King Of The Ring!!!!!

Back for one night only, on a three-hour RAW in Greenville, SC next week. This is, of course, an unexpected mini-holiday for us here, and KOTR retrospectives galore will be presented throughout the week, but let's take a quick look at this year's possible participants

According to the graphic on the WWF website, it's going to be Shawn Michaels, Umaga, Chris Jericho, Triple H, MVP, Batista, CM Punk, and the Big Show battling it out; however, the story on it also mentions Mr. Kennedy and Finlay. I'm assuming that even for a four-hour show, a sixteen-man tourney is a bit much; its much more likely that they limit it to eight, but just aren't sure on the lineup yet. They are promising "one night only", so hopefully they don't do anything cheap like leave the final match for Backlash on the following Sunday.

Supposedly, whoever gets the win is going to be running with the "royalty" gimmick a la Booker T; my guess is that this eliminates Michaels, Batista, CM Punk, and HHH (unless they want the King of Kings thing to be taken literally). I'd love to see King Umaga come to the ring while trying not to eat the crown; alas, I doubt he gets the honors.

It's nice that they're kinda sorta giving Santino a tag title push along with Carly; however, I'd just mark out like crazy for him were he in this tournament.

Updates will be posted as announced; as for now, all I can say is that the WWF really is doing a decent job lately of making each RAW seem distinct from the previous week's episode. If this seems like an insignificant touch to you, you obviously weren't watching during the interminable 2006 period where every week's main event was DX vs. the Spirit Squad, and you finished each Monday thinking you may have just watched a rerun. They've decently repaired this flaw, and this is a great way to make a 3-hour show truly special.

For the time being, color me satisfied.