5 Best candidates to win the 2019 WWE King of the Ring 

For the first time in four years, we saw the return of the King of The Ring tournament on WWE RAW.

King of The Ring was held annually from 1985 to 2002 - although no events were held in 1990 and 1992. While some of these events were not televised, the King of The Ring re-debuted as it's own Pay-Per-View in 1993, until its final airing in 2002. Following its official end in 2002, the tournament has since been revived four times, in 2006, 2008, 2010 and 2015.

The tournament has now been revived for the fifth time and features 16 Superstars, eight each from the Red and Blue Brands.

The full list of Superstars that have entered is incredibly talented and each would make a fine king. I have decided to narrow it down to the top five that I think would be the best options to be the 2019 King of the Ring.

#5 Ricochet

It's already in his name

Ricochet is one of the fastest rising superstars in the WWE. While he may have come out on the losing end of his feud with AJ Styles, his performance in those matches got a lot of people talking.

Even before this, Ricochet was said to be seen as a future big star by many backstage, particularly by WWE RAW creative director Paul Heyman. I think Ricochet would be a great choice to win the King of The Ring tournament, if WWE does, in fact, have plans to push the king. And I don't mean use of the crown and cape as a gimmick like we have seen before but more as a launching pad for a promising wrestler like Ricochet.

As fast-rising as Ricochet has been over the past two months, a King of the Ring victory would elevate him further up the card and maybe even into the main event scene.

#4 Andrade

Bright future, but it's on hold

The push of Andrade is an interesting one. We have heard rumors for over a year now, as recently as the past few weeks, that many backstage see a huge Superstar in Andrade.

Despite this, Andrade's push has been full of stops and false starts. One week he is picking up a dominant victory over main event players like Rey Mysterio and Finn Bálor, and the next he is losing meaningless matches to Apollo Crews. But it's bookings such as these which make Andrade a perfect candidate to become King of the Ring.

We have seen several wrestlers in the past who had very mixed bookings go onto win the King of the Ring tournament and have a very much clearer path to the top from there. Even the biggest names of all-time, like Stone Cold Steve Austin, had some pretty poor booking up until he became king and then became the biggest superstar in the world.

I don't think becoming king would make Andrade the biggest star in wrestling, but it very well could keep on a straight path to the top.

#3 Buddy Murphy

Keep the momentum going

As Buddy Murphy recently said on his social media, the world knows his name and he is riding an incredible wave of momentum.

While he was enjoying a five-month reign as WWE Cruiserweight Champion on 205 Live, Murphy had also been the best performer on the show. Murphy was promoted to the WWE SmackDown roster on the post-WrestleMania Superstar Shakeup in April and up until very recently, we hadn't really seen him. After four months of inactivity, a legitimate mistake has now got people talking about Buddy Murphy.

Murphy was spotted by fans on at the scene of Roman Reigns' mystery attacking. Originally thought to be a red herring on who it could be, it turns out Murphy was accidentally filmed in the shot and WWE has since decided to keep him a part of it, for the time being at least. So far this has resulted in Murphy's first match on SmackDown, a loss to Roman Reigns last week in a thrilling match that has turned a lot of heads.

WWE now has the opportunity to go even further with Buddy Murphy and keep him in the big picture and having him become King of The Ring. The move would solidify his main event status and maybe even add to the Roman Reigns angle in some fashion.

#2 Drew McIntyre

Keeping up tradition

Could it be faith that the Scotsman Drew McIntyre become king?

The past three King of The Ring winners have all actually been either McIntyre's fellow UK residents in William Regal (2008) and Wade Barrett (2015) or a neighbor, in Irishman Sheamus. Yes, it seems like WWE has had a big thing for UK/Euro kings.

What's more is WWE has also added the king role as apart of their gimmick, which although I don't want to see it, I wouldn't put it past them doing it with McIntyre if he was victorious.

It's no secret that Drew McIntyre has been pegged for a major role in the company for over a year now. Strangely, his full-time main event push is yet to come, so I can't think of a better way for him to get their in much better time than winning the King of The Ring.

#1 Kevin Owens

Ready to explode

Former WWE Universal Champion Kevin Owens has been given a lot of creative freedom lately, as well as a big angle with Shane McMahon.

The last time we saw someone with this much creative freedom and rising fanfare become the King of The Ring, it was Stone Cold Steve Austin. Now by no means am I saying Kevin Owens will ever be able to replicate the success of Steve Austin. He can't because no one ever will. That said though, I do believe he could take elements of what made Steve Austin who he was, as well as elements from someone like CM Punk, which he has been doing with his worked shoots.

This formula won't create someone as big as Stone Cold Steve Austin, but it would make a huge superstar all the same. And since Kevin Owens is already a big name and former World Champion, it will only add to he possibly becoming the next big thing in WWE. And I can't think of a better way to get that going then by he winning the King of The Ring tournament, and using the prominent victory as position as fuel as an unruly superstar in his feud with Shane McMahon.