Long Live The King...Maybe

Last night's Raw had a lot of energy and one of the things that generated a lot of energy and chatter on social media was the announcement of the return of the King of the Ring tournament. There are a total of 16 competitors, 8 from Raw and 8 from SmackDown, and they're listed as follows:

Raw:
Baron Corbin
Cesaro
Cedric Alexander
Drew McInyre
Ricochet
Sami Zayn
Samoa Joe
The Miz

SmackDown:
Ali
Andrade
Apollo Crews
Chad Gable
Elias
Buddy Murphy
Shelton Benjamin
Kevin Owens

It's an interesting mix of veterans, fresh faces, established stars and up & comers. I haven't been all that interested in the KOTR the last few times it's returned as it just didn't feel...well...interesting. It felt like it was simply something to ultimately fill up some airtime. However, you can feel and see that Paul Heyman's influence is growing and that, along with some of the names mentioned here, gives me hope that this could not only be an overall entertaining tournament but also an opportunity for some guys to deliver some stand out performances and for being KOTR to actually mean something for the career of the winner. Cedric Alexander looked great against Drew McIntyre last night; fans were sitting on their hands at the beginning and were then on the edge of their seats by the time it was over. I'm hoping for a similar performance from Buddy Murphy tonight against Roman Reigns on SmackDown tonight. Even though Heyman isn't part of the blue brand's creative process, I'm hoping his influence will still be felt and enough of an impact will be made that Vince will realize there's more merit in having Murphy look like a star against Roman Reigns rather than simply being fed to him.

As for the layout of the tournament, personally, I don't think they should rush through it. Don't try to get through the whole thing within a few nights; maybe have the first round matches happen for each brand next week, the second round the next week, etc.., have some interaction between the final four competitors and have the tournament final take place during Clash of Champions. Maybe instead of the hokey crown, scepter and cloak bit, or at least in addition to that, maybe the winner could also earn an opportunity at a championship of his choosing, which feels more tangible and grounded in reality rather than the abstract, and frankly outdated, notion of a "king of wrestling."

So long as the winner gets something and doesn't have to become a king after.

I see this as the ultimate test of someone's ability to get over.

You just won a "contest", and now we fans are supposed to start taking you seriously as a goofy ass "king". If you can take those lemons and make lemonade from them, you deserve a long run at the top.

As I recall, Stone Cold never made any part of that stupid spectacle a part of his gimmick.

It's been reported by Uncle Dave that the KOTR tournament will be a multi-week thing happening on Raw and SmackDown with the finals taking place at Clash of Champions next month. So, if true, then that's a big positive but I do think there are some things they should try to avoid in the tourney. In no particular order:

Have A Plan - It's pretty self explanatory really. Don't make this a waste of everyone's time and squander an opportunity for a wrestler to get over. Whomever WWE plans to have win this thing, have something in mind for him to actually do. For a few wrestlers, KOTR was used as a launching bad for their careers and I'd like to see the tournament return to that as there are plenty of wrestlers who could use this as a stepping stone if it's treated seriously and if it's not just something meant to ultimately take up a month's worth of television.

Give The Matches Time - Again, it's pretty self explanatory. Some little 3 to 4 minute filler matches makes the tournament feel like it really is just mostly about filling up air time. This is an opportunity to put on some really good matches and give a lot of guys an opportunity to shine. Not every match has to be some kind of epic or anything but, as I alluded to, there's a lot of talent in this thing and it'd be a shame to waste it on a bunch of meaningless filler matches that don't even have the time to get out of first gear.

Establish New Stars - Again, it's not a difficult concept to grasp. There are a lot of wrestlers in this tournament who're young, up and comers that have the potential to be stars or already have fans rallying around them. For instance, this is a good chance to show off more of guys like Ali, Andrade, Alexander, Gable and Murphy. Even if they don't win or even if they lose their first round matches, they can still be made to look like guys who're worth watching by putting on great performances. Give them that, follow it up with some more good showings, some promo time and don't just feed them to a monster like Strowman and you could have some fresh faces fans are behind and interested in. Cedric Alexander looked great against McIntyre last night, it made me salivate at the thought of seeing them go 15 to 20 minutes, so follow that up.

