10 Moments That Destroyed WWE's King Of The Ring
4. Eliminating Quarterfinals From PPV
When the King Of The Ring moved to pay-per-view from a house show exclusive in 1993, the tournament was the centerpiece of the entire event.
King Of The Ring qualifying matches were held on WWE's weekly programming, and even getting into the tournament was seen as a pretty big accomplishment. The honor of becoming king was actually positioned as being on par with the WWE Championship. That shined a bright light on not only the winner, but the entire contest.
But in 1996, WWE made the decision to remove the quarterfinals from the PPV show, having a detrimental effect on the show from that point onward.
Instead of having all but the qualifying matches take place on PPV, the new format consisted of the first two rounds airing on free television. Part of the prestige involved with the crown had been the number of matches the victor typically needed to win in one evening. It was a huge component to the event that was overlooked by WWE when they decided to feature only the semis and finals on the live show.
The change to featuring a maximum of three tournament matches rather than the possibility of seven sent a message to the audience that the accomplishment was not as important as it once was.