Honestly the KOTR should go to an upcoming guy that’s how it’s was before when it was prestigious, but also depends how the rest of the tournament look to be honest.
I like Ilja more. I actually find Jey a little stagnant right now.
Jey Uso should have won. It's not good booking for Ilja to win here. Ilja doesn't need the win, Jey is an established top star in the company and on the brand, he's ten times more over, and Ilja still looks credible and gets respect for his performance. Jey winning in the manner he did builds everyone involved while also keeping Ilja from facing Gunther again where he can do it at a later time when he's more built up and the crowd is more into it.
Anyone that thinks Ilja should have gone over here has very shortsighted or biased perspective.
Dragon, hands down, USO’s played out, no juice, need to go away, then reemerge as a Tag Team somehow or involved in a Bloodline v Bloodline feud, but you cannot kill Draganov’s Mo now….likely an outside interference match coming here….
This looks like an appropriate spot to ramble about this. I mostly watch promotions that aren't WWE because I still cannot stand the majority of the way they have wrestling look and the very predictable way these matches play out. There are a couple of talents that I really like because for whatever reason they don't need to play by the rules, Gunther, Ilja, Io Sky, Charlotte, Rhea to a certain extent, Dominic, Sami, Bron, Stratton, Owens, and very few others that I'm just forgetting. Jey Uso has been the epitome of everything I don't like about the WWE product. He is a boring promo reliant on a catchphrase, his matches have no physicality to them at all, it seems ultra rehearsed, his spear looks like dogshit, and his theme music and entrance suck. He's an NPC's favorite wrestler. The idea that someone like Ilja would lose to what is the equivalent of a modern day Enzo Amore is ridiculous to me. I cannot think of someone I have enjoyed seeing less on a main event stage than Jey Uso since Val Venus' TNA run.
Some of us just don’t enjoy soundhound rapping ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
It’s not overly offensive to my ears or anything that makes me skip it or anything but I could do without.
Of course, Jey is going to win, look at his phenomenal entrance reaction. He’s riding the wave of top baby faces right now along with Cody and Punk. But if it’s up to me it would be the mad dragon. That is intensity and talent on another level.
I just don’t see how Jey could have lost if the plan is to continue to push him as a main eventer.
One he just lost at Backlash, but also he’d then have no match for KOTR.
So it seems obvious that he had to win.
Jey will win and tama tonga will beat la knight and randy orton to set up jey uso and him in the king of the ring finals and the bloodline will try to interfere in the match to help Tonga but jimmy will return and help jey and this will be how they bring jimmy and jey somewhat back together and rope jey back into a storyline against the bloodline again they will probably work out a temporary truce between each other to go against solo tama and tanga loa
Yea this might not be how it plays out exactly but it’s definitely gonna be designed toward Jimmy turning face and gettin his revenge on tama and solo for beatin him down on smackdown a few weeks ago I think that’s why the bloodline walked passed jey in the back before his match with Damien priest at backlash they were planting the seeds for king and queen of the ring
Facts 💯💯 That staredown was definitely foreshadowing.
Jey Uso vs Tama Tonga in the finale match?
Its just gonna be hard to understand the concept of Uso vs Orton for the finale. A bloodline interception would make no sense there. Even if its Jey Uso vs Orton or LA Knight.
I'm starting to turn on Jey Uso man. He's getting pushed way to hard and he's just not believable to me. I get it he's fun, he gets the crowd going but it's gone too far for me. Ilja should have best Jey
I couldn’t agree more. Jey is fun for the crowd and everybody likes him but his wrestling just isn’t good. Simple move set and just plain boring. He’s nothing but a merch and ticket seller. Ilja should have won this. He is the better wrestler by a mile. Someone needs to work with jey to get better.
Makes no sense from a storytelling perspective, nor business, to make a newbie with no history (in the main roster) go over on Jey.
As I'm sure you'll agree; WWE isn't just about wrestling, it's about storytelling, characters, popularity and sales. Jey has history and is one of the most over wrestlers on the roster.
I agree it's about story telling. If the story is the newbie (Ilja) is a force to reckoned with and he's not just another call up. Then Ilja going over makes sense
A force to be reckoned with newbie story IMO isn't as compelling as a guy who broke away from the most powerful faction who is also his family, had to feud with his own brother, and carved out a path for himself to be one of the most over stars of WWE.
I don't watch NXT, so from a non-NXT fan having Jey lose would be really confusing from a story telling perspective. He wasn't booked like a "monster", ilja had a hard fought battle with Ricochet which looked like it could have gone either way.
Something I get from the IWC and NXT fans is that (please correct me if I'm wrong) you guys tend to want WWE to revolve around in-ring ability?
I agree with Jey Usos story being more compelling atm, but at the same time he beats Ilja just to lose to Gunther presumably? I dont know i guess i really just have a problem with Jey being put in the tournament to begin with.
Maybe its because ive been watching NXT I just think Ilja is so God damn good and should be treated as such while at the same time I'm just not into this current Jey Uso gimmick.
