By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
WWE has announced the following wrestlers for the 16-man King of the Ring tournament that will begin on Monday’s Raw television show.
Raw Wrestlers
The Miz
Ricochet
Cedric Alexander
Samoa Joe
Drew McIntyre
Baron Corbin
Sami Zayn
Cesaro
Smackdown Wrestlers
Kevin Owens
Ali
Apollo Crews
Chad Gable
Elias
Andrade
Buddy Murphy
Shelton Benjamin
Powell’s POV: I enjoy a good pro wrestling tournament and with the names involved this has a chance to be just that. My fear remains that the winner will be saddled with a one dimensional King gimmick like Sheamus and Wade Barrett had after winning previous KOTR tournaments. Hopefully the company has a plan in place to make someone in a big way.
You say that like there’s a difference between Raw and Smackdown wrestlers now
That’s how they listed it. I have no clue which brand most of the wrestlers belong to.
I would assume I’m not the only one with this view…anyone else out there that would absolutely love to see KOTR become its own PPV again? We suffer through a Hell in a Cell PPV where storylines are obnoxiously forced into “needing” a cell to end the fued, we suffer through TLC with a company that has become very tame, and so on and so on. KOTR can basically be a few title matches and then the full tourney, which would be a lot of fun. Not only would I Like to see it brought back but it would be a much better substitution for what we get now.