A proposed WWE King of the Ring 2014

Sadly, the WWE has done away with a father’s day, June tradition that was a King of the Ring PPV. Who wants to see the same guy wrestle 3 times right? To make a lesser star into a bigger star if not a Summer Slam contender. The WWE has tried to resurrect the King of the Ring as a one night show on RAW with stars like Sheamus, William Regal and Booker T winning the tournaments. Since it has been 4 years since the last King of the Ring, here is my idea for a proposed King of the Ring tournament.

1. KING OF THE RING QUALIFYING MATCH: ALEXANDER RUSEV vs KOFI KINGSTON
2. KING OF THE RING QUALIFYING MATCH: BIG E LANGSTON vs RYBACK
3. KING OF THE RING QUALIFYING MATCH: JACK SWAGGER vs RVD
4. KING OF THE RING QUALIFYING MATCH: ANTONIO CEASARO vs CHRISTIAN
5. KING OF THE RING QUALIFYING MATCH: DAMIEN SANDOW vs CODY RHODES
6. KING OF THE RING QUALIFYING MATCH: DOLPH ZIGGLER vs CURTIS AXEL
7. KING OF THE RING QUALIFYING MATCH: WADE BARRETT vs GOLDUST
8. KING OF THE RING QUALIFYING MATCH: SHEAMUS vs ADR

I’ve tried to come up with interesting matches here with feuds, and some stylistic matches. Alexander loves to defeat black guys. Big E vs Ryback is your muscle power match. Swagger vs RVD is your current feud, clash of styles. Ceasaro vs Christian is your good technical match. Sandow and Rhodes have history. Ziggler needs a win. Goldust is there mostly for history. Sheamus and ADR are at the same level and have been for years. Sadly there is no Shield, Evolution or Wyatts. They don’t need the tournament. Of course Intercontinental and United States champions might not need anything going on either, but Sheamus is a former king of the ring.

1. KING OF THE RING QUARTER FINALS: ALEXANDER RUSEV vs BIG E LANGSTON
2. KING OF THE RING QUARTER FINALS: ANTONIO CEASARO vs JACK SWAGGER
3. KING OF THE RING QUARTER FINALS: DOLPH ZIGGLER vs DAMIEN SANDOW
4. KING OF THE RING QUARTER FINALS: WADE BARRETT vs SHEAMUS

Keeping with the running joke of Alexander taking on black guys, this is a muscle match. Ceasaro vs Swagger is your current feud. Ziggler vs Sandow is between two dark horse matches that could potentially win. Wade vs Sheamus is not only Intercontinental champ vs United States champ, but it is a former king of the ring and they match stylistically and have for years.

1. KING OF THE RING SEMI FINALS: WADE BARRETT vs DOLPH ZIGGLER
2. KING OF THE RING SEMI FINALS: ALEXANDER RUSEV vs ANTONIO CEASARO

Here you have your potential dark horse and two potential winners. Ceasaro is on a hot streak and so is Rusev who is very untested. If anyone can get a good match out of Rusev, it is Ceasaro, plus the giant swing on a dwarf giant will go far in terms of visuals.

• KING OF THE RING FINALS: WADE BARRETT vs ANTONIO CEASARO

There’s nothing like an oppressive British King to brutalize the WWE. Wade is already used to being chained to a podium, why not get chain Wade to a throne when he makes his proclamations? Give him lesser wrestlers (commoners) to lord over as his court or would that be too Nexus? While I don’t think Ceasaro would look good as a stereotypical king, he is a man that can benefit from winning a one night tournament. You’ll get to see three of his matches in one night. Ceasaro is on fire right now. It is your choice who goes over.

New NXT = FCW (6/2012)

So NXT has been revamped into something that looks and feels more like FCW. New NXT has a home arena (Full Sail University Arena) that they film 2 episodes at each TV taping (someone correct me if I’m wrong). Just like TNA did before it went live a month ago. That is a great idea to keep costs down and have your fans recognize your wrestlers. So now on with the show…

TYPICAL WWE LOGO
Yep its the typical WWE stamp logo… but John Cena is the champion?

COMMENTARY TEAM
Jim Ross & William Regal. You can’t go wrong with that. Regal is very good with information and history of things. Jim Ross hasn’t lost his step, but there won’t be any big moments for him to call.

NEW NXT OPENING
The opening recaps great WWE moments and says that these are the fresh crop willing to step up to one day have their moments. Then they go into the intro of the show which has some good music.

JIM ROSS INTRODUCES THE INTERUM GM
Oh good there’s a GM on this show. Sour taste already. Its a good choice though, but he doesn’t need to be a GM. I won’t spoil it for anyone. Someone announces Tyson Kidd vs Michael McGillicutty on paper seems like a terrible main event.

