"WHY THE WWE AND WE NEED THE KING OF THE RING BACK" BY TONY STABILE

WWE used to be known for their top four PayPerViews: Royal Rumble, Wrestlemania, SummerSlam and Survivor Series. Although in recent years, (WWE seems to have dropped Survivor Series down their priority list) Then this week, Vince McMahon made the announcement that they would be doing away with their second oldest PPV that was made famous by 5 on 5 (or 4 on 4) elimination matches. The WWE has now put out a new survey in which they ask us for input on a new PPV theme. Amongst the ideas were: a Money In The Bank theme, a Draft event, a Battle Bowl event and a War Games theme.

 However the event in said survey that really got my noodle cooking was the proposition of a TOURNAMENT STYLE EVENT. In that tournament, the victor would win a no.1 contendership to a world title. This sounded incredibly familiar. Oh yes. The King Of The Ring.

 The King of The Ring event was used from 1985 until the death of its PPV format in 2002 when Brock Lesnar was crowned, as it’s final winner. The winner of the tournament would either get a crown, a trophy, or a title match opportunity. This was my personal favorite show growing up. It was a ready-made event with little effort or planning. As well as being easy to pull off, it looked legit. On top of all that, many fans have been vocal in wanting to see this event back on WWE’s calendar for years now.

 It was brought back on free TV in 2006 and last used in 2008 with William Regal being the last man to win. This was a good thing, for the product because it proved to the people that the WWE didn’t completely forget the event. It wasn’t the smartest idea to bring it back on free TV because it no sells the events past as a PPV.

Now the reason I love this PPV was not only because it had a realistic feel. One of the things that made the UFC popular during their “No Holds Barred” days was their tournament styles event. The King Of The Ring is just that. As entertaining as the Royal Rumble match is; it isn’t very realistic from the point of view of a casual fan. TNA has had the great idea in doing tournaments for opportunities to title matches very often, which is why I sometimes am pretty high on random Impacts.

Another reason I loved this PPV format is because it helped launch so many careers and build characters. Would we have had Austin 3:16? I’m not saying Austin wouldn’t have been a huge star without the KOTR. I’m just saying the event was the culmination of 2 pushes meeting. We had Jake The Snake Roberts’ religious bible thumbing gimmick going strong, with the badass Austin needing to bash authority. In this case a lot of people got behind Austin because of the 90’s revolution in quieting religion. Another person who really benefited from being King of the Ring was Booker T. Booker had been floundering badly for the couple of years leading up his KOTR win. He hadn’t done much and was really just drifting in the mid-card. Then, BOOM! He won the tournament, and with it, got a breath of fresh air in his gimmick. He became King Booker, who drew some pretty good heat.

Finally, the WWE should bring back The King of The Ring because it’s not over-kill. With today’s themed PPVs we usually get the same match twice or more. Nothing kills a gimmick more than seeing it twice in one night. Example: The Championship Scramble. Everyone loved this when the Cruiserwights were doing it. They even got a great reaction when they did it for Punk’s World Heavyweight Championship, but in my view they killed it by having it 2 times on one PPV. The Hell in a Cell PPV  was also deeply diminished in my eyes when we were “treated” to 3 HIAC matches on the one broadcast last. With The King of The Ring, We could get that tournament done Playoff style: 2 divisions consisting of 8 wrestlers, with the divisions (brands) winners’ meeting for the title of King of The Ring. 

With the WWE doing away with a main-stay like the Survivor Series, I truly feel they need not look to some flashy gimmicked event to replace it, but to look to the past and bring back a vehicle that was a powerhouse, an event that is simple to pull off, one that comes of as realistic and has built superstars! They should cut the crap with repetitive gimmicked main event matches and give us back pure wrestling. Bring back The King of The Ring.           

 Be Awesome folks,

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 Tony Stabile