Bring Back King Of The Ring

[Maddog Lionheart]

I remember a time where the King Of The Ring was an actual pay-per-view. The winner of the King Of The Ring was awarded a world title shot (last time I checked.) Now it's kind of just well........<insert William Regal>......yeah. Do you think the King Of The Ring needs to come back and make a serious return to Pay Per View?

 

[berlinbrawler]

Nope. I don't. I really don't.

King of the Ring was a high honor when Bret Hart won it in '93. It was very damn cool when Owen Hart won it in '94. But then Mabel won it in '95 and it's been dead ever since. If there was any life left in it, it got snuffed out for good when Billy Gunn won it a few years later.

Sure, some who won it moved on to greatness, like Steve Austin and Triple H, but they didn't get there because this prestigious win propelled them. Austin, for example, struck gold with his promo AFTER he won KotR, the tournament itself was not important.

By now the concept of KotR is so faded, it's but a RAW event they advertise but one week in advance. And for the last guy who won it, Sheamus, it was the beginning of a career-endangering losing streak.

It's dead.

 

[Maddog Lionheart]

Nope. I don't. I really don't.

King of the Ring was a high honor when Bret Hart won it in '93. It was very damn cool when Owen Hart won it in '94. But then Mabel won it in '95 and it's been dead ever since. If there was any life left in it, it got snuffed out for good when Billy Gunn won it a few years later.

Sure, some who won it moved on to greatness, like Steve Austin and Triple H, but they didn't get there because this prestigious win propelled them. Austin, for example, struck gold with his promo AFTER he won KotR, the tournament itself was not important.

By now the concept of KotR is so faded, it's but a RAW event they advertise but one week in advance. And for the last guy who won it, Sheamus, it was the beginning of a career-endangering losing streak.

It's dead.

Yes it's dead, I'm kind of aware of that but it's not dead and gone first of all.
Second, you can't forget that some people's carrers have jumped from that such as Booker T. I know that he was already big from WCW but in the WWE he was pushed when he won the KOTR.

I say it would be cool it my opinion.

 

[Hyorinmaru]

The thing about Regal is he was supposed to get a push but the jackass did whatever he did that caused him to violate the Wellness policy and he got suspended.

As for bringing it back, I personally like it more when they don't hold it once a year and instead do it every 2 years. It does not need to be a yearly PPV. WWE has to many gimmick PPVs anyway and that is exactly what this is.

The saying "if it ain't broke don't fix it" applies perfectly here.

 

[Flint]

I love one night tournaments, which is why I loved Wrestlemania 4 so much as a kid.

As far as King of the Ring being a ppv nowadays, well I think its time as a ppv has passed. In the latter years all of the qualifying and opening rounds took place on Ray with the semi finals and finals only on the PPV.

Now, at least in its current format, as a three hour RAW, you get a full tournament. I'm glad it on TV, especially because I don't have to pay for it

 

[Rckstrtmmy]

Okay so maybe it doesn't have to be a PPV but I think that the winner should get a World Title shot. At least that.

They already have two things that guarantee a title shot with the Royal Rumble and MITB. With both of these the winner almost always goes on to capture the title. If the KOTR winner got a title shot that would make 3 superstars get guaranteed title shots and I just feel that's one too many. Maybe they could use the tourney to propel a midcard talent to a midcard title? That would be cool with me especially since the midcard has no real direction right now. And since the tourney is on TV it seems to fit the circumstances better if the winner gets a midcard title shot.

 

[Gomez13]

the winner almost always goes on to capture the title.

royal rumble winners barely win the title... ever lol.
i used to love king of the ring and i think it should come back but they'd really need to promote the hell out of it if it were to get good ppv buys. it was a shame william regal screwed his kotr win with a drug violation, he might have had a title shot. '99 has to be the worst with billy gunn winning... awful tournament, awful winner.

 

[Rckstrtmmy]

royal rumble winners barely win the title... ever lol.

Since the winner was granted the WM title shot, more than half of them went on to win the title. It just hasn't happened since The Undertaker did it in 2007. Also, asides from Jim Duggan, Big John Studd, Lex Luger, and Alberto Del Rio all the winners have won the title at some point (and Del Rio will soon enough). Bottom line, WWE doesn't need another cheap device to propel somebody to the main event. They should do it with good characters, good writing, and entertaining matches.