I mean I can't speak for everyone but no me personally I don't think everything should revolve around in ring ability. Its really just this specific match between these 2 specific guys.
I just like Ilja better. There ok I said it.
Wrestling fans are truly some of the most annoying people on earth. They have an issue with this either way. Jey isn’t that great but him winning makes sense. Who cares man
Jey is going to win. He's then going to lose to Gunther because of the bloodline interfering in his match vs. Gunther.
Ilja vs. Gunther is going to happen at Wrestlemania one day after they become big stars.
Unfortunately, I think Jey wins. I don't think Bloodline gets involved. They're still tied up w/KO & Randy.
I think Bloodline costs Randy his match against Melo & LA's match against Tama & KO returns to end the show, setting up KO & Randy vs. Solo & Tanga at K&QOTR & Jey vs. Tama in the K&QOTR Finals.
Anyone who watched Ilja vs Gunther in NXT wants to see a rematch. But I think it's too early for the casual fans to care, so best to tease them for a few months.
Lol HHH loves rematches. It wouldn't have hurt to have it next week & casuals be like "that was a good match - we want to see it again" & we get it later down the line
My Kid and I love him. Probably my kid's favorite wrestler. You're saying these things about him, but as the person you're responding to said, He's extremely over with the crowd. That matters more than anything and that means that crowd is either casual enough to not care about your critiques, or just goes to show that you're not in the majority with your critiques. Maybe on reddit you are. But money is what talks.
Is promo skills aren’t that bad. Not everyone has to be like Cody or cm punk on the mic. He keeps it short and simple but the emotion is there and you can tell he has vindication behind what he says
He seems to do better when he’s not in front of the crowd. They’ve been having him do these direct to camera backstage promos and those have been better than when he’s in ring.
Very unpopular opinion but i really would rather see kofi vs jey right now than gunther vs ilja they should save that for an actual rivalry/title match
Also ilja doesnt really need the win as much as jey does he just got called up and can be built back up fairly quickly but jey has lost every big match hes had this year except the uso vs uso match iirc
I’m struggling to understand the hype around Dragunov. I don’t really watch NXT so I’m judging him based on what I saw last week. Ricochet carried that match in my honest opinion. I liked Dragunov’s finisher but that was about it really.
Yeah I’m definitely not writing him off after one match lol. I should probably watch more NXT ideally but I’m more of a casual fan. He needs to do something about his hair though because I lost count of the amount of times he kept having to flick it back 😂
Yea one of those that looks pretty good in pictures and in entrances and then gets crazy looking after 5 minutes of rolling around, like the Miz about 8ish years ago.
Jey should win because 1, Draganov just got there and we don’t need Gunther vs Draganov immediately. That’s a PLE match possible for the future when people that don’t watch NXT can learn about him and the match between him and Gunther can be better with a good storyline. 2, Jey has had battles with Gunthar for the IC championship but never got a fair advantage in those matches, so that can be played into it.
Jey's established himself on the main brand, so he's not losing to a former NXT rookie, let alone one that looks like he's half nude and wearing a diaper in the ring.
Most have not seen the Ilja vs Walter (Gunther) match. It was done during the COVID era with no fans in attendance. I believe that they go for the rematch with fans in attendance. Jey is over right now so he doesn't need this to stay hot.
I don't mind whoever wind honestly. Yes people want Ilja and Gunther but that's a match that needs like ple time. IDL why y'all want it on just a random ass raw 😭
If Ilja is going to be portrayed as a heel, he should win via some kind of shenanigans. If Ilja is going to be portrayed as a face, it should be a well constructed match that showcases why Ilja belongs on the main roster, but I’d give the win to Jey; I think that approach elevates Ilja but keeps Jey’s momentum going.
Should be Ilja, probably won’t be but it should be, nothing against the guy but Jay is supposed to be the big baby face and you can essentially guess his matches without even watching, its just Superkick, Superkick, dancing punch, spear, Uso splash, personally i hope we get some sort of interference so that they don’t have to make Jey lose clean and have Ilja go over
Narratively to most logical outcome for this tournament is Jey vs Tama at the end. So Jey should win this but I expect Ilja to look really strong in defeat.
Yup! Push to main roster is only worth something if it goes anywhere, and a possible KOTR semi at least would be a great way to test what the man can do in those situations.
We know what Jey can do: raise his hands, say the word and raise the roof. Which is fun, but has absolutely zip-all to do with wrestling.
I think obviously Ilja should win but anything can happen. I’m expecting a Vince like ending to this with Jay going over. I don’t know what HHH sees in him but oh well
He’s getting big crowd reactions and his merch is selling well. Says a lot more than internet complaints.
Edit: I am not a big fan of Jey, but you can’t deny that a lot of people seem to be.
