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What began as a fanpost for a case to bring back King of the Ring, continuing with a comment in that fanpost suggesting an expanded King of the Ring tournament, and culminating with a nomination process to fill the field has produced this: a fantasy 64-man tournament to crown Cageside Seats' UItimate King of the Ring.
Before we get to revealing the bracket and matchups, here's how the bracket came together.
- First, all WWE King of the Ring winners from the first one on PPV 1993 to the last tournament in 2010 received automatic entries into the tournament (Bret Hart, Owen Hart, Mabel, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Triple H, Ken Shamrock, Billy Gunn, Kurt Angle, Edge, Brock Lesnar, Booker T, William Regal, Sheamus). That filled 13 slots.
- The other 51 slots were filled in by Cagesiders just like you, based on number of recs, then in the event of ties, when they were first entered. (For the record, the top three with the most recs were Daniel Bryan, Chris Jericho, and CM Punk.)
- The 64 entrants were each assigned numbers. The first thirteen were assigned numbers based on how their careers panned out following their King of the Ring wins. (for the record, I had Austin 1, Triple H 2, and Edge 3. And though it may get quite a bit of disagreement, I had Brock Lesnar at 4 ahead of Bret Hart at 5.)
- The KOTR winners and top three recs were divided into four groups of four, assigned randomly to one of four bracket quadrants as to not overweigh one bracket over another. Translation: the earliest any of those 16 can meet each other is the third round... if they make it at all.
- The others were placed in the bracket based on what number the randomizer spit out first.
- From here, all the matches will be simmed using WWE 2K14 on Legend Mode. Videos will be posted on my Youtube as the tournament progresses.
With that, ladies and gentlemen, Cagesiders of all ages (hopefully 13 and older, because I think SBNation would like a word with you if you're under 13 and are signed up for an account here), here are your matches for the first round:
- Billy Gunn vs. Hulk Hogan
- Ric Flair vs. Shawn Michaels
- Bo Dallas vs. Ted Dibiase
- Triple H vs. Seth Rollins
- Mark Henry vs. Damien Sandow
- Bret Hart vs. Jake Roberts
- Heath Slater vs. Cody Rhodes
- Edge vs. John Morrison
- Steve Austin vs. Wade Barrett
- Chris Benoit vs. Scott Steiner
- Roman Reigns vs. British Bulldog
- William Regal vs. Vader
- Cesaro vs. Rey Mysterio
- Mabel vs. Diamond Dallas Page
- Shane McMahon vs. Dean Malenko
- Owen Hart vs. Jeff Hardy
- Kurt Angle vs. Mick Foley
- Randy Orton vs. Tazz
- Undertaker vs. The Rock
- Sheamus vs. Bray Wyatt
- MVP vs. Dolph Ziggler
- Booker T vs. Roddy Piper
- Mr. Perfect vs. Luke Harper
- Ken Shamrock vs. Christian
- CM Punk vs. Bam Bam Bigelow
- Dean Ambrose vs. Razor Ramon
- John Cena vs. Batista
- Chris Jericho vs. Rob Van Dam
- Randy Savage vs. Goldust
- Brock Lesnar vs. Godfather
- Eddie Guerrero vs. Goldberg
- Daniel Bryan vs. Ultimate Warrior
Expect the first video update next week. Probably Tuesday. Here's the bracket (it will require some scrolling to see it all, but at least its readable):