WWE King of the Ring 2015: Projecting Impact of Bad News Barrett's Victory

Bad News Barrett being able to boast that he is WWE's King of the Ring changes his career trajectory, but it won't have him jettisoning into the main event.

A floundering midcarder is suddenly now adorned with a cape and a crown after knocking off R-Truth and Neville on Tuesday night. Being dubbed King Barrett creates opportunity and options for the Englishman. It affords him a share of the spotlight that he didn't have before.

Winning the 2015 King of the Ring is no cure-all, though.

The tournament is not the career-maker that it once was. It has lost prestige much in the way the midcard titles have. Blame WWE for letting Billy Gunn and Mabel win it. Blame the company for continuing to put the event on hiatus.

Having this be a rushed, two-night affair doesn't help either.

With no notice and no hype, WWE announced at Extreme Rules that King of the Ring was back after a five-year hiatus. In a flash, the first round came and went on Monday's Raw. The semifinals and finals aired on the WWE Network the next night.

By the end of it, Barrett stood victorious, sliding a crown over his head:

This won't do for him what Steve Austin's famous 3:16 speech did for him or what Bret Hart's victories in the early '90s did for The Hitman. Still, this is one of Barrett's bigger wins. The field may have been filled with midcarders, but Barrett walked out of it on top.

In the span of two days, Barrett toppled Dolph Ziggler, R-Truth and Neville. He hasn't had a three-match singles streak like that since last May when he took down Kofi Kingston and then beat Big E two times in a row, per CageMatch.net.

Winning the King of the Ring, then, after piling up so many recent losses helps change how we perceive him. As Bleacher Report's Big Nasty says, it has us taking him seriously:

Most importantly, the crown gives Barrett direction. After WWE dropped his "delivering bad news" shtick, he was unarmed gimmick-wise. Suddenly, the creative team has tons to play with. 

Being king is an easy way to add depth to his character. It gives him props to whack his foes with and is sure to add to his cockiness. Fans saw a glimpse of that in an interview with Tom Phillips on Tuesday night:

Barrett has more of a reason to be a braggart and a jerk. Expect him to use that to stand out more. He will milk the royal angle. Being English makes this gimmick add-on a perfect fit.

This added element will inspire WWE to put him on TV more. The company doesn't want to cheapen his accomplishment by letting him fade away. So he'll be getting thrust into some semi-prominent feuds, slightly above what he was involved with when he held the Intercontinental Championship.

Serving as WWE's symbolic monarch allows him a long-term shot at impressing WWE higher-ups. Should he continue to have the kind of matches he had against Neville and should he find a way to work the king angle without making it corny, look for him to creep toward the main event scene.

That's where his progress will stop.

WWE has shown that it lacks confidence in Barrett as a top guy. He's been good in the ring and one of the roster's best talkers. Even so, every one of his pushes stops before he reaches the top tier.

He feuded with John Cena as the leader of Nexus and then fell into a second-rate story about a second-rate group in The Corre. Barrett feuded with Randy Orton in what seemed like a launching point for him. A dislocated elbow slowed his momentum and when he returned, he hovered around the IC title picture.

Injuries haven't helped Barrett's case.

A healthy, crown-wearing Barrett is poised for an upward move. He'll be tangling with men on Dean Ambrose's level rather than fight off men like R-Truth. The top rungs of the company, though, are crowded.

King or not, Barrett is not bypassing Seth Rollins, Orton or the company's golden boy, Roman Reigns. 

In WWE's world, the king doesn't preside over the rest of the kingdom. He's one of many men wearing a crown. Perhaps the King of the Ring regains prestige in the coming years. For now, it will provide Barrett with a healthy boost rather than catapult him to the mountaintop.