Two Major Reasons Behind Cody Rhodes And Randy Orton’s King Of The Ring Wins
A former WWE employee believes that Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton won their King of the Ring tournament matches due to their star power.
When WWE held the King of the Ring tournaments in the past, the goal was often to elevate a midcard wrestler by giving them a tournament win, aiming to elevate them to main event status. Sometimes, it worked well with wrestlers like Kurt Angle and Brock Lesnar, but then there are winners like Billy Gunn, who didn’t thrive as well.
In this era of WWE, the King of the Ring (and Queen of the Ring) tournament feels bigger because the winner gets a WWE Title or World Heavyweight Title at SummerSlam.
The 2024 King of the Ring winner Gunther left SummerSlam as the World Heavyweight Champion, while Nia Jax left SummerSlam as the WWE Women’s Champion.
On WWE SmackDown in Lexington, Randy Orton won a Fatal 4-Way match with LA Knight, Carmelo Hayes and Aleister Black to move on to the semifinals of the tournament. Bronson Reed and Bron Breakker attacked Knight in the match. When Hayes tried a top rope splash on Knight, Orton hit Hayes with an RKO onto Knight and Orton covered Knight for the win.
In the main event, Cody Rhodes got a win in his Fatal 4-Way match against Shinsuke Nakamura, Andrade, and Damiaan Priest. Cody won with a Cross Rhodes on Nakamura.
WWE Gave Randy Orton And Cody Rhodes Big Wins On SmackDown Due To Star Power
Randy Orton will face Sami Zayn in the King of the Ring semifinals next Friday on the June 20th edition of SmackDown. Cody Rhodes will face the winner of a four-way match between Sheamus, Bronson Reed, Rusev and Jey Uso. If Orton and Rhodes both win, then they will face off in the finals.
Former WWE writer Vince Russo addressed the tournament on Sportskeeda Wrestling’s BroDown by remarking that guys like Cody and Randy don’t need to win King of the Ring, but WWE uses them due to their star power.
“This just goes to show you everything we are talking about. At this point in their careers, where they are on the card, does Randy Orton or Cody Rhodes really need to be winning King of the Ring? This just shows you that nobody is over. They keep going back to the same people.
I think a couple of things are happening here. Firstly, they are not getting anybody over, and number two, Netflix is looking at the ratings, and they don’t. Know who these people are, and they want star power.”
SmackDown doesn’t air on Netflix in the US because it’s on USA Network, but it does air on Netflix worldwide. Raw is on Netflix, and it has King of the Ring matches as well.