 

[berlinbrawler]

'99 has to be the worst with billy gunn winning... awful tournament, awful winner.

I challenge that. As awful as that one was, it was not the worst. And the PPV also featured an excellent match between the Undertaker and the Rock for the WWF title and a fun bout between Stone Cold and Shane and Vince.

Compare that to 1995. The tournament featured names like Kama, Duke "The Dumpster" Droese, Mantaur, Doink the clown and Jacob Blue(!). And who won it? Mabel by defeating Savio Vega in the final.
And the main event saw WWF champion Diesel and Bam Bam Bigelow defeating Tatanka and Sycho Sid.
This pretty much marked the darkest period the WWF had ever seen.

 

[rge2010]

I enjoyed it as a PPV, could never understand why they got rid. If its not coming back as a PPV then they need to have it on Raw!!! Its a real good boost for under utlisied mid card talent...ok the Sheamus thing was a storyline though.

 

[Dagger Dias]

Not this again.... No, King of the Ring should not come back in PPV form because it would be a waste of time. It was great back in the day but they have a better concept now in Money In the Bank which does exactly what King of the Ring used to do, push someone straight into the main event, and it does it better. In a time where there is a surplus of gimmick themed PPV's, the last thing they'd need to do is add another. Especially something like King of the Ring which no longer holds the importance that it used to. The PPV would likely do terrible in buyrates and it's better for WWE to rely on things like MITB to establish potential new top guys instead.

 

[Jeff]

I wrote this in another post but what I would rather see is the King of the Ring Tournament start after the Royal Rumble. Have the Quarter Finals (Top 6) at the Elimination Chamber PPV (or whatever they have right before WrestleMania). The last two eliminated fight in the semi finals at WresteMania. The winner gets a pass to the finals of the King of the Ring WrestleMania. It would make the King of the Ring special again, make it relevant in TWO PPVs yet certainly not be over powering. It would be something that midcard talent that doesn't get a lot of air time can go for as well as some uppercard talent that they don't know what to do with like Swagger. I also wouldn't mind seeing them do the first rounds maybe online. Maybe once this whole NXT thing is over because I don't see it lasting much longer...and now that gives me an idea. Could be a good NXT concept. Problem is I wouldn't really want to see some no name guy that will eventually get released before even getting the US Title win King of the Ring.

 

[DeathClutch]

I'm a huge fan of the King of the Ring tournaments, hell I could slip in the dvd's and watch the first 5 no problem one after the other.

People will hate on KOTR that Mable won, but I've always thought had Razor not been injured would he and Shawn have been the finals leading too their summer slam bout.

King of the ring has it's place among WWE as a PPV I'm probably not, but as a RAW show than absolutely. I'd pay for it on PPV but what most people fail to realize is that PPV's equals time, thought and consideration, RAW - King of the ring not so much, thou last years brackets were pretty good, damnit even 2008's were good apart from Hornswoggle.. the only real crappy King of the rings were 1998 & 1999 and that was because WWE focused on the main event & co-main events of the shows had Rock have won 1998 KOTR I'm sure the tournament would have meant something, Shamrock WASTED the opportunity and Billy Gunn well enough said WWE had NO faith in him once they'd give him such an opportunity.

 

[H33LTurn]

Personally I would love to see it return to ppv but I doubt its going to happen. RAW feels so stale when it has KOTR night that putting it on ppv is a risk not worth taking. KOTR should be reserved for TV, and 3 hour shows to be more specific. That way the tournament doesnt take up the entire show and fans dont get the feeling that they're just watching match after match. If WWE wants to make it more creative they can do some sort of crossbranded special but its a no for ppv.

 

[OmegaWWE]

I remember a time where the King Of The Ring was an actual pay-per-view. The winner of the King Of The Ring was awarded a world title shot (last time I checked.) Now it's kind of just well........<insert William Regal>......yeah. Do you think the King Of The Ring needs to come back and make a serious return to Pay Per View?

Historically, the winner of the King of Ring tournament did not receive a WWE Championship match. The only KotR tournament that officially granted the winner a title shot was the 2002 King of the Ring tournament, where the winner went on to face the WWE Undisputed Champion at SummerSlam.

 

[hockeymasterb]

king of the ring should be brought back. its a great idea to get over a new heel over... such as sheamus this year.... in 2011 it should be ziggler getting the nod

 

[LuChava]

KoR would be great but the wrestlers have to be into it. If they half ass it. It will be obvious on tv that they don care.

