WWE King of the Ring quarterfinals predictions: The rise of El Idolo
By Brett Grega
Elias versus Ali
One of the matches that surprised me the most in King of the Ring thus far was Buddy Murphy versus Ali.
Not that I suspected anything less than the 5-star affair we got, it’s just the outcome was a bit of a shock to me.
After the push WWE has gave Murphy lately, I expected the only way for him to lose would be by some unseen shenanigans by Daniel Bryan and Rowan. That’s not a slight against Ali, it’s just that Murphy has been the superstar WWE seemed more invested in at the time.
Nonetheless, I think they made the right call here. Murphy can bounce back from this loss easily, as no one is going to be quick to forget his win over Daniel Bryan, or his impressive performance against Roman Reigns.
Ali has been severely underutilized by WWE ever since he lost his spot at Elimination Chamber due to injury. He’s too talented for WWE to let that continue, so he needed the win more there.
That also means he just so happens to need to pick up the win against Elias in the quarterfinals too.
We can debate whether or not WWE is fully using Elias’ talents to the best of their abilities later, spoiler alert: they aren’t, but he’s already got a clear feud with Kevin Owens to work with.
Ali needs to keep rolling in King of the Ring to ensure there’s absolutely no chance that WWE loses him in shuffle again.
Winner: Ali
Next. WWE can't let Drew McIntyre become an afterthought. dark
That means that when all is said and done, we’ll see Ali taking on Andrade in the semifinals on the SmackDown side of the bracket, and Samoa Joe facing Cedric Alexander on the Raw side.
That’s not too shabby if you ask me, and should set us up for even more competitive, high energy matches in the near future.