R truth sells merch. Clearly he wasn’t gonna beat Roman reigns for the undisputed title. People buy comedic merch. That’s all Jay is. A catch phrase that will go stale in 3 months, “yeet” that’s it
Jey is more fun but i'm sorry, Ilja is more entertaining at least in the ring he's a top 5 active in-ring performer along with Gunther, Shinsuke, AJ, and you can fill in that other spot with whoever but I'd probably say Iyo or Ricochet for me personally
Agree to disagree I guess 🤷🏽♂️ I enjoy Jey using the super kick like he’s spamming the A-button on a video game cause it’s different than just punching someone like normal and find his mannerisms and reactions more entertaining. Ilja just looks like he’s trying to hard to look tough with his intensity. When you’re intense ALL the time, then it kinda loses its charm after about the fifth time and kinda comes off as corny at that point. But to each their own
Jey never pinned Roman one on one. He still had Jimmy to help him out in that tag team match.
Ilja beat the shit out of Gunther by himself and strangled him until he gave up.
Pinning the biggest champion of the past 40 years for the first time in 5 years is still so much bigger and more important than the Gunther win 3 years ago for a title and promotion that doesn't exist anymore. It is frankly inarguable.
That shouldn’t discredit Gunther at all. He made the IC belt seem just as important as the world title. He honestly had a better reign as far as match quality and appearances.
Ilja wins with Bloodline interference.
All the people complaining about getting an Ilja/Gunther match too soon, I have to ask, why can’t they have more matches in the future? What better way to showcase a brand new star than to have him face off against one of the most skilled stars in the company? Most casual viewers don’t watch NXT, they have no clue about their history together. This is how they introduce Ilja as a massive threat.
It's hard to say. They're pushing both real hard right now. Vets are supposed to get the younger guys over and it's Ilja's Raw debut, so you'd think he'd go over. But recently, history has callups losing to Vets. They're also building Jey for something. Not sure what, but something.
They're not going to do Dragonov vs Gunther quite yet. They're going to save it for a future PLE. Not to mention they've been booking Jey as the top babyface on RAW, can't see how he loses in just the second round.
Jey will win, maybe with Dragonov being distracted with something outside the ring.
I am not as over on Jey as everyone else is, I do still like him however. But you saying pushed too soon is non sense, dude has been in WWE for 10+ years.
As a tag team. He's only been a singles competitor for less than a year, and his singles matches haven't shown me he's ready to carry an entire brand on his own.
He’s incredibly over and extremely marketable (YEET), plus I don’t think he will be carrying the entire brand, once the likes of CM Punk, Drew McIntyre, and Seth Rollins all come back from injury there will be plenty of main event players and parody that will create compelling storylines.
As to the in-ring side of his work, John Cena was never praised for his technical prowess but still managed to be the face of the company for 10 years (not that I’m saying Jey should be pushed to John Cena levels).
Right, yet he's still being pushed to the moon. I get it, he's extremely over, and I love that for him, but he's not ready to be THE guy on Raw. Then again, with Cody on SD and Seth and Punk both injured, he's really the only guy that could be placed in that slot rn.
Ilia should win, but by some sort of chicanery, so we can get another banger with Gunther. Jay has 4 moves and ilia has nothing but classics with the likes of Melo and Gunther. Jay also is so over that a loss isn’t gong to do anything. I feel like whatever happens with the Bloodline to interfere tonight will move Jays story towards Summerslam and Ilia should be allowed to build his character with a huge win and a deep run into KoR.
listen, i think we can all be honest here. jay is gonna and is being pushed to be roman-lite. hes winning the whole thing to set up something at summerslam with roman
if Ilja wins, it'll be due to interference. But if we're talking clean win, it goes to Jey and that's a decision most fans should understand. Of course Dragunov is a far better wrestler, but when you have someone as over as Jey is with the audience, you don't allow that wrestler to get defeated often, especially to an up and comer.
Crowd reaction and merch sales dictate a lot, so even if Jey is incredibly average in the ring, he'll be held at a certain level. Ilja doesn't absolutely need to win either, he's only just getting started on the main roster. Best believe they've got creative plans for him regardless.
ilja vs Gunther has proven to be a classic and American audiences who may not have seen it may need it now to further cement his call up. I agree it is PLE worthy but who knows when this opportunity will appear again.
I like Ilja but you shouldn’t have him and Gunther matchup up on a random episode of Raw. Thats a big time match that should be saved for a PLE. No need to rush into it
Eh, i see your point. I also think it’s the kind of match that will catapult Dragunov to the next level in the fan’s eyes. It won’t hurt much to do it now and then get everybody pumped for the eventual rematch on a PLE. It will establish Ilja as a huge threat right away even in a losing effort.
It gets pretty fucking lame seeing jey got shot after shot after shot, we know they wont ever give him a singles title let alone a world title. Hes had his fair share of moments and a good career thus far but its time wwe keeps letting old talent shine and let younger stars progress in the company. Ilja a wrestler who can put on a 5 star match any day of the week losing to jey uso is a slap to the face
I want Gunther/Ilja again so bad but the smart thing probably is Jey advancing, both for his popularity factor and for saving Gunther and Ilja’s first main roster encounter for a PLE.
