Views from the Hawke’s Nest: WWE King of the Ring Tournament 2015 Review

As the title should make clear, this is purely a review of the tournament matches and not the larger shows the matches took place on.

 

April 27, 2015
Green Bay, Wisconsin

 

2015 King of the Ring Quarterfinal Match
Dolph Ziggler vs. Wade Barrett

Wade got control during a commercial break. Dolph quickly made a comeback. Dolph did a clever reversal of the Bossman Slam and then got a nearfall on a DDT. Wade came back with the Wasteland: 1…2…NO! Wade called for the Bull Hammer. Why does he reverse his elbow pad? Am I missing something? Please tell me in the comments if that has some significance beyond the symbolic. Dolph avoided it and hit a superkick. Sheamus came out to distract Dolph. For some reason, it worked. He showed Dolph some photos of Dolph’s face being rubbed in Sheamus’ face. A distracted Dolph then ate the Bull Hammer: 1…2…3

They were having a fine match and all, but that finish killed any chance of this match being good or memorable. In a lot of ways, I prefer Barrett as a performer compared to Dolph. Dolph seems like the hotter property, and I wish WWE would run with him on top for a month or two just to see what would happen. Maybe it wouldn’t work out, but it’s clearly worth trying.

Match Rating: **1/2

 

2015 King of the Ring Quarterfinal Match
R-Truth vs. Stardust

R-Truth’s campaign video for King of the Ring was a promise to get rid of spiders. WWE loves demeaning black wrestlers by turning them into historically racist stereotypes.

Stardust got control very quickly, and he worked Truth over. Truth made a comeback Stardust distracted himself by yelling at Booker. Booker trolled Truth about stealing his movez. Stardust went for the Beautiful Disaster, but Truth caught him with the Lie Detector: 1…2…3

This was no fucking good. No fucking good at all. The crowd did not care about either character, and the wrestlers did a 4-5 minute version of a WWE style match which almost never gets over. It just makes the wrestlers seem unimportant. Neither of these men should even be in the tournament unless it’s to get squashed by some of the much better wrestlers in it.

Match Rating: *

 

2015 King of the Ring Quarterfinal Match
Dean Ambrose vs. Sheamus

They were battling for control early on. As the match went to commercial, neither man managed to get control still. When we came back, Sheamus was applying the deadly CHINLOCK. We learned Sheamus got control during the break and has been working Ambrose over since. Ambrose put a stop to that with a Nigel. Instead of Ambrose making a comeback, they just started going back and forth. Sheamus hit a powerslam. Ambrose hit a tope suicida. Sheamus avoided Dirty Deeds and applied the Cloverleaf. Ambrose survived and hit the elbow drop. They started to brawl on the floor, and Sheamus hit a Brogue Kick. Dolph Ziggler ran in and attacked Sheamus.

Ambrose got DQed for that. Sheamus ran away through the crowd. Ambrose was appropriately pissed off when it was announced that he lost.

This was real good until the finish. They managed to do a bunch of little things right in order to make this stand out from your typical WWE TV match. It was different just enough to not feel as cynically formulaic as the first two quarterfinal matches did. These two need to have a PPV match as soon as possible; they are two of the best in the company.

Match Rating: ***

 

2015 King of the Ring Quarterfinal Match
Luke Harper vs. Neville

These two had a really good (possible great) match in Dragon Gate USA in 2011.

Harper was very charismatic in his Smart Mark Video shoot. That did not translate to his promo for this match.

Neville hit an early hurricanrana off the apron. Harper then blocked a springboard move and proceeded to work Neville over. Neville fought back and hit a BEAUTIFUL Asai Moonsault. He needs to do more things like that to get really over. Harper hit a superkick and a release-German. Neville came back with the rebound German and a thigh-slappin’ kick. LIGER BOMB FROM HARPER: 1…2…NO! Neville came back with a sunset flip powerbomb and then hit Red Arrow: 1…2…3

These two have tremendous chemistry and will be able to put together some great matches together on WWE programming if given the opportunity. They compliment each other’s strengths perfectly, as Neville needs someone whom can make his offense look great. Harper has plenty of experience being a base for smaller, flippy dudes. This wasn’t really given the opportunity to be special, but they incorporated some spots and movez that are not seen on WWE TV that often. A fine way to end the first night of the tournament.

