King of the Ring has been somewhat of a controversial event over the past few years. Back in the day the King of the Ring tournament was a staple of WWE programming, but nowadays WWE only holds the tournament every few years, and the winner usually gets stuck with a goofy king gimmick that cripples their career.
The King of the Ring tournament used to mean something, and there are many fans out there who would love to see the tournament return to its former glory. But unfortunately it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen anytime soon, or possibly ever.
During a recent episode of his podcast, Something to Wrestle With, Bruce Prichard revealed that Vince McMahon wasn’t a fan of the King of the Ring tournament because the pay-per-view didn’t so well in terms of sales.
“Vince McMahon didn’t like it. It was probably our lowest sales pay per view of the year, which is crazy because in the territorial days, the summer months were money months and for WWF the summer months were slower months,” transcription via Wrestlezone. “The Pay Per Views during the summer didn’t do all that well, and King of the Ring wasn’t a large grossing pay per view, so Vince wasn’t really excited about it, and decided to change it up.”
The pay-per-view stopped being an annual event after 2002, but it was later revived in 2006, 2008 and 2010. The last time that WWE held the King of the Ring tournament was in 2015, and the finals of the tournament aired on the WWE Network.
Although fans might want to see he tournament return, looking back at what it did to the careers of Sheamus and Wade Barrett, it might be better off to just let it fade away at this point.
One of my favourite events, I love the one night tournament aspect of it and it’s a shame they can’t fit it back in their PPV schedule. The winner doesn’t have to be given a stupid king gimmick.
They managed to drop the ball with the winner plenty. But hey, blame the event and move on.
The Miz for King of the Ring 2017
Give him king gimmick & Maryse the Queen gimmick