Opinion
Booking A 2018 WWE King Of The Ring
Because everyone loves tournaments, right?
King Of The Ring is a favorite WWF/WWE event among hardcore fans, and given its format, is an easily format for the most casual of fans to bite into. It’s a tournament, and everyone loves tournaments, right?
In the US, March Madness is the most famous tournament, with brackets becoming the bane of everyone’e existence and the first Thursday and Friday of the tournament being the least productive days for most companies. Every major sports league in the US has a playoff format that is basically a tournament. And almost every independent wrestling company in the States runs at least one tournament per year.
With the WWE Network running strong, there is always the possibility of a King Of The Ring revival. In fact, one was teased earlier this year!
So if WWE were to bring back King Of The Ring (and I think they should), how do they pull it off in the modern era?
Well let’s book it! Here are a few caveats that we need to establish before we get started:
- While this could very easily be a single brand event, our incarnation must be a multi-brand event.
- If a current singles champion appears in the tournament, they aren’t being eliminated clean.
- We are going to use this to push someone, otherwise it’s a total waste.
The 2018 King Of The Ring Field
As we look to establish the field, I feel it’s important that every brand is represented. This includes the WWE Network ones. I also need a good mix of talent, including some main event players. Let’s see what we can come up with:
NXT: EC3
Dixie Carter’s nephew is really miscast on NXT, so this gives us a chance to right that perceived wrong, and possibly use this as a springboard to the main roster. In my opinion, he should have moved up after the North American Championship Ladder Match in New Orleans, and this might be our chance here.
205 Live: Mustafa Ali
The heart-and-soul of 205 Live makes perfect sense here, as it basically serves as a consolation prize for not carrying the Cruiserweight Championship (much like CM Punk getting The Undertaker at WrestleMania 29 since he had to drop his WWE Championship to The Rock).
Smackdown: Andrade “Cien” Almas
Adrade makes total sense here, as he’s not doing all that much on Smackdown, but is a name the hardcore fanbase will talk about on Social Media. A run through this tournament could do wonders for the originator of Tranquilo.
Raw: Drew McIntyre
Either Ziggler or McIntyre would be a great fit, but the Scottsman is ready to make an impact on the roster and this is the place to do it. Plus, with Drew in the field, Ziggler will be involved by association.
Smackdown: Big E
While he’s one half (third?) of the Smackdown Tag Team Champions, Big E is a star that everyone thinks can make it to the top. Occupying a slot in the 2018 King of The Ring just makes sense. A back-up idea is to enter the entire New Day, and letting them Freebird Rule the entire tournament. That basically ensures they’re in the finals, and I would still have Big E in that spot. But we’ll just stick with Big E here for simplicity sake.
Raw: Seth Rollins
The tournament needs some star power, and Rollins could have a Bret Hart like run through the tournament. He’s the current Intercontinental Champion, so that’s a small wrench in our plans. But storylines are in place that helps out if he isn’t booked to win.
Smackdown: The Miz
One of the best all around performers on the roster, I can’t think of a better guy to walk around proclaiming himself King Of WWE than The Miz. Seems like a gimmick he was born to play. But will he play it…
Raw: Bobby Roode
A throwback of sorts, The Glorious One strikes me as a guy who would have been a staple of the King Of The Ring semifinals in years past, but never quite winning the big one. Can he escape that stigma in the 2018 rendition?
Quarterfinals
We have four quarterfinal matches, including the show opener that features a guy accustomed to opening big shows in 2018
KOTR Quarterfinal: Seth Rollins (Raw) vs. Mustafa Ali (205 Live)
Spoiler alert: Mustafa Ali was never advancing in this tournament. Given that, it only made sense to put him in the match that can best showcase his abilities, and that is a match with Seth Rollins. Rollins will get the win, but will elevate Ali in the process, and Mustafa can return to 205 Live with a heroes welcome.
KOTR Quarterfinal: Drew McIntyre (Raw) vs. The Miz (Smackdown)
A break in the face-heel alignment, this is easy to pull off. Both guys are over, and fans will pick a side. With a former Miz foe in Dolph Ziggler running around, it’s easy for the big man to pull off the win and advance over the A-Lister, who in all honesty doesn’t need this (as much as I’d love to see him win it all).
KOTR Quarterfinal: Andrade “Cien” Almas (Smackdown) vs. Bobby Roode (Raw)
Two former NXT Champions doing battle in a match that almost seems like a push could go to the winner. That winner is Andrade “Cien” Almas, likely thanks to Zelina Vega being the X-Factor.
