King of the Ring: Who Will Be Crowned King?

The King of the Ring tournament shall grace our screens once again next Monday on a special three-hour edition of Raw. This is the first time the tournament has been held since April 2008, where William Regal was crowned as the victor after beating CM Punk. The King of the Ring tournament is often an opportunity to skyrocket someone’s career. We all know what it did for Steve Austin after he made his Austin 3:16 speech. It’s quite safe to say that 1 of the 8 competitors will soon receive a great boost for their career.

Eight superstars have been selected, and in this article, I will be determining who has the best chance of earning the crown.

Ezekiel Jackson (Def. Alex Riley)

Ezekiel Jackson won his spot after defeating Alex Riley who filled in for the Miz who said he couldn’t perform after an anxiety attack. I’ve heard rumours that the less than two-minute squash match was a punishment for Riley after being arrested for drink driving earlier on in the week.

I don’t know if that’s true, but it did make me laugh when Michael Cole asked if he was under the influence for taking on the last ECW champion. I know Jackson is powerful, aggressive and doing well on Raw, but I really don’t see him winning it. He’s only been back for a few weeks, and I just reckon he’ll stay a mid carder not doing much for the rest of his career. Plus he’s black and since when does Vince ever give a black wrestler a push they deserve?

Daniel Bryan (Def. Ted DiBiase)

This match ended surprisingly quickly for me. Giving the amount of exposure DiBiase’s been getting recently as a singles competitor, I’d have thought he’d have been given more than two minutes. But then again, Cena’s goodbye was just before and he said he’d been out longer than he was supposed to, so maybe they had to cut the match down the stay on schedule.

Bryan is one of two people I see winning the tournament. He’s doing so well at the moment that I can see him just going onwards and upwards. Some people might criticise Bryan for always (well, nearly always) ending his matches with a submission technique. But hey, all of Regal’s matches in the last tournament ended with a submission, and he won the thing.   

Sheamus (Def. R-Truth)

The only surprising thing about this qualification match was that R-Truth’s gone back to his old entrance song. Or is that surprising?

I could never make out what he was saying in his new song except the word crunk, and I don’t know what the hell that means. It’s a shame that Eve keeps coming out dancing to it. It’s painful to watch because (and I can’t think of any other way to put this) she can’t dance for s**t.

Sheamus is an odd fella. He went from ECW to WWE heavyweight champion to a feud with Triple H to becoming champion again to having a feud with Santino Marella to getting a chance to win King of the Ring. I can never tell what he’s going to do next which doesn’t give me a lot of faith in him winning this tournament. My guess is that he’ll lose to the eventual winner.

John Morrison (Def. Tyson Kidd)

John Morrison is my other pick to win the tournament. The IWC has been screaming for a push for this guy for ages and all the glory and prizes have gone to his ex-tag team partner the Miz. They could have put him up against a more credible opponent though for his qualifying match.

I know Kidd is going to start his singles career in the WWE, but (no offence to the guy) there’s no way he’d be in King of the Ring. JoMo’s got the style, the skill and the technique to go far in this, and I think finally this is where he’s going to get his big break. Of course if he does win, I’ll never hear the end of it from friend and fellow writer Stuart Broughton, who’s always supported John Morrison while I’ve supported the Miz. I hope Bryan wins.

Kofi Kingston (Def. Jack Swagger)

What a qualifying match this was! Reversals, action, fluidity, length…this match was easily one of the most enjoyable on this Friday’s Smackdown. Kofi Kingston won the bout with Trouble in Paradise after an impressive showing. Like John Morrison, people have wanted a push for Kingston for a long time.

I still don’t see why he hasn’t had one. He impressed me with his brief feud with Randy Orton while he was still with Legacy. But as skilled as he is, I don’t think he’ll win it, because Vince McMahon is a racist. I’m just saying, very few black champions, Spanish announce table always getting broken…

Alberto Del Rio (Def. Big Show)

Oh my god, someone foreign won; I mean, Alberto Del Rio managed to get through with a victory by count out over the big show. Side note: I don’t know how long Big Show’s had a bear growling as his symbol but wasn’t it since he was filming Kuncklehead, where he fights a bear?

Anyways, I was a little disappointed in this result because I thought it hurt Del Rio’s credibility for not getting a pin or submission. I was pretty confident that Del Rio would win the tournament itself (mostly due to the cock up they made on his page on wwe.com where the person who wrote about him left in the bit saying “Is this ok? I know he’s going to be big”. But all that changed during Rey Mysterio’s match.

Drew Mcintyre (Def. MVP)

I don’t know what to say about this match except Drew won’t be King of the Ring. I expect him to get knocked out in the first round on Monday.

Cody Rhodes (Def. Rey Mysterio)

Before this match, they recapped who had already qualified. Ezekiel Jackson, Sheamus, Daniel Bryan and John Morrison from Raw, with Kofi Kingston, Alberto Del Rio and Drew Mcintyre. I don’t know how they’re going to have the fixtures, but I imagined that they would be Raw vs. Smackdown in the first round.

From Raw, there are three faces and one heel. From Smackdown, there are already two heels and one face. To even them up, I was pretty sure a heel would win the last place, meaning Cody Rhodes. I wasn’t sure if he was going to be able to beat Rey Mysterio, but then Alberto Del Rio came out and I (and I’m sure many others) could tell what was going to happen.

He was obviously going to attack Rey; he didn’t even sit down to make himself look subtle. Needless to say, Del Rio interferes, Cody gets the win and this is what stopped me thinking Del Rio was going to win King of the Ring. I’m pretty sure Del Rio will get far, (possibly the semi-finals) and Rey will appear out of nowhere to cost Del Rio the match. Then again, last time I bet on someone getting to the semifinals was on England in the World Cup, and I ended up owing Stuart Broughton (again) £5. Cody, however, I think will go out in the first round.

In conclusion, I believe it will be an early exit for Ezekiel Jackson, Kofi Kingston, Drew Mcintyre and Cody Rhodes. My picks to win the crown are either Daniel Bryan or John Morrison. I want Daniel Bryan to win, but considering that I feel John Morrison is a more Heavyweight Champion type of person, I’m going to have to go for JoMo to win the top prize next Monday night.