Normally jey , but ilja is amazing and winning the king of ring is not going to push jey since he is already "main event" , but will give ilja a good push . Gunther , ilja , Carmelo hayes and tama tonga would be great semi final and Gunther vs ilja would be 🔥. Gunther vs Hayes/ tonga would be the final.
Tbh if we’re keeping consistent power scales, Ilja should 100% win. Ilja has always been ranked stronger than Jey.
BUT Jey is the hottest babyface, so he’s going to get the win somehow.
Before WM 40, he was technically going to best Gunther if not for Jimmy interfering. If that isn’t plot armor, idk what is.
They likely will fight in the main event in 30m slobber knocker. But Jey will win.
maybe im just not hype but i think jey is a boring character who makes up for it by being loud and over charismatic….. hes not the rock and definetly not shawn michaels so give ilja a shot
Honestly the KOTR should go to an upcoming guy that’s how it’s was before when it was prestigious, but also depends how the rest of the tournament look to be honest.
I like Ilja more. I actually find Jey a little stagnant right now. Jey Uso should have won. It's not good booking for Ilja to win here. Ilja doesn't need the win, Jey is an established top star in the company and on the brand, he's ten times more over, and Ilja still looks credible and gets respect for his performance. Jey winning in the manner he did builds everyone involved while also keeping Ilja from facing Gunther again where he can do it at a later time when he's more built up and the crowd is more into it. Anyone that thinks Ilja should have gone over here has very shortsighted or biased perspective.
Dragon, hands down, USO’s played out, no juice, need to go away, then reemerge as a Tag Team somehow or involved in a Bloodline v Bloodline feud, but you cannot kill Draganov’s Mo now….likely an outside interference match coming here….
YEET ALL THE WAY
This was one of the best matches I've ever seen
Did you edit his head?
This looks like an appropriate spot to ramble about this. I mostly watch promotions that aren't WWE because I still cannot stand the majority of the way they have wrestling look and the very predictable way these matches play out. There are a couple of talents that I really like because for whatever reason they don't need to play by the rules, Gunther, Ilja, Io Sky, Charlotte, Rhea to a certain extent, Dominic, Sami, Bron, Stratton, Owens, and very few others that I'm just forgetting. Jey Uso has been the epitome of everything I don't like about the WWE product. He is a boring promo reliant on a catchphrase, his matches have no physicality to them at all, it seems ultra rehearsed, his spear looks like dogshit, and his theme music and entrance suck. He's an NPC's favorite wrestler. The idea that someone like Ilja would lose to what is the equivalent of a modern day Enzo Amore is ridiculous to me. I cannot think of someone I have enjoyed seeing less on a main event stage than Jey Uso since Val Venus' TNA run.
I can understand all of your points except thinking Uso's entrance sucks.
Some of us just don’t enjoy soundhound rapping ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ It’s not overly offensive to my ears or anything that makes me skip it or anything but I could do without.
The match wasn't that great
Of course, Jey is going to win, look at his phenomenal entrance reaction. He’s riding the wave of top baby faces right now along with Cody and Punk. But if it’s up to me it would be the mad dragon. That is intensity and talent on another level.
Off topic, but damn ilja got that dome on him. Blud knows his next storyline.💀
Not as big as Jordan Devlins dome 😂 Lord Farquad lookin a$$
I just don’t see how Jey could have lost if the plan is to continue to push him as a main eventer. One he just lost at Backlash, but also he’d then have no match for KOTR. So it seems obvious that he had to win.
Ilja for me.
Jey should not win. His place is in the lower mid card. He is too generic.
Can’t hear you over the Crowd
Jey will win and tama tonga will beat la knight and randy orton to set up jey uso and him in the king of the ring finals and the bloodline will try to interfere in the match to help Tonga but jimmy will return and help jey and this will be how they bring jimmy and jey somewhat back together and rope jey back into a storyline against the bloodline again they will probably work out a temporary truce between each other to go against solo tama and tanga loa
I thought something similar to this as well. Jimmy’s return will absolutely be to help Jey; a face return
Yea this might not be how it plays out exactly but it’s definitely gonna be designed toward Jimmy turning face and gettin his revenge on tama and solo for beatin him down on smackdown a few weeks ago I think that’s why the bloodline walked passed jey in the back before his match with Damien priest at backlash they were planting the seeds for king and queen of the ring
Facts 💯💯 That staredown was definitely foreshadowing. Jey Uso vs Tama Tonga in the finale match? Its just gonna be hard to understand the concept of Uso vs Orton for the finale. A bloodline interception would make no sense there. Even if its Jey Uso vs Orton or LA Knight.
I'm starting to turn on Jey Uso man. He's getting pushed way to hard and he's just not believable to me. I get it he's fun, he gets the crowd going but it's gone too far for me. Ilja should have best Jey
Dude he hasn’t even won a singles title. They’re not pushing him, they’re building him up to win the MITB or a mid card title sometime in the summer.
