Should WWE run with Elias as this year’s King of the Ring?

Don’t count out the possibility of WWE giving us yet another surprise outcome in the King of the Ring tournament by having Elias stand tall at Clash of Champions.

The quarterfinals of the King of the Ring tournament were absolutely wild. It felt like WWE just decided to bust everyone’s bracket all at once by not only having a false finish create a triple threat semifinals match, but also by having two favorites take surprising losses.

With Andrade and Ali now sitting on the sidelines, the window of opportunity is wide open for the remaining superstars. At this point, I could honestly easily see three different superstars leaving Clash of Champions as wrestling royalty

Why only three? Well, even though both Samoa Joe and Ricochet surprisingly made it to the semifinals, it’s hard for me to envision victory in their futures. Simply put, we all know WWE’s track record of letting Samoa Joe lose the big ones, and Ricochet really needs a win the least out of the remaining superstars after just coming off of a major rivalry with AJ Styles.

That leaves us with Chad Gable, Baron Corbin, and Elias as potential future kings.

The benefits of having Gable shockingly win the tournament are perhaps clearest of all. By the end of his match against Andrade on SmackDown, he had the entire crowd on his side despite still being a relatively unknown commodity in such high level competition in WWE.

A big win in King of the Ring would solidify the upstart Gable as a star in the company, and cement him with a solid gimmick besides his oft-mentioned small stature.

On the other hand, a win for Baron Corbin would almost represent the status quo at this point. It’s become obvious that WWE likely feels a certain level of comfort with Corbin in the main event. As such, it wouldn’t be a surprise to many if we saw King Corbin reigning supreme at Clash of Champions.

Besides, this run in King of the Ring has been some of the best work Baron Corbin has put out in who knows how long.  A win might actually take Corbin to that next level.

That leaves us with Elias. The wild card in this tournament if I’ve ever saw one.

I don’t think many people were truly expecting Ali to lose to Elias on SmackDown, yet here we are. I can’t help but think that such an unexpected win could mean fans could see some more surprises from Shane McMahon’s pal in this tournament.

Actually, I would argue that would be welcome as well. We could debate whether having Ali lose was the right call another day, but Elias’ win might be exactly what he needs at the moment.

Elias has been stuck as Shane McMahon’s henchman for quite awhile now. It’s a somewhat odd pairing, and one that feels restrictive to Elias at times. We just haven’t seen as many great moments from him as I would have been expected coming off of his red hot run last year.

A reign as King of the Ring could change that. We could see Elias firmly back in the spotlight once again, even if he retained his partnership with Shane O’Mac.

I mean the gimmick basically rights itself. Elias could gratingly refer to himself as the king of rock, and of the WWE universe, as he runs down whatever city he finds himself in that week. His frequent declarations that he’s above the fans would hold more weight with the King of the Ring crown and scepter to throw in everyone’s face. He could even force Greg Hamilton to refer to him as “King of the Ring!” with the same zeal he puts behind McMahon’s “Best in the World” introduction.

It would be a simple, yet effective, way to bring Elias back into the discussion of being one of the brightest rising stars in WWE, somewhere the guitar savant arguably hasn’t been in 2019.

Additionally, it would give Elias a much needed boost to his resume. It’s surprising to think about, but Elias actually hasn’t had any major WWE title reign aside from some quick runs as 24/7 Champion if you want to count those.

The addition of King of the Ring to his list of accolades would arguably be Elias’ biggest accomplishment in WWE thus far. That, in of itself, might be enough to justify a potential Elias win alone.

Basically, the moral of the story here is that there’s some pretty solid reasons to believe Elias has a legitimate shot at becoming King of the Ring. Therefore, don’t be surprised if WWE seems to be singing a different tone than many would likely expect come Clash of Champions.