5 reasons why WWE should bring back King Of The Ring
King of the Ring is one of the simplest, yet effective ideas that the WWE has ever had. An eight-man tournament takes place on a pay-per-view with the winner of the tournament receiving a future title shot.
It is a very efficient way of producing good quality sports entertainment at the highest level possible. However, WWE discontinued the pay-per-view and opted for a bi-annual tournament on Raw or another pay-per-view.
In 2006, Booker T defeated Bobby Lashley to become King of the Ring. It soon became his gimmick. William Regal also had an entertaining reign as King in 2008, before getting suspended.
2010's tournament was not as successful. Sheamus won the tournament, but his ensuing King Sheamus gimmick was forced and did absolutely nothing for him. WWE did not hold another such tournament until five years later.
The 2015 version of King Of The Ring was terrible to say the least. The build up for it began one day before it was aired on the WWE Network. Bad News Barrett won the tournament but just like Sheamus, it did absolutely nothing for him.
In fact it turned him into a joke. It was so bad that he had a feud against R-Truth for his crown and the sceptre. There was no coming back for him. Since then we have not seen the tournament return.
However, this is a good time to bring it back. It will work wonders for the WWE and here are five reasons why.
#1 Recent success with tournaments
Tournaments are always fun, no matter what sport you are watching. The tension while watching a knockout game where there is sudden death is usually unmatched. Wrestling is no different.
It ramps up the intensity and the purpose of matches, giving them an extra edge to provide better quality. It is also easier to get behind wrestlers in these situations. There have been many examples for this in past few years in WWE.
In 2016, we saw the Cruiserweight Classic where 32 of the world's best cruiser-weights faced each other in a single-elimination tournament. It was a major success and is one of the best things on the WWE Network.
The matches were high in intensity throughout the tournament and the fans found it easy to get behind certain matches.
Cedric Alexander became a star during his excellent match with Kota Ibushi, while TJ Perkins actually did something interesting as he won the entire tournament.
The Mae Young Classic took place the following year and is set to return this year as well, after the overwhelming success of the first time. Admittedly, the booking and production of these tournaments would not exactly work on the main roster.
However, the roster is stacked with supremely talented guys who would make it work. We would get some great matches over the course of the tournament without a doubt.