KOTR Quarterfinal: EC3 (NXT) vs. Big E (Smackdown)
A win wasn’t in the cards for Mustafa Ali, and the same seems to go for EC3 here. I really wanted to put EC3 through to the second round, but it didn’t quite make sense the way the rest of the field and tournament were shaping up.
Semifinals
After a break in the action, possibly a one-off Sasha Banks vs. Bayley match (or tag match for them, depending on where the story is at the time of this show) that doesn’t really accomplish much, we are back to the tournament as we see who can win here and make it to the finals!
KOTR Semifinal: Seth Rollins (Raw) vs. Drew McIntyre (Raw)
A fun match with a lot of storyline overlap. Dean Ambrose and Dolph Ziggler can get involved, but we do need a winner since I don’t want to book this one without a final round. Rollins already has the Intercontinental Championship (and a WWE Championship in the past) to his credit, so it’s Drew picking up the win. A distraction is likely in order, probably due to Ambrose and Ziggler fighting.
KOTR Semifinal: Andrade “Cien” Almas (Smackdown) vs. Big E (Smackdown)
The inverse of the all-Raw match above, this match could end up getting “Match Of The Night” honors. Almas could really use a win here, but it’s not meant to be. I don’t want to go heel-heel in the finals.
King Of The Ring Finals
Since Raw was up between the first two rounds, we can give the not to Smackdown here. We’ll have The IIconics losing to Naomi and Asuka in a crowd pleasing affair.
KOTR Finals: Drew McIntyre (Raw) vs. Big E (Smackdown)
This is a money match featuring two talents that can easily carry a main event. Big E would likely be the favorite among the staff here at The Chairshot, but the nod is going to Drew McIntyre. I see Dolph Ziggler, Kofi Kingston, and Xavier Woods all being sent to the back, and both men tearing it up before Drew picks up the clean win, and the crown.
Interesting of note, an “alternate finals” featuring Seth Rollins vs. Andrade “Cien” Almas might actually be a better match-up, one that sees Almas picking up the huge win to elevate his career. I was really really really close to swapping out the match, but I had to stick to me instincts and give this one to Drew McIntyre.
What say you? Who would you put in the King Of The Ring? Am I shamed for leaving out an NXT UK talent? Should we book a Queen Of The Ring next? Share your thoughts on Twitter using the hashtag #UseYourHead and tweet to me @ChairshotGreg and @theCHAIRSHOTcom!
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Opinion
TheChairshot.com PRESENTS: WWE Bash In Berlin Immediate Reactions
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About Chairshot Radio Network
Launched in 2017, the Chairshot Radio Network presents you with the best in sports, entertainment, and sports entertainment. Wrestling and wrestling crossover podcasts + the most interesting content + the most engaging hosts = the most entertaining podcasts you’ll find!
MONDAY – Bandwagon Nerds (entertainment & popular culture)
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Launched in 2017, the Chairshot Radio Network presents you with the best in sports, entertainment, and sports entertainment. Wrestling and wrestling crossover podcasts + the most interesting content + the most engaging hosts = the most entertaining podcasts you’ll find!
MONDAY - Bandwagon Nerds (entertainment & popular culture)
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Opinion
AJ’s Top 3 Favorite SummerSlams
AJ is back with his annual opinion article, and this time the SummerSlam buzz got him wondering about his personal Top 3.
It’s been a while since I have done any form of writing and SummerSlam is this Saturday. Of all the SummerSlams I’ve seen over the years; which ones are my favorites? While it’s not a revolutionary idea, I figured everyone loves to debate favorites of well, anything. Don’t worry though because this isn’t just going to be pure recency bias. I’ve watched the majority of them so with the ones I put on the list, it hit me more in some way shape or form whether it was story, a really good match or it just felt like a solid event.
At least this proves WWE is trending in a good direction for me, when it gets the ol’ brain juices flowing just because a show is around the corner!
#3: 2022 (Ol’ Brock Lesnar Has A Farm)
Starting off the show, we get Bianca looking for a rematch against Becky from last years SummerSlam and it was better than the 21 second affair that everyone claims was a squash. This time Bianca holds her own and beats the Man in a fairly decent match, good way to get the event started. Next up is the heat seeking missile, Logan Paul against the former heat seeking missile because, well he wasn’t cut out for it and wasn’t a guy in everyone’s eyes, The Miz. After they had their blow off at Mania with Logan coming out on top which… isn’t awful, I just don’t like Logan Paul because he has that dude bro aura and swagger to make him more hateable than any other person on the card. Which I suppose is his gimmick…so…kudos?
