King of the Ring 2015

 At the Extreme Rules PPV Michael Cole announced the return of the King of the Ring with an exclusive live special this Tuesday on the WWE Network.  I’m big fan of tournaments and the King of the Ring so I was excited that it was coming back, but I had me reservations about it.  The special was only slated for 1 hour and the announcement seemed pretty last minute as this was the first I had heard about it.

Many people are not aware that the first King of the Ring was not in 1993 on Pay-Per-View.  It was July 8, 1985 at Sullivan Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts featuring a 16 man tournament where Don Muraco defeated Iron Sheik in the finals.  The King of the Ring was held again the next year in Foxborough with Harley Race defeating Pedro Morales in the finals.  Harley was the first person to win King of the Ring and wear the Crown and robe to the ring calling himself King.

The tournament moved to Providence, Rhode Island where it was held in 1987, 1988, 1989, & 1991.  Bret “Hitman” Hart is the only person to win multiple King of the Ring tournaments winning in 1991 and the events PPV debut in 1993.  The event was held on PPV from 1993 until 2002, then returned on WWE TV in 2006, 2008, & 2010. 

I would like to see the King of the Ring return as a PPV featuring an 8 man tournament and have qualifying matches on TV leading up to the event.  What the WWE did this time around was have qualifying matches on RAW and then move on to the Network special with the final three matches. 

In qualifying matches on Raw:

Bad News Barrett defeated Dolph Ziggler

R-Truth defeated Stardust

Sheamus defeated Dean Ambrose

Neville pinned Like Harper

The King of the Ring special on the WWE Network

Neville vs. Sheamus

Bad New Barrett vs. R-Truth

Plus the winners facing each other in the finals

The special opens with Jerry “The King” Lawler welcoming us to the King of the Ring and features a promo by Sheamus leading to the opening contest.

Neville pinned Sheamus with Red Arrow at 5:43 to advance.  This was a great match and they really pushed the story of the smaller Neville out maneuvering the bigger Sheamus.   Decent match with the distraction assist from Dolph Ziggler to Sheamus.  

After the match Ziggler ran into the ring and brawled with Sheamus who had his eye busted open.  Surprisingly they pointed it out drawing attention to it, something they don’t normally do.

Bad New Barrett pinned R-Truth with the Bull Hammer at 4:37 to advance.  Ruth dominated the match until Barrett thumbed him in the eye then hitting the Bull Hammer for the win.

They paid tribute to Verne Gagne’s passing with a great video package.

Bad New Barrett pinned Neville at 7:05 with the Bull Hammer to win the 2015 King of the Ring.   Very good match, fast paced and highly competitive.  Neville went for Red Arrow, Bad News moved and Neville landed on his feet.  Charging at Barrett in the corner he ate the Bull Hammer.

I’m not sure why they gave the crown to Barrett, he’s an established star in WWE with 5 Intercontinental Championship reigns, this would have been the perfect opportunity to elevate a new star.  In the end though, a decent night of matches.

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How I would like to see the WWE PPV's

I would like to see the WWE revamp their monthly big events or whatever we call Pay-Per-Views these days.  Some people feel that a monthly PPV is too much as there isn’t enough time to build proper feuds between cards.  At times I feel the same way but I think what would be better is to change their PPV to stretch out those programs.

I’m going to go month by month with what I think the PPV landscape should look like.  Obviously the big 4 will stay the same so it’s really only the other 8 months to contend with.  Straight away get rid of Extreme Rules and TLC, having a card full of gimmick matches just to have gimmick matches is ridiculous.  Also Hell in a Cell needs to go.  All of these matches should happen naturally as the feud builds and not just have them because it’s October and we need a Hell in a Cell match.  I mean seriously at the December 2014 TLC PPV we had a stairs match, a stairs match!  I could literally see Big Show and Kane in their respective matches at this PPV with the “I’m getting too old for this shit” look on their faces.

January – The Royal Rumble

The Royal Rumble is the best way to start the New Year and kick off the countdown to WrestleMania.  I know over the years they’ve messed with the time between competitors and even had 40 competitors once.  I went to that one!  I think a minimum of 90 seconds between is good but would like to see them return to the two minute format.  I also like the idea of the surprise entrants, they’ve been doing that the last few years and it’s always cool.  The Royal Rumble match should always be the featured bout and main event of the show.  A match for the WWE Championship should be contended but I think a good gimmick would be to have the Champion defend against someone who has never had a title match before.  You could decide that winner by a battle royal or a tournament leading up to the event.  You could round the card out with a tag team title match, diva’s match.

February – Battleground

This would be just a monthly PPV card with matches based on the normal flow of storylines. 

March/April – WrestleMania

Nothing needs to be changed about WrestleMania

April – Payback

This would be just a monthly PPV card with matches based on the normal flow of storylines. 

May - Money in the Bank

This is a great concept that started at WrestleMania and has spawned to its own PPV.  The Main Event of this card should be the Money in the Bank match.

June – Great American Bash

This would be just a monthly PPV card with matches based on the normal flow of storylines. 

July – King of the Ring

The King of the Ring should be brought back as its own PPV and there should be no WWE Championship match on this card.  It should be an 8 man tournament and between rounds you can have Tag Team title match and a Diva’s match.  The winner of the King of the Ring should go on to wrestle for the WWE Championship at Summerslam.

August – Summerslam

Nothing needs to be changed about Summerslam

September – Night of Champions

A show where ever title is on the line is good.  When this PPV started the WWE recognized 9 Championships and they are currently down to 5, World Heavyweight, Intercontinental, United States, and Diva’s.  I think this would be a great opportunity to bring the NXT Champions up and have them defend their championships on the PPV to help elevate the NXT product.  

October – Elimination Chamber

I think having a PPV featuring this match is a great idea.  Unlike any other stipulation matches a feud doesn’t build to 6 guys naturally competing in a single match.  This should be a title match and should be the last match.

November – Survivor Series

The Survivor Series should return to its original format with 5 on 5 teams competing in elimination matches, there should be no singles matches.  If the WWE Champion is competing in a tag match it builds interest towards a singles match at the next PPV. 

December – Starrcade

This would be just a monthly PPV card with matches based on the normal flow of storylines.  I think it would be great for the WWE to bring back the name Starrcade to celebrate the history of the wrestling. 

As far as the February and April names those could change yearly based on location or type of matches on the show or whatever name fits best that year.

In this formula the WWE World Heavyweight Championship could be defended 10 times at major shows with 1 of those defenses being against a challenger that has never had a title match before and 1 in a multi-person match.  This leaves 8 other matches to build the storylines around and to this would not over expose having the same matches or too many of the same matches on consecutive events.

What do you think?

Later Readers!