A nice tweak would be a tournament of champions with the heavyweight champs, US and IC champs, and our wild cards. With the wild cards being awarded their spot on both shows.

In the final it will be title for title for a champ vs champ match and a title match with a WC finalist. If two WC make it the final the match they would fight for an anytime anyplace title shot.

 

[Wonder]

I don't think so.

It was a good PPV when it existed, but it wasn't very well remembered as being classic, because let's be honest, it didn't have that many classic moments, well, except Stone Cold 3:16 and that huge street fight between Angle and Shane McMahon.

I think that if WWE does the tournament from 2 and 2 years apart, it's just fine. And that way, they don't do bad choices (check Mabel, Shamrock ... and Billy Gunn ). I really believe that they did an awesome choice this year with Sheamus. I mean, i hated the gimmick afterwards but i loved the fact that he won that tournament.

Besides, like Dagger said, the KOTR tournament was a way to build and put over wrestlers that almost ready to the main event, and as nowadays, there's 2 MITB matches every year, so an annual KOTR PPV is definitely not needed.

 

[s3machine]

whoever said that the KOTR was great for Booker T.. are you serious? Maybe we have 2 different impressions of what happened because "King Bookah" was definitely the beginning of the end for him. That gimmick was way too silly and started the downward spiral of Booker's career.. if it already hadn't begun beforehand.

 

[martymcfly]

Hmm...didn't you watch the 7/18 raw, with the 8-man single elimination tournament? That pretty much was a king of the ring tournament for you right there. Granted, there still is the finals to go but that is pretty much what king of the ring boils down to.

Even that aside, sheamus just won a recent king of the ring. So what needs to be brought back? An actual pay per view? Personally, if they are going to have it, I'd rather it just be on raw and not have to pay for it.

 

[TheTruNoLimit]

The King of the Ring is dated and has lost all credibility. Ever since they started doing it on free TV the appeal has gone absolutely nowhere. In '06 Booker T won and became King Booker and it did set him up on a legitimate push to the title. William Regal in '08 I believe... had potential, but for reasons we all know about that didn't go according to plan and what the heck did it do for Sheamus? Nothing. Sheamus is king of the ring, wears a robe a few weeks and repeatedly loses to John Morrison?

It's old and dated and while I love tournaments, WWE already has the Royal Rumble winner with a guaranteed shot at the title at Mania. Money in the Bank sets up 2 guaranteed title shots. If the King of the Ring doesn't set up a title shot, it's pointless because the allure has completely worn off. Time for WWE to think up NEW ideas and not go back to old ones.

 

[Wrestling Dynasty]

I wrote this in another post but what I would rather see is the King of the Ring Tournament start after the Royal Rumble.

Totally agree. Rumble will set the contender run for one heavyweight title. Having KOR after Rumble to set for the remaining contender run would make this PPV special again. COME ON WRITERS - THINK!!! I think the Internet crowd makes a lot better writers than the existing ones.

 

[Jeff]

Totally agree. Rumble will set the contender run for one heavyweight title. Having KOR after Rumble to set for the remaining contender run would make this PPV special again. COME ON WRITERS - THINK!!! I think the Internet crowd makes a lot better writers than the existing ones.

Just so you don't misinterpret my comment before (not saying you are) but I don't believe we should have the PPV, but the concept of King of the Ring stretched across a two month span starting after the rumble and ending at WrestleMania. Just in case you were unclear of my comment, not to say you can't have your own opinion though of course .

 

[mrfantastic111]

The thing about Regal is he was supposed to get a push but the jackass did whatever he did that caused him to violate the Wellness policy and he got suspended.

Yep I agree, he got a huge push before he screwed himself over, and generally most of the guys who have won have become major players in the game.

To be fair, Sheamus got a decent push, they just ended up doing the same thing to him as they did to Booker T, i.e; they made him dress up like a jackass for a couple of months. Sheamus did eventually obtain the U.S Title though, and he did goto Smackdown where he definitely has not been forgotten.

 

[Mighty NorCal]

The fuck do you mean bring it back? They had it, last fuckin year

On PPV, there is a reason they downgraded it. Shit buyrates. It does however make a fine monday night special ratings popper, along with Cyber Sunday, or as it was called this year "Powaaaah to Teh Peeople" or something. You all remember the song and all that.

Both very good monday night specials, perfect in what they are doing.