Why the King of the Ring Tournament could be WWE's secret weapon

From its origination in 1985 to its latest instalment in 2019, the WWE King of the Ring tournament has served as a platform for an abundance of reasons.

For a number of years, the King of the Ring concept has served as a platform for many WWE Superstars to reach new heights, such as being pushed at the main event level, along with potentially creating a new top star that could be the next "guy" for WWE.

King of the Ring also became an annual pay-per-view for WWE that the WWE Universe was invested in due to the unpredictability and prolonged matches. In addition, the King of the Ring tournament allows a variety of WWE Superstars to show what they can do inside the squared circle be being given a large amount of time to produce excellent matches, whether on Raw, Smackdown, or even the King of the Ring pay-per-view itself.

For instance, the King of the Ring pay-per-view in 2002, was where The Next Big Thing, Brock Lesnar, defeated Rob Van Dam in the finals. He is still the last man to date that has won the King of The Ring tournament on a pay-per-view broadcast.

Since 2002, there have been five new King of the Ring winners, but each of them has made minimal to zero impact after winning the tournament, besides either portraying a "king" or just having the accolade of being called the "King of the Ring". The closest performer to attain success under the "king" gimmick was King Booker, who won the World Heavyweight Championship from Rey Mysterio at The Great American Bash 2006.

Let's look at the three main reasons why the "King of the Ring" concept is WWE's biggest secret weapon.

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#3 Build new top stars

Brock Lesnar

As many have seen before, when the King of the Ring concept is used correctly, a major star can be created within a single night. For example, Brock Lesnar was largely benefitted from winning the 2002 King of the Ring.

In 2020, WWE has a large number of Superstars who are right at the revered "brass ring" that Vince McMahon uses to lure upper mid-card stars to find that one last piece of the puzzle to become a permanent main eventer.

Notable names such as Chad Gable, Apollo Crews, Andrade, Kevin Owens, Shelton Benjamin, Matt Riddle, Aleister Black, Angel Garza, Dolph Ziggler, John Morrison, Big E, Cesaro, Shinsuke Nakamura, Sami Zayn, Mustafa Ali, and Ricochet, have all been fingertips away from being a top star on either Raw or Smackdown. Any of the men listed above could benefit from winning the King of the Ring tournament and contending for the WWE/Universal Championships.

Furthermore, let's say if WWE booked a King of the Ring tournament on pay-per-view and the following happens:

-- Chad Gable wins the King of the Ring tournament, defects to Raw to face the WWE Champion at the time, and wins the WWE Championship.

In relation, the King of the Ring tournament can save a performer's career, change their gimmick, and propel them to the top of the card.

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#2 The nostalgia factor

In today's professional wrestling, many fans complain that WWE uses too much nostalgia to compensate for poor creative and innovation. Additionally, many fans today think WWE lacks creativity when it comes to storylines, matches, and concepts. WWE also doesn't use concepts to their advantage due to not wanting to run it into the ground.

On the other hand, the King of the Ring tournament offers the proper nostalgia that fans from the New Generation and Attitude Era will love, along with introducing the concept to newer WWE fans who are attempting to learn the structure around building tomorrow's storylines.

Though the King of the Ring tournament may be an older concept, the tournament brings legitimacy to the winner, and the company can still cater to the old school audience.

Moreover, it's proven that nostalgia temporarily brings in a large amount of viewership. With Raw and Smackdown reaching record lows, bringing back the King of the Ring tournament with big names such as AJ Styles, Daniel Bryan, Randy Orton, Rey Mysterio, and Seth Rollins featuring in it would bring a lot more eyes to the stale product.

Each of the former WWE Champions stated above could help upper mid-card stars such as Angel Garza and Mustafa Ali be relevant and grow as stars.

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#1 A gimmick pay-per-view that matters

Like their former rival, WCW, WWE repetitively falls victim to running concepts and gimmick matches into the ground. For example, WWE promotes pay-per-views such as the Royal Rumble, Elimination Chamber, Money in the Bank, Extreme Rules, and TLC. Apart from the Royal Rumble match, every gimmick pay-per-view has tarnished the luster of those special matches such as the Hell in a Cell or Elimination Chamber match. Since the origination of gimmick pay-per-views starting in 2009, each match with a stipulation feels stale.

However, the King of the Ring could serve as an annual pay-per-view which means something. WWE could hold a sixteen-man tournament (eight from Raw and eight from Smackdown) where the competitors face off on those specific shows, following which the final four men compete at the pay-per-view and the finals could be the main event of the show.

Consequently, the King of the Ring pay-per-view can add intrigue to the calendar as the show would bring unpredictability and have matches that you normally can't see because of the brand split, with the reward being the winner choosing which world championship they would like to contend for in the main event of a big pay-per-view, like SummerSlam.