Get rid of the King - off with his head. The King Of The Ring tournament was a bad joke this year: half on RAW, half on a derisory Network special, no one cared who was in it and especially who won. King Barrett was such a non-entity that his first feud was with R-Truth, a fortysomething jobber cooling his heels until retirement, who nonetheless beat Barrett so convincingly that he decided he would pretend to be a king too. The Bad News Barrett character was over with the fans a year ago, to the point that a babyface turn should have been in the offing, had WWE been interested in Barrett as an upper midcard babyface. Since they clearly werent (or didnt have the imagination to think laterally about how the organic nature of the characters popularity could benefit them, just as they didnt with Damien Mizdow, Lana or poor lonely Zack Ryder) they pulled the plug. The tired, credibility-free King gimmick was no replacement when was the last time you saw a heel King with any kind of heat? Even King Booker, as much as he threw himself into it, was probably only over because his wife Sharmell was a natural heat magnet. As for the King Of The Ring tournament itself, its literally only ever brought back these days so that WWE can make one of their heels wear fancy dress for a year or so when creative has nothing else for them. The time is right to ditch the royal robes and bring back the Bad News character. People will remember why they loved the gimmick so much after a few weeks: Bennetts enthusiasm for the role was so infectious...
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.