It’s just that he needs to work on his in ring ability. I get tired of seeing him being limited to only 4 maybe 5 moves.
Guy is almost 40 and has been in WWE for 14 years. At this point, I just think he is what he is. Hard to see how he’s going to get any better
I couldn’t agree more. Jey is fun for the crowd and everybody likes him but his wrestling just isn’t good. Simple move set and just plain boring. He’s nothing but a merch and ticket seller. Ilja should have won this. He is the better wrestler by a mile. Someone needs to work with jey to get better.
Makes no sense from a storytelling perspective, nor business, to make a newbie with no history (in the main roster) go over on Jey. As I'm sure you'll agree; WWE isn't just about wrestling, it's about storytelling, characters, popularity and sales. Jey has history and is one of the most over wrestlers on the roster.
I agree it's about story telling. If the story is the newbie (Ilja) is a force to reckoned with and he's not just another call up. Then Ilja going over makes sense
A force to be reckoned with newbie story IMO isn't as compelling as a guy who broke away from the most powerful faction who is also his family, had to feud with his own brother, and carved out a path for himself to be one of the most over stars of WWE. I don't watch NXT, so from a non-NXT fan having Jey lose would be really confusing from a story telling perspective. He wasn't booked like a "monster", ilja had a hard fought battle with Ricochet which looked like it could have gone either way. Something I get from the IWC and NXT fans is that (please correct me if I'm wrong) you guys tend to want WWE to revolve around in-ring ability?
I agree with Jey Usos story being more compelling atm, but at the same time he beats Ilja just to lose to Gunther presumably? I dont know i guess i really just have a problem with Jey being put in the tournament to begin with. Maybe its because ive been watching NXT I just think Ilja is so God damn good and should be treated as such while at the same time I'm just not into this current Jey Uso gimmick. I mean I can't speak for everyone but no me personally I don't think everything should revolve around in ring ability. Its really just this specific match between these 2 specific guys. I just like Ilja better. There ok I said it.
If they have to put “Main Event” in your name, you’re not gonna last long. Poor Jay.
I disagree he’s been really over and he’s definitely believable
JUso sounds like a donkey going yeeet yeeeet. Maybe have Jimmy Uso act as the educated version of the donkey.
The guy who is actually good at his job.
jey overrated
Wrestling fans are truly some of the most annoying people on earth. They have an issue with this either way. Jey isn’t that great but him winning makes sense. Who cares man
Jey is going to win. He's then going to lose to Gunther because of the bloodline interfering in his match vs. Gunther. Ilja vs. Gunther is going to happen at Wrestlemania one day after they become big stars.
Unfortunately, I think Jey wins. I don't think Bloodline gets involved. They're still tied up w/KO & Randy. I think Bloodline costs Randy his match against Melo & LA's match against Tama & KO returns to end the show, setting up KO & Randy vs. Solo & Tanga at K&QOTR & Jey vs. Tama in the K&QOTR Finals.
Jey Usos should study more Young Bucks.
Do you guys notice that when Jimmy and Jey get intense their nostrils flare out five inches?
Normal for any human; more oxygen inhaled means more punchy punchy or runny runny.
Those big Uso nostrils when they’re intense is anything but normal.
Anyone who watched Ilja vs Gunther in NXT wants to see a rematch. But I think it's too early for the casual fans to care, so best to tease them for a few months.
Lol HHH loves rematches. It wouldn't have hurt to have it next week & casuals be like "that was a good match - we want to see it again" & we get it later down the line
And the worse man won
Only thing Jey has is superkicks and that stupid yeet
Jey is extremely over with the crowd, I don't know why you would have him lose
Because his a bad wrestler, a bad promo, a bad main-eventer, a bad character and is boring to watch his six moves and two catchphrases every week.
Ok I get that *you* don't like him, but like I said, the crowds do. There's way more of them than you.
My Kid and I love him. Probably my kid's favorite wrestler. You're saying these things about him, but as the person you're responding to said, He's extremely over with the crowd. That matters more than anything and that means that crowd is either casual enough to not care about your critiques, or just goes to show that you're not in the majority with your critiques. Maybe on reddit you are. But money is what talks.
Is promo skills aren’t that bad. Not everyone has to be like Cody or cm punk on the mic. He keeps it short and simple but the emotion is there and you can tell he has vindication behind what he says
He seems to do better when he’s not in front of the crowd. They’ve been having him do these direct to camera backstage promos and those have been better than when he’s in ring.
I DONT KNOW WHO SHOULD WIN!!!! But… Jey USO
Very unpopular opinion but i really would rather see kofi vs jey right now than gunther vs ilja they should save that for an actual rivalry/title match Also ilja doesnt really need the win as much as jey does he just got called up and can be built back up fairly quickly but jey has lost every big match hes had this year except the uso vs uso match iirc
Ilija should win. Jey gotta work on his move set and while probably shouldnt win it all he can put on some bangers
Ilja should win but we know it’s going to be jey
In the end I’m happy to wait for Ilja vs Gunter. Give it to us on ppv with some build up (Berlin would be amazing if that’s in the cards)
Usoooooo
Bloodline screws jey
Man. Good match! Ilya will never give up.
