- Oct 15, 2000
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Last week was quite the week for WWE. Randy Orton retained the WWE Title at Survivor Series. John Cena was fired. John Cena gave his farewell speech. John Cena returned helping Randy Orton to retain the WWE Title. The Miz cashed in his Money in the Bank briefcase. The Miz won the WWE Title. Juan Cena debuted. The King of the Ring field was set.
So tonight is the 2010 King of the Ring tournament, live from Philadelphia on a "special" three hour Raw. I decided long ago that I was not going to this show. With all that is going on, I'm kind of disappointed I won't be there, but I still can't justify paying close to $100 for a night of WWE. Eight men qualified last week for this year's tournament. There have been no brackets announced, so it's impossible to give a detailed preview, but I will breakdown my thoughts on each man's chances of winning from least to most likely.
8: Ezekiel Jackson - He's been getting a big push over the past month, but he has no mic skills, little in ring talent, and is very injury prone. At the same time, I would be surprised to see him lose clean, so I look for him to get eliminated in some type of typical WWE cop out finish.
7: Drew McIntyre - Once WWE's golden child, McIntyre has fallen deeply out of favor. And I have no problem with that since he is incredibly boring in the ring. You never know when WWE will decide to pull the trigger and push someone again, but with Tiffany's recent firing, I can't imagine Drew is in the best of graces right now.
6: Kofi Kingston - They could always do King Kingston, but since Kofi's short lived program with Randy Orton, he hasn't done much of anything. He also seems to have fallen into a routine with his matches which can be very dangerous. He has tons of athletic talent, but he's sloppy in the ring. I also don't see him pulling off the King character.
5: John Morrison - If he didn't get the clean win over Sheamus at Survivor Series, he would have been lower on the list. But maybe that was the start of a big push for Morrison. But just like Kofi, I can't see him playing the King character.
4: Cody Rhodes - King Cody has a nice ring to it, and it could fit very well with his Dashing gimmick. However, to me, Cody is just a midcarder who is never going to go anywhere.
3: Daniel Bryan - Bryan is so opposite the King character, WWE may use it to continue with the goofy gimmick they seem to be giving Bryan (between the theme music and having no interest in girls). Bryan could definitely pull it off, and anything to continue to push Bryan is fine with me.
2: Alberto Del Rio - The King gimmick would obviously fit Del Rio as he already plays to a very similar gimmick. However, with him already playing a character so close to a king, I don't know what the benefit would be. Plus, I have to think Del Rio is very close to a main event run on Smackdown, so the king gimmick may be beneath him. But you never know how seriously WWE will push a gimmick like this.
1: Sheamus - I can already picture Sheamus in a robe and crown. King Booker was great with his regal gimmick, and I think Sheamus could be even better. And like Hombre said, I don't think HHH returns tonight, but this sets up a perfect angle with the King of Kings coming after the King of the Ring.
Although I have Sheamus and Del Rio 1 and 2, I in no way think this will be the final of the tournament. My guess is Morrison gets to the final to lose to the heel.
The Miz cashed in his Money in the Bank title shot last week defeating a weakened Randy Orton. It was a longer match than normal Money in the Bank standards, but it still only went 3 minutes. Orton had control and went for the RKO, but Miz countered right into The Skull Crushing Finale (I really hate that name). While The Miz shed tears of joy over winning the WWE Championship, his victory was unfortunately overshadowed by the seed of Satan herself in the crowd. No one will ever talk about The Miz's title win without talking about the extremely angry little girl in the crowd.
On the serious side though, The Miz's title victory was picked up by not just MTV and TMZ, even ESPN covered it. This has to be a huge benefit for The Miz going forward as we all know how much WWE craves mainstream media coverage. If The Miz is able to keep his heat and if John Cena is kept out of the title picture for a near future, I could definitely see The Miz going into WrestleMania as the champ. We have heard numerous rumors of a Cena vs Orton WrestleMania main event, but WWE has to know that this match is drawing no money in 2011. The Miz would be a fresh face who could cut great promos to give people a new match that they would want to see.
With that said, he'll probably lose the title at TLC.
The other big news was the "firing" of John Cena. Cena cut his huge babyface promo saying his goodbyes. He left the building, only to return during the main event to cost Barrett his match against Orton. While WWE hasn't be advertising Cena for tonight's show, Cena did write on his Twitter that he is buying a ticket to sit ringside (another reason I'm glad I'm not going to be there). The storyline seems pretty simple from here. Cena will continue to interfere and cause problems for Wade Barrett, until Barrett demands Cena to be brought back to have a match. It's so pitiful that WWE feels they can't keep Cena off TV for a single week. They built and built and built up this huge stipulation of Cena being fired only to blow it off within an hour. I can't imagine a single WWE fan believing a stipulation going forward. Plus, when you constantly pull these fake retirements, it takes away from legitimate retirements like Shawn Michaels which will just be remembered as another segment from Raw rather than what should have been one of the most special moments in WWE history.
Almost every WWE PPV is built around storylines and stipulations rather than the matches themselves. And when you continue to show fans that these stipulations are meaningless, it gives fans zero reason to buy a pay-per-view. WWE can make whatever excuses they want about the economy and injured stars, but the fact is simple - they give fans no reason to pay $50 for a show.
