10 Horrible Decisions That Gave Us Great Wrestling

7. Bringing Back King Of The Ring In 2006

The King Of The Ring tournament used to be an annual event which crowned a brilliant wrestler and gave him an additional boost towards the main event. Then it fell by the wayside. The last person to have won it was Brock Lesnar, three month after his WWE main roster debut. Perhaps the reason WWE got rid was because no one else could compete with him. Regardless, the tournament was shelved after 2002 and didn€™t return in 2003, 04 or 05. And then it came back, in 2006, and Booker T won. Booker T was a wrestler a couple of years past his prime, a WCW mainstay who€™d become probably the only member of that roster (aside from Shane Helms) to stay and thrive as a WWF/E wrestler after the Invasion. The usual meaning of the King Of The Ring victory wasn€™t for him. No, they intended to go the gimmick route, the same as they had with King Mabel: put a crown on him, and transform Booker T into King Booker, a delusional comedy heel. It was a horrible, horrible idea. The fans liked and respected Booker. He was a hell of a worker who€™d adapted to WWE extraordinarily well€ why were they putting him in polka dots?* Booker wore the crown. He wore the robes. He carried a sceptre, probably. He definitely changed his voice - his cadence, accent and tone - to appear more stereotypically regal. His wife and valet, Sharmell, became Queen Sharmell. And it wasn't a disaster. It was beautiful. No, it actually was. In a shocking twist, Booker was absolutely brilliant in the role, a riot, displaying a flair for nonsensical character-based comedy and cowardly cartoon heelishness that no one could possibly have known he possessed. He was so good, and so over in the role, that WWE promptly placed the World Heavyweight Title on him. * 50 Internet Points if you can tell me what that€™s a reference to.