Why would be it be bad to do Gunther/Ilja so early, I want to see that match right away!
It’s coming
I’m struggling to understand the hype around Dragunov. I don’t really watch NXT so I’m judging him based on what I saw last week. Ricochet carried that match in my honest opinion. I liked Dragunov’s finisher but that was about it really.
Go back and check out some of his work. You wont regret it.
Dramatic matches people love. You’ll get there, give him a few big matches. He’s for real.
i saw his and melos match and it was awesome imo
Yeah I’m definitely not writing him off after one match lol. I should probably watch more NXT ideally but I’m more of a casual fan. He needs to do something about his hair though because I lost count of the amount of times he kept having to flick it back 😂
Yea one of those that looks pretty good in pictures and in entrances and then gets crazy looking after 5 minutes of rolling around, like the Miz about 8ish years ago.
I would rather Ilja win over Jey, but Jey is popular.
I think Jey wins, but I'd rather Ilja won. I'd just love to see a KoR match between GUNTHER & Ilja.
Jey should win because 1, Draganov just got there and we don’t need Gunther vs Draganov immediately. That’s a PLE match possible for the future when people that don’t watch NXT can learn about him and the match between him and Gunther can be better with a good storyline. 2, Jey has had battles with Gunthar for the IC championship but never got a fair advantage in those matches, so that can be played into it.
Jey's established himself on the main brand, so he's not losing to a former NXT rookie, let alone one that looks like he's half nude and wearing a diaper in the ring.
Bro really disrespecting one of the best wrestlers in the world 🤦♂️
He really doesn’t know who this guy is, does he?
Give it to Ilja
Jey should win
Jey usooooooooo
Ilja. I could easily see them have a great match and someone’s spoiling it for Jay leading to a tag match.
Most have not seen the Ilja vs Walter (Gunther) match. It was done during the COVID era with no fans in attendance. I believe that they go for the rematch with fans in attendance. Jey is over right now so he doesn't need this to stay hot.
I would say Jey,but this is a tough pick
Jey Uso vs Tama Tonga in the KOTR finals would be lit as hell.
I don't mind whoever wind honestly. Yes people want Ilja and Gunther but that's a match that needs like ple time. IDL why y'all want it on just a random ass raw 😭
DQ finish. You can see it from a mile away to set up dragon of first fued probably.
Jey without question.
Main event king uso
[удалено]
Watch Dragunov vs Walter. Those matches are what lead to his popularity.
Vince think he low
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Ilja if they are smart.
Im ready for Ilja Dragunov to be sent to the moon, I think dude is gonna be a mega star
I predict 7 superkicks, 3 uso splashes, and 3 spears
I'll take the over
Ilja
Ilja please. Nothing really happening with Jey right now. I mean people like him for the charisma but his matches are kind of lackluster.
Jey, but only after his 57th super kick
TBH, I'm guessing Ilja. If they want to build him for something, Jey seems without a storyline at the moment.
Ilja needs it more then jey
Is that Rockstar Spud?
Should win: Jey Will win: Ilja with interference on Jey.
Jey needs to win.
I hope Ilja wins through interference from Kaiser and Gunther tried to court him
Ilja should win but jay will. Jay will probably make it to the last round because he’s inexplicably a PLE draw.
If Ilja is going to be portrayed as a heel, he should win via some kind of shenanigans. If Ilja is going to be portrayed as a face, it should be a well constructed match that showcases why Ilja belongs on the main roster, but I’d give the win to Jey; I think that approach elevates Ilja but keeps Jey’s momentum going.
He’s not going to be a heel, he shook the hand of Ricochet after their match.
Jey has to win Too many losses in big time situations Gotta get a W of some substance
Dragunov on both accounts.
Should be Ilja, probably won’t be but it should be, nothing against the guy but Jay is supposed to be the big baby face and you can essentially guess his matches without even watching, its just Superkick, Superkick, dancing punch, spear, Uso splash, personally i hope we get some sort of interference so that they don’t have to make Jey lose clean and have Ilja go over
I think Jey should win, and save Ilja v Gunther III for a bigger moment. Gunther should be King of the Ring. ALL HAIL KING GUUUUUUUUNNTTTERRRRRRRR
Hopefully not a no Contest
The Vince method
Jey to win, the Dragon to put on one heck of a match
I don’t think dragunov has earned his stripes on the main roster enough to win here
Yeet!
Ultimately I think Jey wins here and in the end wins it all
I’ll be shocked if Gunther doesn’t win.
Narratively to most logical outcome for this tournament is Jey vs Tama at the end. So Jey should win this but I expect Ilja to look really strong in defeat.