BO DALLAS VIDEO
Bo Dallas is the something of IRS and Blackjack Windam. Wait is that the fat guy or is this the fat guy’s skinny brother? Its gotta be the fat guy’s skinny brother. Anyway… smiling gorgeous face, put him on RAW in a tag team with Evan Bourne.

BO DALLAS vs RICK VICTOR
8 minutes in and we get the first match. Which is typical of TNA and WWE of most weeks. Bo Dallas vs some guy. The other guy looks more like IRS than Bo does. Regal mentions Bo Dallas is the last guy to come through Stu Hart’s Dungeon? Perhaps I heard him wrong and he means Tyson Kidd. I actually see some William Regal & Chris Benoit in the jobber Rick Victor. Camera work feels fresh and more in your face, but not nearly as in your face as old ECW. Bo Dallas seems fast if not basic… but he’ll lose speed in the 2 years it takes him to get to WWE.

SETH ROLLINS VIDEO PROMO
Seth Rollins looks like Chris Hero or an emo CM Punk. I see big things for Seth Rollins. Thank goth he has a name like Seth.

DAMIEN SHADOW vs JOBBER (in a match that never happens)
Hilarious. He holds the mic like a glass of wine. He gets plenty of What chants. Every time there is some audio from the crowd the camera cuts to a close up so you can’t see people saying things. And Damien walks away from the match without it even starting wtf?

THE ASCENSION VIDEO (corny)
So the tag team Ascention they show… I think they’re Batman’s children mixed in with some Underworld. Corny thing.

ANTONIO CESARO VIDEO (he’s coming next week)
Good videos for Cesaro and then Alberto. Ceasaro was banned from Rugby for excessive violence and he’s coming next week.

20 MINUTES IN…
So 20 minutes in and I’ve realized this show is a fucked version of FCW. It follows the WWE / TNA model of more talk and clips than matches and NXT is to train your guys to be ready for WWE. They need more matches in the show. Superstars fit 6 matches in every show.

THE ASCENSION vs 2 JOBBERS (they’ll get better) 
The Ascension… quite the ring entrance…. that takes way too long. The Ascension should just destroy these jobbers with an effective double team finisher… and they do double team beat downs that don’t really show anything. Stomps and quick tagging. Plenty of double team beatdowns and there’s the finish. The finisher was meh, but they’ll get better. 1 minute squash.

HUSKY HARRIS VIDEO (in da bayou)
Meh video for Husky Harris… even if the character will be dumb. Ah his name is now Bray Wyatt.

BACKSTAGE WITH WHO… and WHO? (terrible acting, terrible segment)
Backstage with someone I don’t recognize. Oh good he found someone in the men’s room. Acting… forcing them to act. Christ. Don’t let wrestlers act. If you want them to act, send them to improv or acting classes and don’t ever show it on TV. This was terrible and whoever thought of it should be shot. Didn’t make me want to watch the match. Didn’t introduce me to anybody. ‎I think I recognized someone in the segment, but I don’t know.

TYSON KIDD vs MICHAEL MCGILLICUTTY (shockingly good match)
30 minutes in and its the main event. Did William Regal say Marty McGillicutty? Hopefully Tyson Kidd goes over. Tyson had his first match at 12 years old? McGillicutty = MR NXT. One day he might even get off the show. Tyson Kidd gets a lot of oos and ahs from the crowd. You know what the shame is here? This is clearly a surprisingly good match, but the shame is that I don’t care. It feels like a chore to watch these two. No matter how good the commentary and match is I just don’t care since it has been 10 minutes since the match started. Great NEAR finish with Tyson Kid doing a standing moonsault off the top. McGillicutty uses a sharp shooter… yes McGillicutty. These two can wrestle a B+ match. Wow Tyson Kidd pulls out a new version of a sharp shooter called the dungeon lock. Impressive finish for a match that went 12+ minutes.

IN CONCLUSION (it could be a lot better and might be)
NXT = mini WWE and that’s a huge problem. Thank goth there were no old NXT flaws like putting your contestants through stupid challenges (even if the challenges are to prove qualities other than wrestling). Too many WWE clips when people watching this are watching RAW. They can wedge another match in here. They had a nice crowd, that I feel will dwindle as time goes on. 3 matches, the main event was good to great even if they are two wrestlers I don’t care about.

PROS

• Good main event
• The Ascension has a great look
• Ceasaro is coming
• Jim Ross & William Regal on commentary

CONS

• NXT doesn’t need a GM no matter how good he is
• Ascension is corny
• Too much like FCW
• Too few matches for a show that should be getting guys ready in the ring
• Terrible backstage acting…
• Main event between 2 guys I don’t care about and that’s the failure of WWE for 2+ years of jobbing both guys