10 Moments That Destroyed WWE's King Of The Ring
2. RAW Is KOTR?
In 1996, WWE decided to remove the quarterfinals from the King Of The Ring Pay-Per-View which changed the perception of the event. In 2008 (and again in 2010), WWE further lowered the prestige of the event by presenting it on an edition of Monday Night RAW.
Instead of the tournament being important enough to carry its own pay-per-view, similar to Royal Rumble or Money In The Bank, the King Of The Ring was demoted to free television.
The reason for this is likely due to the difficulty of selling a pay-per-view around the concept of a tournament, considering few matches can be promoted due to the nature of the event. Instead of dwelling on the negative, WWE could've promoted the unpredictability and all the different potential match-ups that might take place.
The point is that if WWE was going to commit to having a King Of The Ring tournament then the company should've been prepared to take the good with the bad.
Had the event started out on free TV, that'd be one thing. As it was, this was just one more thing that was taken away from the show, and another illustration of how far the once lauded King Of The Ring had fallen.