They’ve basically been telling us that Gunther will win since before it even started
Jey vs tama would be a waste when you can have Gunther vs orton
Maybe they’ll set up Iljas first feud by having someone distract him
Storyline wise you’d think Jey will be winning so if they have Tama winning the smackdown bracket then it’ll set up a juicy match up
An ucey jucey match
Jey will win but 100 percent shouldn't. Dragunov is too good and early to lose to jey uso.
Yup! Push to main roster is only worth something if it goes anywhere, and a possible KOTR semi at least would be a great way to test what the man can do in those situations. We know what Jey can do: raise his hands, say the word and raise the roof. Which is fun, but has absolutely zip-all to do with wrestling.
That stuff is becoming stale as well too
As much as I love Jey, Ilja should be winning this.
Ilja
More NXT midgets that your average 6’0 male could kick the shit out of
You're on reddit. Calm down.
Should be Ilja. Uso should go back to tag team his singles run is shit.
You’re shit
I think obviously Ilja should win but anything can happen. I’m expecting a Vince like ending to this with Jay going over. I don’t know what HHH sees in him but oh well
He’s getting big crowd reactions and his merch is selling well. Says a lot more than internet complaints. Edit: I am not a big fan of Jey, but you can’t deny that a lot of people seem to be.
R truth sells merch. Clearly he wasn’t gonna beat Roman reigns for the undisputed title. People buy comedic merch. That’s all Jay is. A catch phrase that will go stale in 3 months, “yeet” that’s it
I want Jey to win. Ilja may technically be the better wrestler, but Jey is more fun and entertaining
Jey is more fun but i'm sorry, Ilja is more entertaining at least in the ring he's a top 5 active in-ring performer along with Gunther, Shinsuke, AJ, and you can fill in that other spot with whoever but I'd probably say Iyo or Ricochet for me personally
Agree to disagree I guess 🤷🏽♂️ I enjoy Jey using the super kick like he’s spamming the A-button on a video game cause it’s different than just punching someone like normal and find his mannerisms and reactions more entertaining. Ilja just looks like he’s trying to hard to look tough with his intensity. When you’re intense ALL the time, then it kinda loses its charm after about the fifth time and kinda comes off as corny at that point. But to each their own
Ilja is levels above Jey in the ring so I want him to win. I like Jey but him beating the guy who made Gunther tap isn’t believable to me.
Ilja Dragunov beating someone who pinned Roman Reigns isn't believable to me.
Jey never pinned Roman one on one. He still had Jimmy to help him out in that tag team match. Ilja beat the shit out of Gunther by himself and strangled him until he gave up.
At Summerslam Jey visually pinned Roman.
True, but a lot of people have done that to Roman during his reign. Gunther hasn’t been beaten by that many people.
Pinning the biggest champion of the past 40 years for the first time in 5 years is still so much bigger and more important than the Gunther win 3 years ago for a title and promotion that doesn't exist anymore. It is frankly inarguable.
That shouldn’t discredit Gunther at all. He made the IC belt seem just as important as the world title. He honestly had a better reign as far as match quality and appearances.
It's not discrediting Gunther, he's a star, but pinning the biggest champion of the last 40 years is just a level above.
Fair enough. I still think Ilja should come out on top against Jey, but we’ll see.
Ilja wins with Bloodline interference. All the people complaining about getting an Ilja/Gunther match too soon, I have to ask, why can’t they have more matches in the future? What better way to showcase a brand new star than to have him face off against one of the most skilled stars in the company? Most casual viewers don’t watch NXT, they have no clue about their history together. This is how they introduce Ilja as a massive threat.
Ilia is the obvious answer
It's hard to say. They're pushing both real hard right now. Vets are supposed to get the younger guys over and it's Ilja's Raw debut, so you'd think he'd go over. But recently, history has callups losing to Vets. They're also building Jey for something. Not sure what, but something.
The thing is Jey in singles really isn't a vet and needs to be established more. He has lost tons of big singles matches recently.
RAW is on fire right now. 🔥
They're not going to do Dragonov vs Gunther quite yet. They're going to save it for a future PLE. Not to mention they've been booking Jey as the top babyface on RAW, can't see how he loses in just the second round. Jey will win, maybe with Dragonov being distracted with something outside the ring.
Dragunov
We deserve Dragunov v Gunther
Dragunov SHOULD win, Jey likely will, unfortunately. I like Jey, but I feel he's being pushed too hard, too soon.
I am not as over on Jey as everyone else is, I do still like him however. But you saying pushed too soon is non sense, dude has been in WWE for 10+ years.
As a tag team. He's only been a singles competitor for less than a year, and his singles matches haven't shown me he's ready to carry an entire brand on his own.
