There’s a lot of anticipation going into tonight’s three-hour Monday Night Raw, which is being built around the return of the King of the Ring tournament.
WWE has given no info so far on the format of the tournament, how many wrestlers will be involved, and who those wrestlers are. With three hours to fill, the show should be able to feature an eight-man, three-round tournament, presumably featuring the brand’s mid-card talent.
From a quick glimpse of WWE’s Raw roster (assuming it is limited to that brand) there is one name that sticks out above the rest as a likely heir to the throne.
To say the least, Mr. Kennedy’s last 12 months have been a roller coaster of career highs and lows. After winning WrestleMania 23’s Money in the Bank ladder match a year ago, Kennedy was clearly being groomed as a main event wrestler, and possibly even a world champion. In fact, when then-Smackdown world champion The Undertaker was forced to the sidelines with an injury, there was some speculation that Kennedy would cash in his MITB shot and win the SD! title.
But after suffering an untimely injury, Kennedy lost his MITB title shot to Edge, who went on to win the Smackdown title.
Even though he didn’t get the title, Kennedy was in line for quite the consolation prize. Kennedy was reportedly the original pick to be revealed as the illegitimate son of Mr. McMahon in a storyline that would have lead to a main event feud with Triple H. But Kennedy lost that spot after he was suspended for violating the WWE wellness policy. Making matters worse, weeks earlier Kennedy trumpeted the policy and blasted its critics in various blog posts and media appearances. For making a fool out of himself and his employer, Kennedy soon found himself in the doghouse.
Since then Kennedy has flirted with some main event matches and had notable feuds against Shawn Michaels and Ric Flair. But WWE management has clearly been gun shy about investing in the Greenbay native once again.
I think enough time had passed that WWE will get Kennedy’s push back on track again. Whatever WWE saw in Kennedy a year ago is still there, and in fact, Kennedy has improved both as a wrestler and a character over the last year.
He doesn’t have all the pieces to be an ideal main event player, but he had enough to make him worth the investment. Winning the King of the Ring Tournament would be a good first step.
Some other candidates from the Raw side:
Lance Cade: I’ve heard this idea tossed around and I like it. I’m not terribly hopeful that it will happen, but I certainly like the idea of using the tourney to elevate a relatively-obscure midcarder. Cade’s partner, Lance Murdoch, would also be a decent choice.
William Regal: He’s certainly tailor-made to play the role of a royal jerk, but Regal is probably too old and too inactive to get this kind of consideration.
Carlito: He also fits the bill of established mid-carder waiting for a big break, but I don’t think WWE brass sees him as a top level star.
Paul Burchill: He’s been mostly relegated to Sunday Night Heat duty, so he’s a long shot to say the least.
Santino Marella: I like Marella a lot, but don’t think he has the credibility to be KOTR - much less win three matches in a night.
Umaga: Certainly has the main event experience, but his savage gimmick wouldn’t fit with wearing the KOTR crown
If the tournament includes wrestlers from other brands, I think the one other ideal fit for the crown would be Smackdown’s Montel Vontavius Porter. The crown would adorn the rest of his bling nicely.
Comments (5)
All good choices but I dont agree with what you said about Umaga not being fit cause of his gimmick. What about Haku? Whats he a Tongan Tarzan character? Also..Stone Cold. He was anti royality. He was the "redneck hero". Get drunk,Get violent,and kick ass. Thats not "king" behavior. So I personally dont think a gimmick has to do with anything.
Way to go Regal , to bad there is no TV title in WWE.
Althought the point is now moot; character has everything to do with it. Stone Cold was just breaking away from the RingMaster gimmick and had yet to become a "redneck hero" he didn't even coin 3:16 until after he won. KOTR or any wrestling King gimmick is best when it is embraced. Think Booker, Owen, Mable, Savage, Lawler. When it's not played upon or just used as a stepping stone it lessen the entire event that's the main reason IMHO why it's no longer one of the big 5 PPVs
You could tell the KOTR ring on last nitght's Raw was an afterthought it was a sham, Regal can pull it off, so many others could have used it. Shelton Benjiman anyone.
Agreed with deazy.
I don't understand where they are going with Regal as KOTR. Shelton, Finlay, Kennedy, even Paul London could have used the rub more than Regal. While always one of my more favorite performers - no one's facial expressions are better than Regal - given the history of injuries how much is Regal really going to be able to be in the ring? And now to have the MITB winner lose to the Raw GM, regardless of how accomplished he is, makes CM Punk look even weaker.
Thanks for the blog - very enjoyable and definitely a step above a lot of the other writings.
King General Manager William Regal? Seriously? Was Brutus "The Barber" Beekfcake busy Monday night? I also would like to disagree with your assessment about Umaga. I thought that he should actually win it, then have GM Regal became his royal mentor. This could have lead to a big face turn (which they teased sometime last year or early this year against Orton I believe). Regal would admonish Umaga for his poor language skills physically and verbally for a few weeks until the turn despite still calling Oo-Man-Ga. That moment could be some sort of a second rate knockoff on Roots where Umaga starts actually speaking for himself stating emphatically between beatings..."my name is Umaga." Something like that, in my opinion, could really elevate him into the main title picture and let him lead Raw as champ. Plus, it would be fresh to see a heel champ in CM Punk being chased by the new fan favorite in Umaga (just after ridding himself of Regal). I really hoped that they wouldn't take the king monacher seriously like they did with Booker T. I thought that he was entertaining at first, but it became very stale to me very quickly. It just came off as a cheap way to insert his wife into a TV role. Overall though, I would have much rather seen Regal win a Beat the Clock challenge instead of KOTR. They should have made the bottom bracket like the top bracket and attempted to highlight their talent instead continuing to alienate their fans with cheesy, lame, uninteresting outcomes. I guess this only proves that brown nosing works no matter what line of work you're in.