No one really saw it coming, but WWE have made it clear that the WWE King Of The Ring is back. And while it’s been a bit of a disappointment in it’s last few sporadic installments, both in terms of match quality and what it’s done for the careers of the winners, this one feels a little different.
For starters, it’s being built up significantly more than I can recall last time with a stirring video package played on both Raw and Smack Down the week before. More notably, rather than the flash tourneys in the past, taking place entirely on one or two nights, this is a multi-week affair. In fact it’ll span about a month, starting next week and concluding at Clash of Champions on September 15th. This will actually be the first time the tournament concluded at a real PPV since King Booker’s coronation in 2006, the last winner to actually yield any notable success in the immediate aftermath. Otherwise they’ve been either exclusive to Monday Night Raw or put on a low-level WWE Network special.
But bigger than anything else, whether they advertise it as such or not, the reason it’s happening right now is pretty clear. As far as I’m concerned, this is being done as a tribute to the late, great Harley Race. Harley passed away roughly two weeks before the tournament was announced. He was the second man to win the KOTR and the first to ever don the cape and crown gimmick it’s often associated with. You could argue he’s a major reason that it stood the test of time as an annual tournament for as long as it did.
The aforementioned extra time can also allow for more high quality matches.
Recently, we’ve had a string of awesome TV matches take place. Cedric and McIntyre have had a well received TV feud, Rey and Andrade always tear it up and on the last episode of SmackDown, Roman Reigns and Buddy Murphy put on what many are calling one of the year’s best WWE matches.
This would seem to be a new trend, with them finally looking to capitalize on the depth of talent that they have and put more focus on the workrate they can bring whenever you just let ’em loose. Looking at the announced names for this tournament, there are a lot of really good workers here. The first round alone has the fine potential for a ton of strong in-ring work. Don’t take my word for it, just look at the WWE King Of The Ring bracket below:
So… who wins the 2019 WWE King Of The Ring?
Being our resident tournament expert, and given I’m pretty excited for this tournament this time around, I feel roughly qualified to make some predictions here. For now, we’ll just be focusing on Round 1, since this article could get extremely long otherwise. I’ll look at the rest of the bracket tomorrow.
Cesaro vs. Samoa Joe
This is pretty awesome, or atleast could be. Joe and Cesaro are hard hitting technical athletes, one with a ton of strength and one with a lot of size. Cesaro has had some solid bouts with Aleister Black in recent months but little else has been done with him. I know that Raw Executive Director Paul Heyman really likes him, but Joe has much more of a direction right now, even if it’s a little murky as to what it actually is. I expect Joe to take this bout, though hopefully only after taking a Giant Swing because that would look amazing.
Ricochet vs. Drew McIntyre
Now this one is a hard call. Ricochet’s been pushed pretty well this year, not staggeringly but it’s been solid. They obviously look at him as a future star. But they’ve looked at McIntyre that way for over a year, atleast in theory. It’s always seemed like a foregone conclusion that they will eventually get around to giving McIntyre a main event push. While he’s currently mostly cooled off, save for some really awesome matches with Cedric, a tournament like this seems like a great reset point to get him back on track.
If my bracket gets messed up anywhere, it’ll probably get messed up right here and potentially completely ruined because either of these men could realistically take the whole thing. But ultimately, I’ve got a hunch Drew McIntyre goes deep.
(Joe’s seemingly been veering towards turning face recently and was infact the defacto babyface against Sami Zayn in his last match, so going up against McIntyre in the second round here isn’t really the craziest thing.)
Cedric Alexander vs. Sami Zayn
Oh, but to put this on a TakeOver… Sami Zayn is sadly one of the coldest stars around at the moment, having been jobbed out as hard as humanly possible in recent months. That’s not a word I use lightly either. He’s an incredible talent though, in fact he shares a similar skillset to Cedric Alexander. So by all rights this could be a banger of a match. Provided we don’t see any swerves though, it’s maybe the easiest one to call. Cedric over.
Baron Corbin vs. The Miz
This is a hilarious pairing, and I appreciate it. This is actually gonna be Baron’s first televised appearance since the battle royal that Rollins won the night after Extreme Rules. In essence, he’s been on break since his Universal title pursuit ended. An attempt to let people forget about how bad those last few months had been, no doubt. Miz got fairly over as a babyface earlier this year by some miracle, but they have done miserably little with him since. He did beat the Hell out of Dolph Ziggler on the last Raw but that sadly means very little. All things being equal, I’m looking at a Baron Corbin win here.
That’s the Raw half of the bracket, pretty much entirely filled with unique new match-ups. Funny thing about the two sides, SmackDown’s side doesn’t exactly have a bunch of retreads, but each of them have some sort of angle to them, even if a minor one. Some kind of history, each one. Just an interesting bit of difference in philosophy there.
Kevin Owens vs. Elias
Elias has been a thorn in the side of Kevin Owens recently, a stooge aiding Owens’ hated rival Shane McMahon. It’s only natural the two would have a match eventually and this seems as good a place as any. To be frank, the possibilities for shenanigans here is high. But they want to make a big star babyface out of Owens. To me, if you’re gonna screw him out of this tournament, it probably shouldn’t be in the first round and definitely shouldn’t be against Elias. Owens advances.
Ali vs. Buddy Murphy
I absolutely adored these guys’ matches on 205 Live. They perhaps put on the very best bouts in that show’s history, and that’s saying something whether you know it or not. Buddy’s coming off of the aforementioned awesome match with Roman Reigns and Ali’s split time between vignettes and making googly eyes at Shinsuke Nakamura’s Intercontinental title. It’s a theoretically even match… but I see Buddy Murphy taking this one.
Chad Gable vs. Shelton Benjamin
I’m not sure how many people remember this, but Chad Gable and Shelton Benjamin were once tag partners. A rather blatant attempt at straight-up replacing Jason Jordan, the talented amateur wrestlers never really got their due as a tandem. But that history will surely be brought up here, atleast I’d like to think so. And there’s no doubt the two of them can put on an exceptional match. I’ve always had a soft spot for Benjamin, but Gable’s awesome too and you gotta go with youth in a match like this. Chad Gable over.
Andrade vs. Apollo Crews
And finally, this match. These two have been bickering for quite some time with very little apparent payoff. But this tournament seems a fine excuse to let ’em have the awesome match they’d have the potential for. They’re both stupendous talents who should be featured much more than they have been. But of the two, Andrade is the much more obvious star in the making. So Andrade gets the duke.
What do you think of these predictions? Who do you see going all the way? Hope you’ll let us know, and check back tomorrow to see my picks for the rest of the tournament!
