WWE King of the Ring 2019: Who will win the tournament this year?

Round One: Raw

The Raw side of the bracket for WWE King of the Ring this year is a little odd. Of the eight participants, only three would be considered a babyface, which makes the first round matchups a little tough to predict. Which “heel vs. heel” pairing will start things off? Will someone turn before their opening round matchup?

I’m guessing that Sami Zayn will be one half of the dual heel match, simply because his gimmick is “guy who talks a big game before getting trounced in less than a minute.” And that’s sad, because Zayn would make a great King of the Ring. But Drew McIntyre would be a prime candidate to get a quick, decisive victory over Sami and move on to the next round.

McIntyre’s recent foil, Cedric Alexander, is a guy who could really benefit from moving on into the second round, at least. He spent a long time on the sidelines after his initial move to Raw, and his brief main event run has taken a backseat to SummerSlam and its activities. Alexander defeating a guy like Cesaro would likely provide a banger of a match, and the Swiss Cyborg wouldn’t be “buried” with a loss in match of that level.

If anyone can get a decent match out of Baron Corbin, it’s Ricochet. But after dominating the Universal Championship scene from WrestleMania to Extreme Rules, and the entirety of Raw for the year or so before that, I prefer the Baron Corbin we’ve seen in the last month. (Yes, you’re right, he hasn’t been on TV.)

And to keep things even on the heel/face dynamic heading into the second round, Samoa Joe has to pick up the win over The Miz. Joe could use a decent run in the King of the Ring tournament to re-establish himself as a monster, and The Miz is in a weird limbo right now where he’s better than most midcarders but not quite at the level of the upper part of the card. If Dolph Ziggler gets involved to further that feud, so be it.