

 

[Jack-Hammer]

This is interesting as the Super J Cup has had more of an airing recently... but lets not forget how horrible WCW and TNA made round robin formats... I'm not sure that I trust WWE to do it any better, especially with as many as 10 people. 6 maybe...

I get what you're saying but I have a lot more faith in something like this happening in NXT on Triple H's watch than I would on the main roster. While NXT has yet to host a round robin tournament, Triple H has shown over the last 5 years that he has the patience and discipline to let things play out and play to their strengths most of the time. If spaced out properly and if they filmed the tournament matches at NXT house shows, then it could make up a lot of content for NXT for a few months.