Hey, it’s the King of The Ring! Live! On the WWE Network!
Before the show, they aired a graphic marking the passing of Verne Gagne. Nice touch.
The show started with a video package on the history of the King of the Ring, and highlighting past winners. There’s been some top, top ones, and some crap, crap ones.
Jerry Lawler came out onto the stage, with a crown in his hand and stood next to an opulent throne. He re-capped the tournament so far, and then introduced a video package on the final four participants – Sheamus, Neville, Bad News Barrett & R-Truth.
In the locker room, Byron Saxton spoke to Sheamus about the tournament. He waved off the threat of Neville and looked forward to beating Barrett or Truth. He vowed to make every little fella in WWE kiss his arse. *sigh*
Backstage Renee spoke to Neville, who cut a decent promo noting he was the longest-reigning NXT champion of all time and now he was two victories away from becoming King of the Ring. He said no-one expects him to beat Sheamus but he defies expectations, just like he defies gravity. Another Wicked earworm, cheers. He said he’d show Sheamus what a little fella like him could do.
So Sheamus and Neville were having a good little match – they went back and forth, but Sheamus had started to get on top – when Dolph Ziggler came out to the top of the ramp and distracted Sheamus. This allowed Neville to hit the Red Arrow for the win, and progress into the final of the King of the Ring Tournament.
After the match, Neville celebrated with Ziggler at the top of the ramp while Sheamus fumed in the ring. Ziggler said he was here to collect on his Extreme Rules stipulation and get Sheamus to kiss his arse.
He ran down to the ring and they went at it until tons of referees poured out of the back, like a herd of wildebeest, and separated them. Somewhere in the melee, Sheamus got potatoed and his eye got cut, which looked AWESOME.
After a break, Backstage Renee spoke to Bad News Barrett. He said that R-Truth should have Bullhamer-phobia instead of arachnophobia. I was confused. Must have missed something.
In the locker room, Byron Saxton spoke to R-Truth, who did a whacky promo about what he’d do when he became King of the Ring. He said he’d get rid of all the spiders (was this supposed to go first, or is this a standing joke?) and he’d have a big castle. He described his castle in detail. Barrett was NOT invited to the castle, unless he knew how to kill spiders. Saxton was confused.
So Barrett and Truth had a match, and Truth got a fair bit in before Barrett hit a Bullhammer after thumbing Truth in the eye behind the ref’s back for the win. Barrett progressed to the final to face Neville.
They showed a video package on Verne Gagne, that was concise and respectful. It noted the stars he’d created in the AWA, but left out Hogan because WWE. After the video, Lawler and JBL put Gagne over big.
Backstage Renee spoke to Dolph Ziggler about his actions early on. Ziggler cut a talky on Sheamus, weirdly not looking at either the camera or Backstage Renee. He said he apologised to Dean Ambrose for causing a DQ loss for him on Raw but couldn’t take it any more after Sheamus had disrespected him at Extreme Rules.
He said that Sheamus had only had a taste of what he was going to get from Ziggler. Then he said that Sheamus didn’t have to worry about kissing his arse, but getting it kicked, which was grammatically-confused but the message was there.
They re-capped the Extreme Rules pre-show match between Bad News Barrett & Neville, our finalists tonight.
In the locker room, Byron Saxton spoke to Barrett. Barrett said he didn’t want to hear about Neville beating him at Extreme Rules because he was on a roll after beating R-Truth. He said he’d ploughed through Truth and now he would take his place on his throne.
Hey, it’s the King of the Ring Tournament Final Match! It’s Bad News Barrett versus Neville! They had a really good match, which Barrett won with a Bullhammer after seven minutes of action.
They did some very nearfalls – from Barrett’s Wasteland and Neville’s bridging German Suplex – before Neville hit the Red Arrow but Barrett rolled out of the way. Then came the Bullhammer.
After the match, Barrett walked up the ramp to be crowned King, weirdly by the referee. Jerry Lawler came out and spoke to him, and Barrett said he would be the greatest King of all time (cue face from Lawler) and that he would rule with Bullhammers for all – “boom!”
This was a good little show. The hour-long, three-match format really worked, and it’s something they should use more often. You could do one of these quarterly for the different divisions and still keep it fresh. Good work fellas!