Proposal
If the King of the Ring pay-per-view is going to be held in December, it would give the WWE an ample chance to make this PPV something special. So, I propose having a true tournament that showcases wrestlers from the spectrum of WWE programming (i.e.: NXT, NXT UK, Smackdown Live, etc.) to determine who are indeed the Kings and Queen of the Ring in the WWE.
The tournament could start off with a round robin 1st round that led into a single elimination 2nd, leading up to the final four with the semi-finals and final matches taking place during the King of the Ring pay-per-view in December. The wrestlers crowned King, and Queen and Tag Team of the Ring would be given a shot to challenge the champions of their choice at the Royal Rumble. It would add a bit of intrigue to the Rumble each year, as the winners of the Rumble wouldn’t know who the champions that they would be choosing from until the Rumble PPV was over.
This tournament could be a way to have soft debuts from those up-and-coming wrestlers in NXT and NXT UK, who the higher-ups are thinking to move up to the main roster, and those wrestlers that creative is on the fence about moving back down to NXT, it would allow creative to gauge how the crowd is reacting to each wrestler, and also allow them to make the final decisions on if the up-and-comers are ready to move up, and if the ones on the fence should indeed be moved back down (or ‘relegated’ to use a football/soccer term) to NXT in order to repackage and/or tighten up their skills, in order to maybe move them back up to the main roster, when the time is right. Also, it would give the writing team a chance to get started on creating a good and believable storyline for those wrestlers for their eventual move either to the main roster or back to NXT/NXT UK.
Also, during the King of the Ring PPV, all the other storylines and feuds that were thrown off from the tournament, and from other avenues would be finished, leaving the Royal Rumble (at least for the main roster) to be a chance to start the embers of a few new feuds, that could be allowed to fester during the events of the King of the Ring Tournament, as well as new feuds and storylines coming from the King of the Ring Tournament first and second rounds. It’s a good way of creating long term bookings, and with 50-50 booking during the tournament, allow for intrigue for the fans and audience. No one would know who was going to win a match. It would be refreshing and keep casual and hardcore fans interested throughout the year, and allow the King of the Ring Tournament to become a perennial favorite, much like the Royal Rumble. It could, in fact, become the unofficial fifth biggest PPV of the year, and draw loads of viewers to the network, and could cause a sellout of whatever arena is hosting the event.
Rules
3 Men’s Divisions – Sammartino, Monsoon, Brody
Women’s Divisions – Martel and Vachon
Tag Division – Freebirds
Each match will take place with a win getting 3 points, a draw (due to double count out) getting 1 point and a loss getting 0 points. All the tournament matches will take place over the RAW, Smackdown Live, and 205 Live (if it’s still going) shows, and during some house shows, especially those that are going to be recorded for the network. I would have added the NXT and NXT UK shows, but I know that they are pre-taped.
1st Round will be a round-robin style which will take place from the Monday after WrestleMania on RAW, until the week of SummerSlam. After the end of the 1st round, the top eight of each block will move on to the 2nd round. The 2nd round will be single elimination and will take place from the RAW after SummerSlam, until the week of Survivor Series. This would allow hype and shenanigans to ensue for the finalists of the tournaments during after the November PPV, leading up to the King of the Ring PPV.
Divisions
Men’s Division
Sammartino Block:
| Adam Cole | Akira Tozawa | Bobby Lashley |
| Buddy Murphy | Dave Mastiff | Drew McIntyre |
| Elias | Gran Metalik | Johnny Gargano |
| Keith Lee | Lars Sullivan | The Miz |
| Noam Dar | Roderick Strong | Samoa Joe |
| Shinsuke Nakamura | Trent Seven | Zack Ryder |
Monsoon Block:
| Aleister Black | Baron Corbin | Braun Strowman |
| Cedrick Alexander | Dean Ambrose | Drew Gulak |
| Fandango | Finn Balor | Hideo Itami |
| Jordon Devlin | Matt Riddle | Mojo Rawley |
| No Way Jose | Rey Mysterio | Seth Rollins |
| TJP | The Velveteen Dream | Tye Dillinger |
Brody Block:
| AJ Styles | Andrade “Cien” Almas | Bray Wyatt |
| Curt Hawkins | EC3 | Jack Gallagher |
| Joe Coffey | Kassius Ohno | Kevin Owens |
| Mustafa Ali | Pete Dunne | Ricochet |
| Sami Zayn | Shelton Benjamin | Tommaso Ciampa |
| Travis Banks | Tyler Bate | Zack Gibson |
Women’s Division
Martel Division:
| Asuka | Becky Lynch | Candice Larae |
| Dakota Kai | Dana Brooke | Ember Moon |
| Isla Dawn | Kairi Sane | Lacey Evans |
| Mandy Rose | Naomi | Rhea Ripley |
| Rhonda Rousey | Sarah Logan | Sasha Banks |
| Sonya Deville | Taynara Conti | Vanessa Borne |
Vachon Division:
| Bayley | Bianca Belair | Carmella |
| Charlotte Flair | Deonna Purrazzo | Io Shirai |
| Jinny | Killer Kelly | Liv Morgan |
| Nia Jax | Mia Yim | Natalya |
| Nikki Cross | Ruby Riott | Shayna Bazsler |
| Tamina Snuka | Toni Storm | Xia Brookside |
Tag Team Division
Freebirds Block
| Ascension | Authors of Pain | B-Team |
| Breezango | Coffey Bros | DiY |
| Gallows and Anderson | Heavy Machinery | Lorcan and Burch |
| Mustache Mountain | The New Day | The Revival |
| Roode & Gable | Sanity | Street Profits |
| Undisputed Era | The Usos | War Raiders |
