The “Thunderdome Era” is tailor made for a King of the Ring return

I am a huge fan of tournaments in professional wrestling. I feel like I should get that out of the way at the start of this. Even a bad tournament in pro wrestling is entertaining to me. I loved it when recently Impact Wrestling held a tournament to determine the number one contender for their world championship. I love and have loved the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic.

Three of the matches from the AEW Tag Team Tournament that helped kick off the Dynamite run on TNT are in my top 10 matches of all time. I say all of this to point out that I generally think that tournaments are a great device to solve any issues you have with booking in a particular company. So take what I say going forward with a grain of salt.

Baron Corbin has been crowned King Of The Ring for 614 days at the time of writing this piece. That’s great! Honestly, I think the King Corbin gimmick reinvigorated his career and put him back on a level, at least for a time, that allowed him to operate as a top heel in the company.

My issue isn’t with King Corbin.

My issue is with the amount of time he’s been crowned without having to defend that crown. 614 days or 88 weeks is longer than WCW, a company that no longer exists in any form, lead the ratings over WWE RAW in the Monday Night Wars.

Again, I have no issue with him being King or even having subsequent reigns as King. My issue is that he has not had to defend his title as king.

For 17 years from 1985 to 2002, the best wrestlers in the WWE would converge on one ring, for one night, and duke it out to determine who would have the right to call themselves the king. We’ve gotten away from that over the last decade and honestly, that was fine with me too. Pro Wrestling is best when the action in the ring furthers a story. The last few yearly tournaments before being put on ice were, to be frank. Really really bad.

Then in 2006, it was brought back on an as-needed basis and things started to look like they might be trending in a good direction again. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t last as the breaks between tournaments would continue to get longer from 2006 to 2008. Then 2008 to 2010, 2010 to 2015, and finally 2015 to our last offering in 2019. So why are we talking about this now? The current WWE trend means that we’ll probably get another King of The Ring tournament in the next few years right? So why do I care?

Why are people allowing Baron Corbin to claim the King moniker still?

Here’s why. Baron Corbin is still calling himself King Corbin. The last King of the ring in WWE was Bad News Barrett in 2015 he only used that gimmick until his release in 2016. Yes he was released and that forced him to give up the gimmick but he returned to the company in 2020 and has made no mention of his former Kingship. The only man to call himself King Corbin over several years was the only man to win back-to-back King of the Ring tournaments was Bret Hart who won in 1991 and 1993. He was the king of WWE at this point in his career even without tournament wins. Corbin isn’t even king of the mid-card right now. So why hasn’t he been mercilessly teased and called out about how he’s “still calling himself king” by every babyface in the company?

No, really I am asking. Why is that not the first thing out of every babyfaces’ mouth when they face Corbin? Some form of “You are no king of mine.” Or something better. Why are they not demanding the opportunity to shut his mouth and prove that they are better than him? Why are the faces in WWE seemingly content to be kicked while they’re down?

How do you do a King of the Ring Tournament in 2021?

I’ll start by telling you how not to do it. You don’t split it between RAW and SmackDown over a few weeks again. That was the worst way to do that because as soon as you got excited to see the next tournament match the episode ended and you were just sitting on your hands for several days.

So you return to the days of the ’80s and ’90s and you do it in one night. The Thunderdome Era is tailor-made for a one-night King of the Ring tournament. All of your talents are in one town anyway and have been for weeks. Get rid of one of your time filler PPVs and bring back the tournament on one night and watch it quickly become one of your most-watched events of the year! This should be especially attractive to VKM and all of the front office personnel at both WWE and NBC Universal where user retention is not only key but necessary to justify the huge price tag that NBC paid the WWE for their content library.

Who should win the King of the Ring in 2021

I honestly think you could give King Corbin the win again and get away with it. It would not only justify in his mind and the minds of the fans the way he has acted since winning the tournament but it would also propel him back to the top of the card. Hopefully this time he will be able to stay there.

If King Corbin retaining isn’t something you find interesting I have a few other ideas for you.

Shinsuke Nakamura: The legend of Japanese wrestling hasn’t had an impactful program on WWE television in recent memory and took the crown off the head of King Corbin in recent weeks which inspired this piece. I think he could be a fantastic king.

Xavier Woods: Aside from the fact that at one point his Twitter bio touted being King of the Ring as one of his lifelong goals, and his current display name says that he is a future King. He is seen by many to be the least talented of the New Day, which is flat-out ridiculous. He is a talented wrestler and even more talented on the mic. A run with the King gimmick might be just what he needs to be established as the third main event worthy member of the former stable.

Cesaro: What can I say about Cesaro that hasn’t already been said by so many people. He is one of the strongest superstars on the roster and a phenomenal professional wrestler. He hasn’t been given the opportunities of his fellow ROH alumni for whatever reason. Give him the Lesnar 2002 treatment with the gimmick and give him another shot at the Universal Title.

Adam Cole: What better way to debut on the main roster and become an immediate threat than to make a surprise appearance at King of the Ring and win the whole damn thing?

Ali: Speaking of guys who just haven’t been given the shots they deserve, is there anyone with a bigger claim to that injustice in recent years other than Ali? If not for a freak injury in 2019 and his replacement in the Elimination Chamber by Kofi Kingston we might have gotten AliMania and not KofiMania.

Whether or not you decide to move forward with King of the Ring as a one-night PPV or you do it again across many days and episodes of television one thing is certain. The WWE is leaving money on the table in a time where nostalgia sells to not capitalize on this tournament and all the history wrapped up in it.