First Championship match is for the US Championship and it’s as expected that in Theory, he should never beat someone to the caliber of Bobby Lashley which is no surprise. Dominik and Rey still back when Dom wanted the good fight against the Judgement Day before joining them later. The former Colts players, which they hammered it dahn in this match up showed that the canal swimming, trash talkin’, podcastin’, current RAW Color Commentatin’ goofball we all love, Pat McAfee came out on top again Bum Ass Corbin.
Usos putting the Street Profits on lockdown in the penitentiary since I believe this was peak Bloodline with the belt collecting and running all of WWE. Liv beat Ronda Rousey which isn’t astonishing but it’s not something people had on their bingo cards for anything with WWE so it was a nice little shock factor. The most memorable part of the night is obviously the Main Event, Lesnar brings the tractor, Roman catching the Microphone and Brock stands on top of the vehicle. Damn good match that showed off what they do in the ring since Roman caught his stride as the main bad guy and Brock… liked people after all of this? That is still a weird statement in my head. Brock being a good guy people person. If Liv wasn’t on bingo cards for wrestling, that is not on bingo cards in any aspect of life really.
That is more of the event that had solid matches and story going for it. No weird double count out, multiple people involved, 5 tag matches on the card. Things made sense and weren’t convoluted, had shocking moments that were great to see like Liv actually getting a title defense and there were the results we all expected at the time like Theory losing in 4 minutes to Bobby Lashley.
#2: 2009 (Are You Ready for The Return?)
This event wasn’t that strong. It was strong with the star power involved in 2009 with guys like Rey Mysterio as Intercontinental Champion, Orton and Cena for the WWE Championship as it was becoming as stale as month old chips and CM Punk was facing Jeff Hardy before he ultimately returned to TNA at the beginning of 2010 after this PPV. For me, it’s not so much of the show itself, it was more of the memories because the Balai as our friends Chris Platt and Rey Cash like to call my brother and I, we were just coming back into wrestling and we were TNA Fans. We didn’t watch WWE that much really, it was just what came on after another channel had old ROH shows before they moved to three hours and swallowed the 8pm Eastern Slot. No, the reason why this has so many memories for me is three main reasons. First, Orton and Cena. They have had their rivalry since the beginning it seems, being each others foils like Hogan and Piper before them and there had to be a stipulation where if Randy was Counted Out or DQ’d, he’d lose the championship regardless. This was prime Viper Randy and the obvious joke we had of Super Cena where he very rarely lost, unless it was SummerSlam surprisingly enough.
Number two reason was CM Punk and Jeff Hardy. Hardys known for the Ladder and TLC matches in the past and this being the penultimate match for this feud and it was a banger of a match. If you didn’t know Punk before, it was a great introduction to his wrestling. I used to like Punk a lot because of this match because he could talk, wrestle… and not insanely personal with things in wrestling. In all seriousness, this was a great match. Ultimate risks, high reward for Punk grabbing the World Heavyweight Championship and he was given his next feud because of the final boss of SmackDown at that time. Thanks, Teddy Long.
The main and final reason though why this match gave me the memories flowing back is more of the fact that one of my closest and longest termed friends of 23 years, also loves wrestling. Back when we were younger, he’d do MoCap videos on YouTube with his figures. We’d have friends come over for parties at his house and we’d do the one thing WWE always told us not to do and that was try it at home. He was always stronger than me, I was always more charismatic. He had the power aspect and did things with brute force, I could talk my way out of trouble with parents if we did something wrong. There was always one thing that our respective mother’s always called us though… it’s on the tip of my tongue… oh right, ‘Degenerates’.
As soon as we were called that, we kind of parodied the DX line. I was limber enough to do the HBK pose and do a Superkick before it became the new DDT and he would just Spinebuster people and knew how to do the water spit. So what do you think was the main reason we even ordered this PPV for his 13th Birthday? I think the two guys we were pretending to be were set to return on a tank and toss out some glow sticks. The return of DX, Shawn Michaels coming back after Mania with Triple H to deal with the Legacy problem was an amazing return for them and made everything so much fun.
So we have the solid card and this one has a personal story… what’s my number one SummerSlam? Is it personal? Well yes but not going into that. Is it a good card? To me, it was a phenomenal card! Is it memorable? Seeing how wrestling fans still mention at least three matches to this day.
#1: 2005 (Octopus in the Washer, Lover’s Quarrel and Where the F%#$ is Vickie?)
