King of the Ring is back for the first time since 2015. So far it’s been a blast with major upsets abound. Drew McIntyre and Kevin Owens were the favorites at online betting sites around the globe.
But both of them have already been eliminated! Let’s take a Look at each side of things and see where we are at with the King of the Ring.
The SmackDown Side!
Kevin Owens was the 9/2 favorite to win the SmackDown bracket, but Elias had other things to say about that. Kevin Owens had just cannon-balled Elias and it looked like Owens was going to have a chance but he was interrupted by McMahon. Then the corporate shill took off his shirt and had a cute little dollar-sign referee outfit. Needless to say, Shane McMahon made sure that Elias won. It will be interesting if Elias made it all the way through and became the King of the Ring … dedicated Raw fans would absolutely hate that.
Ali and Buddy Murphy clashed and I must say, with Murphy being just left of center in the Roman Reigns attack storyline, I thought they would push Buddy Murphy a little deeper into the King of the Ring tournament. Early in the match, Murphy hit Ali with a flying cloths-line chop that should have finished the match, but somehow Ali found the strength of will to kick out of the pin. A bit later, Murphy slammed Ali with back-to-back Power-Bomb and Brain-Busters. Murphy was punishing Ali to an extent that seems ridiculous that he was able to recover.
None-the-less, Ali came back and caught Murphy in an amazing off the ropes DDT, and then promptly followed up with a 450 cover from the top turnbuckle.
Elsewhere in SmackDown, Andrade took out Apollo Crews and Chad Gable pinned Shelton Benjamin in the second shortest match of the first round, just 3:52. Now it’s down to Elias vs. Ali and Chad Gable vs. Andrade in the SmackDown bracket
The Raw Side!
Ricochet and Drew McIntyre duked it out for nearly 15 minutes. It was brute force versus finesse. And for a while there it looked like Ricochet might not make it through the bout. At one point outside the ring, Ricochet tried for a flying collision but ended up with a Glasgow-Kiss right to the dome. We all knew that a Claymore-Kick was coming next, to try and finish Ricochet, but as Drew McIntyre came barreling in, Ricochet got of a defensive kick to turn the tables once, more.
It went back and forth like this for over fourteen minutes, before Ricochet caught McIntyre in a Recoil, and then climbed the top rope for a 630 slam! Elsewhere in Raw, Cedric Alexander pinned Sami Zayn in just 3:35, the shortest match we have seen in this year’s King of the Ring. Also, Baron Corbin bested The Miz, who many thought would push deep into this ongoing contest due to his recent success at SummerSlam.
Cesaro and Samoa Joe went head-to-head with Samoa Joe coming out the victor via submission.
So, now it’s down to Samoa Joe versus Ricochet at the top of the Raw bracket and Cedric Alexander and Baron Corbin. Who will come out on top of the final eight? It’s tough to say. I think Baron Corbin gets past Cedric Alexander.
And I think Elias gets past Ali, but the other two matchups are complete tossups. We’ll have to wait and see what happens in the quarter-finals.