Make The Tournament Mean Something - I think it should go beyond just winning a tournament. As I mentioned in my original post, give the winner something that's tangible and that fans can sink their teeth into like having the winner earn a championship opportunity. This can increase interest in the tournament as I'm sure fans would love the idea of someone like Ali, Andrade, Cesaro, McIntyre and a few others challenge for the WWE or Universal Championship. Ali, Andrade, Gabriel, Murphy, and a few others could be viable challengers for the IC or US titles. Win or lose, very strong performances against established stars who're champions on top of sustained momentum of strong work from them is NEVER a bad thing.

Ditch The King Gimmick - If they wanna hold the coronation ceremony or whatever, that's cool but don't saddle the winner with the "King of Wrestling" gimmick. Again, use the tournament as a platform to elevate the winner's career but the "King" gimmick is something that's been too corny for well over 20 years now. It kinda sorta worked with Booker T but Booker T, by that time, had been established as a big star with dozens of championship wins in both WWE and WCW to his credit and his career was sort of winding down, so it didn't do any damage to him. For some young turk, walking around with some goofy, faux fur lined cape, a scepter and a fake crown could kill their career before it even begins. They didn't do it with guys like Bret Hart, Triple H, Kurt Angle, Brock Lesnar and Edge and these guys all became MASSIVE stars with the only one not in the HOF being Brock Lesnar, but he will be there someday. It doesn't automatically mean nothing will come of your career to speak of, Sheamus is an example of that, but it's just an unnecessary hurdle.

All hail, King Baron Corbin!

The brackets for the tournament were released earlier today:

Round 1 - Raw Brand:

**Cesaro vs. Samoa Joe
**Ricochet vs. Drew McIntyre
**Cedrick Alexander vs. Sami Zayn
**The Miz vs. Baron Corbin

Round 1 - SmackDown Brand:

**Kevin Owens vs. Elias
**Ali vs. Buddy Murphy
**Chad Gable vs. Shelton Benjamin
**Apollo Crews vs. Andrade

Round 2 - Raw Brand:

**Cesaro or Samoa Joe vs. Ricochet or Drew McIntyre
**Cedric Alexander or Sami Zayn vs. The Miz or Baron Corbin

Round 2 - SmackDown Brand:

**Kevin Owens or Elias vs. Ali or Buddy Murphy
**Chad Gable or Shelton Benjamin vs. Apollo Crews or Andrade

Semi-Finals - Raw Brand:

**Cesaro, Samoa Joe, Ricochet or Drew McIntyre vs. Cedric Alexander, Sami Zayn, The Miz or Baron Corbin

Semi-Finals - SmackDown Brand:

**Kevin Owens, Elias, Ali or Buddy Murphy vs. Chad Gable, Shelton Benjamin, Apollo Crews or Andrade

Finals - Clash of Champions:

**TBD vs. TBD

Definitely some intriguing matches on the horizon and some potentially interesting ones as well. As of right now, I'm leaning towards Drew McIntyre to win it all and I'm still holding out hope that they'll announce that the winner of the tournament will get something other than just a coronation ceremony, plus not get saddled with the corny King gimmick.

Cesaro vs Samoa Joe should be a beauty of a match.

The money is on Chad Gable.

I'd love for a Ricochet versus Andrade final. Can you imagine? Oooft. McIntyre would be my favourite if not for the fact that there seems to be no likely babyface opponents on the opposite side - I expect Owens to be taken out via Shane related antics and Ali seems set to already have a match at Clash versus Nakamura for the IC title.

As for fun matches: Cesaro/Joe, Ricochet/McIntyre, Sami/Cedric and Ali/Murphy (seriously, check out their feud from 205 last year, was low-key fantastic) all stand out for the first round with potential winners on either side of the equation.