Quite possibly some of the best matches I’ve seen and one that was just the most hilarious moments of overselling in wrestling history, I know why I love this SummerSlam but it’s also a really good card at the same time. Redacted beats Orlando Jordan in 25 seconds for the US Title and they made jokes about it like, he can make a coffee faster than he beat Orlando and stuff like that, it’s pretty funny. Angle getting sick of Eugene’s antics for his Gold Medal was also a great bit they had play up, the Year long feud of Randy Orton and Undertaker was still going on where Orton comes out on top this time around to get the win back from Mania, Jericho returning for the match with Cena in a whole promotional thing for each other’s groups, Fozzy for Jericho and the Chain Gang doing Bad, Bad Man for Cena leading up to a match for the WWE Championship. JBL won a 20 man battle royal on SmackDown to win the Championship…… Opportunity to face the newest member of SmackDown, Batista but the three main matches that a lot of people talk about to this day; Edge vs Matt Hardy, Rey vs Eddie for Dominik and Hogan vs HBK in the Main Event.
I have reasons to enjoy the Hardy/Edge match but it looked like a real fight, it really made us believe that Matt Hardy was going to kill Edge because real names were dropped during this tirade from Hardy. It wasn’t Edge and Lita, it was Adam and Amy. Matt was so dead set on beating the hell out of Edge that they made a situation into gold and it was a great moment for this match to happen, I believe it was also an Unsanctioned Match too which added the intensity until matt got concussed and knocked senseless that it looked like he couldn’t fight for anything but the build up was what made it seem like a marque match. It made it feel real, it made it feel awesome and it made it feel personal.
Eddie kept tormenting Rey Mysterio about Dominik not being Rey’s but Eddie’s for the summer. That’s all you heard from Eddie being the weasel he was is hanging out with Dominik, making the world believe it’s his son and what not (Let’s not do a fast forward to today where he has the mullet, mustache and everything like Eddie) but they settle this in a Ladder Match where the top of it is a document for the custody of Dominik and my god, this match is better than it should have been. I expect nothing else from Eddie because the man hated having a bad match, Dom got involved and stopped Eddie, Vickie was late and stopped Eddie. The whole match was good it was just very weird with the premise but was a great match. I wonder if Rey regrets his decision to win the match now…
Octopus in a Washing Machine… those five words have resonated with Shawn Michaels’ performance in this match, forever. It was supposed to be an amazing match up between Hogan and Michaels, Icon vs Icon it said and suddenly Hogan’s back gives out, can’t do a trilogy of matches so we can only do the one and then pull out of everything after. This match was set up to be a classic and instead turned into the most unbelievable sell fest ever. A Hogan big boot caused Shawn to tumble 3 or 4 times, getting crotched on the ropes had HBK bouncing higher than he should have, being tossed out of the ring made it look like Shawn never broke his back in 1998 from how much he flopped and flipped around like crazy. It’s bad… or maybe even good that a lot of current wrestlers watched this match that went, “I can sell like that, I want to be a wrestler” and did. So good or bad, I don’t know but for some reason this PPV has always had a place in my heart for how memorable it was.
Those are my top three SummerSlams so far but who knows, 2024 has potential to maybe bump something or at least get me to consider a shift. Should be fun to see how the show plays out! What are some of your favorite SummerSlams?
About Chairshot Radio Network
Launched in 2017, the Chairshot Radio Network presents you with the best in sports, entertainment, and sports entertainment. Wrestling and wrestling crossover podcasts + the most interesting content + the most engaging hosts = the most entertaining podcasts you’ll find!
MONDAY - Bandwagon Nerds (entertainment & popular culture)
TUESDAY - Musical Chairs (music) / Hockey Talk (NHL)
WEDNESDAY - The Greg DeMarco Show (wrestling)
THURSDAY - Keeping the news ridiculous... The Oddity / Chairshot NFL (NFL)
FRIDAY - DWI Podcast (Drunk Wrestling Intellect)
SATURDAY - The Mindless Wrestling Podcast
SUNDAY - The Front and Center Sports Podcast
CHAIRSHOT RADIO NETWORK PODCAST SPECIALS
Attitude Of Aggression Podcast & The Big Five Project (chronologically exploring WWE's PPV/PLE history)
TheChairshot.com PRESENTS...IMMEDIATE POST WWE PLE REACTIONS w/ DJ(Mindless), Tunney(DWI) & Friends
Patrick O'Dowd's 5X5
Classic POD is WAR
Chairshot Radio Network Your home for the hardest hitting podcasts... Sports, Entertainment and Sports Entertainment!
Powered by RedCircle
Let us know what you think on social media @ChairshotMedia and always remember to use the hashtag #UseYourHead!