Father:_Polley
Fun's my Chinese neighbour's name
With last night's return of the King of the Ring Tournament over and I can't help but find myself ask one question
What did it really acheive?
To look at what I mean, i want to take a detailed look at the first round of the draw to start with
MVP vs Y2J: The midcard champions of both brands face up to open the tournament and two men who have found themselves in matches against each other in the last month or two. A losing effort from MVP in an enjoyable match.
CM Punk vs Matt Hardy - Two darlings of the internet wrestling fans. Money in the Bank vs Future US champion? It brought together two decent wrestlers in the first round of the tournament. I didn't see the match live, however, I watched it this morning, and while it was a fast-paced match, I can't help but feel it weakened Matt Hardy's credibility as a future US champion as the match was nearly all Punk.
Finlay vs Khali Khali was never in this tournament to win it, this match was always just to give a confrontation between Show and Khali. In the meantime Finlay had his knee wrapped around a ringpost and weakens his chance at advancing further
William Regal vs Hornswoggle The Naughty One, the man with royalty in his name was a pleasantly surprising inclusion into the tournament and for a moment, I was looking forward to a match with the likes of James Morrison or Shelton Benjamin to give him a hardfought win over two veterans and make him look good. However, I was wrong. Instead of a match against one of the up and coming stars of the company, a midget is announced as his opponent. A midget who at that moment was currently helping his 'father' and the winner's next opponent to the back. While Hornswoggle has beaten William Regal in the past, and the prospect of an injured but proud Father vs Son match looming, Finlay's injury all but pointed to a Regal Stretch in the Semi-Finals. A short squash match, and an added shot to Finlay's knee the only real accomplishment
Results of the 1st round:
Semi-Finals
Y2J vs CM Punk A feud in the making. Both men looked like they knew exactly what the other was going for and this made for an impressive looking display by both men, except for an awful Lionsault by Jericho, landing across Punk's head.
Regal vs Finlay: An injured leg for Finlay was always going to leave him vulnerable to the Regal Stretch. Despite the injury, both of these men put on a solid match, and it left me wondering...How good could it have been if Finlay hadn't had a knee wrapped round a post in the previous round.
Final
CM Punk vs William Regal Regal made CM Punk wrestle aggressively, using a lot of kicks. CM Punk looked impressive despite losing to Regal's third stretch of the night.
William Regal - King of the Ring 2008.
But what did it really acheive. William Regal, a former European, Hardcore, Intercontinental Tag Champion and WCW TV champion deserves credit for the tournament as he was impressive in every match. However, he beat a midget, an injured wrestler to advance to the final, while CM Punk had to go past Matt Hardy and Chris Jericho to reach the final.
So while William Regal may have won the tournament and finally got some of the recognition he is due for the outstanding competitor he is, I can't help but wonder two things:
As far as can Regal take gold, I thought Finlay or Regal would have been the one to put over CM Punk. He has the case with the shot at the title, and, while it looks like CM Punk and Y2J could start to take off soon, I expected Punk to win it.
Now we have our King, it's only a matter of hoping Regal can use this opportunity to make himself look good and avoid ending up in permanent jobbing roles like Mabel and Billy Gunn, instead emulating the run of his predecessor, King Booker, and show that 40 is the new 30?
What did it really acheive?
To look at what I mean, i want to take a detailed look at the first round of the draw to start with
MVP vs Y2J: The midcard champions of both brands face up to open the tournament and two men who have found themselves in matches against each other in the last month or two. A losing effort from MVP in an enjoyable match.
CM Punk vs Matt Hardy - Two darlings of the internet wrestling fans. Money in the Bank vs Future US champion? It brought together two decent wrestlers in the first round of the tournament. I didn't see the match live, however, I watched it this morning, and while it was a fast-paced match, I can't help but feel it weakened Matt Hardy's credibility as a future US champion as the match was nearly all Punk.
Finlay vs Khali Khali was never in this tournament to win it, this match was always just to give a confrontation between Show and Khali. In the meantime Finlay had his knee wrapped around a ringpost and weakens his chance at advancing further
William Regal vs Hornswoggle The Naughty One, the man with royalty in his name was a pleasantly surprising inclusion into the tournament and for a moment, I was looking forward to a match with the likes of James Morrison or Shelton Benjamin to give him a hardfought win over two veterans and make him look good. However, I was wrong. Instead of a match against one of the up and coming stars of the company, a midget is announced as his opponent. A midget who at that moment was currently helping his 'father' and the winner's next opponent to the back. While Hornswoggle has beaten William Regal in the past, and the prospect of an injured but proud Father vs Son match looming, Finlay's injury all but pointed to a Regal Stretch in the Semi-Finals. A short squash match, and an added shot to Finlay's knee the only real accomplishment
Results of the 1st round:
- Number 1 contender for US title soundly beaten - Surely a DQ finish or MVP interference would have been the best option here so Matt Hardy's status was not weakened by being dominated by the former ECW champion. CM Punk
- MVP lost momentum for his match vs Matt Hardy at Backlash - would have been useful if he were going to lose the belt and Matt's status were not weakened by his loss
- Brought together what looks to be an interesting feud between Punk and Y2J in the semis
- Gave Khali and Show a chance to stare at each other
- William Regal vs Finlay as a semi-final. Given the matches these two had on WCW, this should have been a very good match.
Semi-Finals
Y2J vs CM Punk A feud in the making. Both men looked like they knew exactly what the other was going for and this made for an impressive looking display by both men, except for an awful Lionsault by Jericho, landing across Punk's head.
Regal vs Finlay: An injured leg for Finlay was always going to leave him vulnerable to the Regal Stretch. Despite the injury, both of these men put on a solid match, and it left me wondering...How good could it have been if Finlay hadn't had a knee wrapped round a post in the previous round.
Final
CM Punk vs William Regal Regal made CM Punk wrestle aggressively, using a lot of kicks. CM Punk looked impressive despite losing to Regal's third stretch of the night.
William Regal - King of the Ring 2008.
But what did it really acheive. William Regal, a former European, Hardcore, Intercontinental Tag Champion and WCW TV champion deserves credit for the tournament as he was impressive in every match. However, he beat a midget, an injured wrestler to advance to the final, while CM Punk had to go past Matt Hardy and Chris Jericho to reach the final.
So while William Regal may have won the tournament and finally got some of the recognition he is due for the outstanding competitor he is, I can't help but wonder two things:
- Is the Naughty One's path to victory going to prevent him being seen credibly by the fans
- Is a 43 year old that WWE have criminally underused really going to be the man who is the future of the WWE?
As far as can Regal take gold, I thought Finlay or Regal would have been the one to put over CM Punk. He has the case with the shot at the title, and, while it looks like CM Punk and Y2J could start to take off soon, I expected Punk to win it.
Now we have our King, it's only a matter of hoping Regal can use this opportunity to make himself look good and avoid ending up in permanent jobbing roles like Mabel and Billy Gunn, instead emulating the run of his predecessor, King Booker, and show that 40 is the new 30?