Back for more predictions on the 2019 WWE King Of The Ring! Last night, I looked at round 1 of this tournament. Nothing too bold thus far, aside from maybe predicting Drew McIntyre beating Ricochet. Could easily be wrong. Otherwise I feel pretty good about those picks, good enough that I’m ready to finish out my personal bracket right here!
This is a lot of matches to cover at once, so let’s get to it!
WWE King Of The Ring Quarter-Finals
Samoa Joe vs. Drew McIntyre
Big hitty boys match here. Fun bit of spectacle. Joe’s eventually going somewhere but somehow this doesn’t feel like the time. This is more of a young man’s tournament in most cases. McIntyre to win.
Cedric Alexander vs. Baron Corbin
Baron’s gonna need some rehabbing before he’s ever all that useful again. His feud with Rollins was a titanic bust that also went on far longer than it should’ve and he’s been off TV ever since to try and help people forget about this. That said, he’s a fine heel foil on this level I’d say, and a good one for Cedric to beat on his way up the ladder. Cedric over.
Kevin Owens vs. Buddy Murphy
I don’t know how many other people remember Murphy calling out Owens several weeks ago but I do, and I’ve actually been kinda looking forward to them squaring off ever since. After Murphy’s match with Reigns last week, that interest has gone into overdrive, as I’m hopeful they’ll be keen to let him strut his stuff more often. That being the case, this one oughta be really fun. But there’s no real way it ends any other way then with a Kevin Owens victory.
Andrade vs. Chad Gable
This would also be a fun one to see if given room to breathe. I do think this tournament could be a nice showcase for a man that desperately needs it in Chad Gable, but Andrade is also in pretty dire need of a strong push, and he really oughta go deep in this. Andrade takes this one.
And thus we get into the homestretch…
WWE King Of The Ring Semi-Finals
Drew McIntyre vs. Cedric Alexander
This has been a fun feud up ’til now, and fitting I think that it concludes in a big way here in the semis. A lovely David vs. Goliath battle, and in theory Cedric could conquer Drew for good here. But I think this is Drew’s time and Cedric will have already been fairly elevated from getting this far if they do it right. McIntyre to win.
Kevin Owens vs. Andrade
Andrade should definitely keep rising up the card but beating Owens here might be a bit too fast. As I mentioned previously, they’re really behind making a top babyface out of him at the moment. He’ll keep soaring here. Kevin Owens over.
With that, we have our last match.
WWE King Of The Ring Finals
Drew McIntyre vs. Kevin Owens
So at this point it’s worth noting that this is historically an extremely, extremely heel-favoring tournament. I went back and looked at all the previous results, checked where all the former winners were at the time. And while some cases are murkier than others, among the 19 men to have won the tournament in the past (Mind you Bret Hart won it twice, the only one to do so) I count only two outright babyfaces. That’s a pretty huge slant. And to make it all the more uneven, the last face win was back in 1993. So yannow, a mere 26 years ago.
Now, as I mentioned in the first round preview, I believe this tournament is being done at least partially out of tribute to Harley Race. One could argue that’s a fine reason to break from tradition and have a feel-good face win. Buuuuut Harley was one of those heel winners himself, so it’s not like it’d be inappropriate. And I don’t expect them to acknowledge the intention too broadly anyway.
But ultimately what I’m looking at here is that somehow, someway, Shane McMahon and his men – and McIntyre has been closely linked to him in the past himself – will screw Kevin Owens out of this. And so our winner, the 2019 King of the Ring… is Drew McIntyre.
