6 Ups And 6 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (April 27th)

Downs...

6. A Field Of Peasants

Let€™s say this right off the bat: The fact that the King of the Ring tournament coming back is a great thing. (You€™ll read more about that in a bit.) However, the King of the Ring tournament used to be about finding the next big thing in WWE and basically anointing them. Think about some of the past winners: €œStone Cold€ Steve Austin (1996), Triple H (1997), Kurt Angle (2000), Edge (2001) and Brock Lesnar (2002). All of them won as they were on the rise as superstars, and this was a stepping stone in their careers. And the tournament was a big deal for a while. The 2000 KOTR tourney featured 32 wrestlers. The 2002 field of 16 included Booker T., Edge, Chris Jericho, Christian, Eddie Guerrero and Rob Van Dam, all future world champions. This year€™s crop of contenders? While there are some notable names like Bad News Barrett, Dolph Ziggler, Sheamus and Dean Ambrose, aside from Neville, who else has any consistent forward momentum right now? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjK5EUbTbTk The one thing worth saying is that if WWE actually follows through on this with the eventual winner getting a push, that renders this point moot. But having half the first-round matches end with screwy finishes doesn€™t exactly instill confidence in how €œprestigious€ (a word WWE used a half-dozen times) the tournament will be viewed long-term.