Match Rating: ***

 

April 28, 2015
Moline, Illinois

2015 King of the Ring Semifinal Match
Sheamus vs. Neville

Sheamus quickly cut off Neville. He worked Neville over for a while. A few months ago everyone realized Sheamus was going to have to come back as a heel. People (ie: me) were worried that he was going to suffer in the ring because he’s such a strong babyface worker. Those people (again, me) were so wrong. Sheamus is just awesome. Tragically, the match did not have a chance to get going properly. Before Neville had a chance to fight back, Dolph Ziggler came out to distract Sheamus. That allowed Neville a chance to recover. Enzuigiri. Red Arrow: 1…2…3

Dolph and Sheamus brawled afterwards. Sheamus got busted open.

So far, this tournament has primarily been about Sheamus and Dolph ruining each other’s matches. When a tournament only has seven matches, three of them getting ruined to get over a B feud is just terrible. The match was shaping up to be good, but they never got a chance.

Match Rating: **1/4

 

2015 King of the Ring Semifinal Match
Wade Barrett vs. R-Truth

This should be terrible.

Wade quickly cut Truth over and then worked him over. I only just realized that Barrett’s name is now officially, “Bad News Barrett.” I’ll fix it for the finals. Truth made a comeback and got a nearfall with a gourd buster. Truth got a few more nearfalls. Bad News got a nearfall with a shitty Bossman Slam. Not sure whose fault that was. Bad News raked Truth’s eyes and then hit the Bull Hammer: 1…2…3

Bad News is so not over. Like, alarmingly not over.

There’s not much to say about this specific match. R-Truth is basically irredeemable as a wrestler at this point, and this tournament has made clear that he should not be on the roster anymore in a wrestling capacity. I feel bad that two people got saddled with him.

Match Rating: *1/2

 

2015 King of the Ring Finals
Bad News Barrett vs. Neville

Bad News got control by sending Neville to the floor with a lariat. He worked Neville over for a while after that. He was mostly targeting Neville’s back. Yay! In-ring stories. Neville fought back and hit his Asai Moonsault. Neville made a comeback in the ring after that. Bad News came back with the Black Adder Slam (yes, I just changed the name of that one) and Wasteland. Neville avoided the Bull Hammer and got a nearfall with an O’Connor Roll. Bad News avoided the Red Arrow and hit the Bull Hammer: 1…2…3

I’m usually okay with WWE formula. The better talents manage to find a way to work within it to make themselves stand out. This was a case of where the formula got to me a bit too much. Neither Bad News nor Neville manage to break out of the formula here, and it brought the match down for me. This didn’t feel like a dramatic conclusion to a tournament. It was just another match. (And one that paled in comparison to the one they had on the PPV pre-show two days earlier!)

Match Rating: **3/4

 

Watch some free matches!

Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Zack Sabre Jr. [Yes, you want to watch this. Duh.]

Sami Zayn vs. Adrian Neville

CM Punk vs. AJ Styles

The Young Bucks vs. The Dudley Boys

Biff Busick vs. Timothy Thatcher

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada

CM Punk vs. Masato Tanaka

The Young Bucks vs. The Hardy Boyz

Daniel Bryan vs. AJ Styles

Mike Quackenbush vs. Eddie Kingston

Degeneration-X (Triple H & Shawn Michaels) vs. Chris Jericho & The Big Show vs. John Cena & The Undertaker

Sara Del Rey & Madison Eagles vs. Ayumi Kurihara & Ayako Hamada

The Briscoes & Naomichi Marufuji vs Matt Sydal, Atsushi Aoki, & Ricky Marvin

Chris Sabin vs. Johnny Gargano

Samoa Joe vs. Takeshi Morishima

Drew McIntyre vs. Roderick Strong

The Great Muta vs. Genichiro Tenryu

Jushin Liger & Yuji Nagata vs. Minoru Suzuki & Masakatsu Funaki

Paul London vs. Johnny Drinko Butabi

Davey Richards vs. Kyle O’Reilly

Adam Cole vs. Michael Elgin

Kenny Omega vs. KAI

5.0

The final score: review Not So Good

The 411

This tournament was underwhelming, as I should have known it would be. WWE rushed this tournament out with little to no hype, and the execution of it was treated with similar disdain. What could have been fun little gem of a tournament was instead just a reminder that the WWE is going to do things their way. It is not a product that caters to my tastes or interests. With that being said, some of the matches overcame the macro booking issues of the tournament. Harper vs. Neville was fun, and it seems clear that Neville is someone whom they have yet to give up on (going on a full month!). He's not the greatest wrestler in the world, but he brings variety to a product that is perpetually in need of it. Sheamus continues to look great in his new heel role, and I'm hopeful that he will continue to get opportunities to shine on PPV. The silver linings in the WWE can almost always be found. There's just too much shit to dive into to make them worth looking for more often than not.