Bruce Prichard explains why Vince McMahon is not a big fan of King of the Ring.
WWE King of the Ring was an annual pay-per-view from 1993 until 2002. In 2003, the event was suddenly changed to WWE Bad Blood, and WWE King of the Ring would never be its own standalone pay-per-view event again.
During an episode of his podcast, Something to Wrestling, Bruce Prichard explains why the event went away after ten annual shows. Essentially, it boiled down to Vince McMahon no longer being a fan of the concept.
"Fuck King of the Ring," Prichard said, in a tone mocking Vince McMahon's voice. "You know, one day we're sitting there, we're talking about what we're going to do for King of the Ring. [mimicking Vince] 'Why are you thinking King of the Ring? We do King of the Ring every year. It sucks!' So Vince wanted to get away from the King of the Ring. He was tired of the tournament concept. He didn't want to do it. So it was that easy. One day, he came in and said, 'We're not doing King of the Ring anymore. Stop thinking that way. Get outside of the box and move forward. Let's come up with something else.' That was it."
The tournament returned in 2006 as a WWE SmackDown exclusive. It was won by Booker T at WWE Judgment Day 2006. Booker T defeated Bobby Lashley and would be known as King Booker for the final year of his full-time WWE career. The tournament would return on and off in the years that followed.
WWE King of the Ring is now an annual show again, but it is paired with Queen of the Ring for an event called WWE King and Queen of the Ring. Gunther and Nia Jax won the respective tournaments this year.
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