King of the Ring

This tournament was once used to help put over the superstar that won it. All you have to do is look at the recent winners of Randy Savage, Bret Hart, HHH, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Brock Lesnar, Edge, Kurt Angle, & Booker T. They all went on to win a Numerous World titles after being crowned the champion.

Obviously in recent memory we had Regal and Sheamus win which hasn't really done much to boost their prestige to the same heights as previous winners.

My question is would you bring back the competition?
We all know what like the WWE's booking is like these days but do you think it would be beneficial to the winner if they somehow managed to put importance to the competition?

I would love it back as an actual PPV but not with the current level of writing or booking

Booker T only won one world title after KotR.

But I actually thought it could have done a lot for William Regal, they genuinly seemed to be pushing him at the time, he had a strong on-screen presence and although it was a shock win, it made me believe Regal could have gone on to win a world title. I think the only reason it failed was because Regal got caught up in a drugs scandal.

With Sheamus, rumors are it's because Raw's head booker took a dislike to him after he won King of the Ring, you never know, if he won if that hadn't happened he might have gone onto bigger and better things.

I don't think they give it enough time for them to bother with it though, it could give somebody a small push, but not at the same level as it used to and I think it'd end up like Money in the Bank where they use it to quickly push somebody to the top, only for them to struggle being thrown into the main event and drop down the card again.

I think they should bring it back. It can act a catapult like for previous winners Steve Austin and even Mr Ass were wrestlers in my opinion that it helped make them stand out on their own. Other winners such as Triple H, Owen Hart, Brock Lesnar, Kurt Angle it helped confirm that they were stars needing that extra push. It works well in both contexts. When you look at the current crop of superstars, it can help push their popularity to a new level.

the-gaffer wrote:I would love it back as an actual PPV but not with the current level of writing or booking

Exactly! You can't just bring something back for the sake of it. Unless it's Mania, Rumble or Summerslam in the current climate WWE don't build pay per views.

I would bring the King of the Ring back, but have it a 16 man tournament with all the top wrestlers in the WWE, including champions. The first round could take place on Raw and Smackdown the weeks before the PPV, to see who qualifies for the PPV. Then the final 8 would make it to the PPV. For example you could have Orton vs CM Punk, HHH vs Rey Mysterio, Cena vs Sheamus, Miz vs Christian. The winner of the tournament could have bragging rights that he is the best wrestler in the company, especially if the winner is not a champion. I would make it a yearly event and make it a big deal. I think people would buy into this and would be a great way to establish new main eventers and to strengthen existing main eventers places.

theanimal316 wrote:I would bring the King of the Ring back, but have it a 16 man tournament with all the top wrestlers in the WWE, including champions. The first round could take place on Raw and Smackdown the weeks before the PPV, to see who qualifies for the PPV. Then the final 8 would make it to the PPV. For example you could have Orton vs CM Punk, HHH vs Rey Mysterio, Cena vs Sheamus, Miz vs Christian. The winner of the tournament could have bragging rights that he is the best wrestler in the company, especially if the winner is not a champion. I would make it a yearly event and make it a big deal. I think people would buy into this and would be a great way to establish new main eventers and to strengthen existing main eventers places.

Animal you do realise that's exactly how it used to work anyway when it was a ppv right?

Was the champion involved in the King of the Ring? Pardon my ignorance if they were, but I don't recall them being involved in 1993,1994,1995,1996 or 1997,can't remember others off the top of my head. I said they should be involved and build it up so that the winner can be billed as the best wrestler in that year, making it something like golf's equivalent of the masters. The main focus of my point was having the Raw and Smackdown champions involved to crown the best in the WWE, not to necessarily crown a new number 1 contender. Granted the concept of the PPV I highlight is the way it was before, but I think the format was perfect the way it was. Hope what i was saying is clearer now.

theanimal316 wrote:Was the champion involved in the King of the Ring? Pardon my ignorance if they were, but I don't recall them being involved in 1993,1994,1995,1996 or 1997,can't remember others off the top of my head. I said they should be involved and build it up so that the winner can be billed as the best wrestler in that year, making it something like golf's equivalent of the masters. The main focus of my point was having the Raw and Smackdown champions involved to crown the best in the WWE, not to necessarily crown a new number 1 contender. Granted the concept of the PPV I highlight is the way it was before, but I think the format was perfect the way it was. Hope what i was saying is clearer now.

Yeah your right the champ was never involved... But surely if the champ is in it & doesn't win it completely devalues the title right?

possibly, or gives a monster push to a new challenger. And perhaps the champ could win around 50% of the King of the Rings, maybe even narrow wins. Or they could lose by DQ or being cheated out of it to continue a fued. I still think it can work without devaluing the title.

Didn't the winner of the king of the ring get a title match for Summerslam back in the day!

No only Lesnar won a title shot at summerslam, the rest did but it wasn't a given thing.

I think the 2 people who never got a title shot were mabel and Sheamus.

Regel won the intercontinental belt from santino after his suspension.

I just remember Mable getting a title match at summer slam against Kevin Nash I think!?! Could of been a one off then!

Perhaps I know mabel went on to fued with taker. I remember only Lesnar won the right for a title match.

There was a pole on wwe.com a while back asking what ppv fans want back and the top 3 were king of the ring, a war games ppv and Halloween havoc.

Mabel main evented SummerSlam 95 against Diesel after winning the KotR, Bret, Austin, Shamrock, HHH, Billy Gunn and Edge didn't get World Title title shots at SummerSlam after winning that years KotR

Those are just off the top of my head

Wikipedia will have the answer.

What can wiki tell you? It ran from what? 93-02??? I'd say only 3 winners went on to get the World Title shot at SummerSlam but it was never a rule like the Rumble winner, not up to 2000 anyway

Only four had a title shot at summerslam, mabel, Owen hart, Lesnar and angle. But only Lesnar won the right.

And wiki has let you learn never to trust it.

So only 40% of winners got the title shot at the following SummerSlam