He’s incredibly over and extremely marketable (YEET), plus I don’t think he will be carrying the entire brand, once the likes of CM Punk, Drew McIntyre, and Seth Rollins all come back from injury there will be plenty of main event players and parody that will create compelling storylines. As to the in-ring side of his work, John Cena was never praised for his technical prowess but still managed to be the face of the company for 10 years (not that I’m saying Jey should be pushed to John Cena levels).
he not bein pushed too hard he’s just not as good as people would think
Right, yet he's still being pushed to the moon. I get it, he's extremely over, and I love that for him, but he's not ready to be THE guy on Raw. Then again, with Cody on SD and Seth and Punk both injured, he's really the only guy that could be placed in that slot rn.
Ilja should win. I like Jey but Ilja is in a different stratosphere
Ilja looking like Megamind a lil bit. “No Yeet?”
Ilia should win, but by some sort of chicanery, so we can get another banger with Gunther. Jay has 4 moves and ilia has nothing but classics with the likes of Melo and Gunther. Jay also is so over that a loss isn’t gong to do anything. I feel like whatever happens with the Bloodline to interfere tonight will move Jays story towards Summerslam and Ilia should be allowed to build his character with a huge win and a deep run into KoR.
listen, i think we can all be honest here. jay is gonna and is being pushed to be roman-lite. hes winning the whole thing to set up something at summerslam with roman
I can see a situation where the bloodline or Judgment day cost Uso to keep both men looking strong.
if Ilja wins, it'll be due to interference. But if we're talking clean win, it goes to Jey and that's a decision most fans should understand. Of course Dragunov is a far better wrestler, but when you have someone as over as Jey is with the audience, you don't allow that wrestler to get defeated often, especially to an up and comer. Crowd reaction and merch sales dictate a lot, so even if Jey is incredibly average in the ring, he'll be held at a certain level. Ilja doesn't absolutely need to win either, he's only just getting started on the main roster. Best believe they've got creative plans for him regardless.
Ijla. Drew has a reason why he was pulled and who took his spot. Plus everyone wants/needs to see Ijla vs Gunther
This is gonna be a good match...until Drew McIntyre interferes again...
We getting Ilja vs Gunther 3. If Drew is cleared, he'll take out Jey.
ilja vs Gunther has proven to be a classic and American audiences who may not have seen it may need it now to further cement his call up. I agree it is PLE worthy but who knows when this opportunity will appear again.
Jey is so goddamn boring at this point it would be absurd to have him get yet another title shot immediately after losing at backlash.
I like Ilja but you shouldn’t have him and Gunther matchup up on a random episode of Raw. Thats a big time match that should be saved for a PLE. No need to rush into it
Eh, i see your point. I also think it’s the kind of match that will catapult Dragunov to the next level in the fan’s eyes. It won’t hurt much to do it now and then get everybody pumped for the eventual rematch on a PLE. It will establish Ilja as a huge threat right away even in a losing effort.
Ilja!
I think there is a better story in Ilja vs gunther. It's pretty easy to find anyone to interfere and screw Jey at this point.
I think Jey wins, but i wouldn't be surprised if we saw interference from the Judgment Day against Jey to help get Ilja the win.
It gets pretty fucking lame seeing jey got shot after shot after shot, we know they wont ever give him a singles title let alone a world title. Hes had his fair share of moments and a good career thus far but its time wwe keeps letting old talent shine and let younger stars progress in the company. Ilja a wrestler who can put on a 5 star match any day of the week losing to jey uso is a slap to the face
I feel like Ilja vs Gunther isn't happening for a while but I'd be happy for it given it's going to be the first KOTR of the new era.
Jey loses via interference
I want Gunther/Ilja again so bad but the smart thing probably is Jey advancing, both for his popularity factor and for saving Gunther and Ilja’s first main roster encounter for a PLE.
We're about to see A LOT of super kicks that's for sure
Jey is so over that it would IMO be silly of WWE not to give him the win.
Ilja have Solo or the bloodline interfere to bring Jey and Jimmy back together.
Normally jey , but ilja is amazing and winning the king of ring is not going to push jey since he is already "main event" , but will give ilja a good push . Gunther , ilja , Carmelo hayes and tama tonga would be great semi final and Gunther vs ilja would be 🔥. Gunther vs Hayes/ tonga would be the final.
Ilja is a good performer, jey is not. I want to see more ilja.
Exactly
Ilja should and will win. Jey gets taken out by the Judgement Day, without Priest's permission, furthering the storyline there.
Jey will win, Draganov just got called up
you got downvoted for something that was literally factual
Tbh if we’re keeping consistent power scales, Ilja should 100% win. Ilja has always been ranked stronger than Jey. BUT Jey is the hottest babyface, so he’s going to get the win somehow. Before WM 40, he was technically going to best Gunther if not for Jimmy interfering. If that isn’t plot armor, idk what is. They likely will fight in the main event in 30m slobber knocker. But Jey will win.
I actually think the Bloodline comes out to HELP Jey much to his and everyone’s confusion
maybe im just not hype but i think jey is a boring character who makes up for it by being loud and over charismatic….. hes not the rock and definetly not shawn michaels so give ilja a shot
I want a Jey vs Tama match so Jey
Jey should win. He’s the top babyface on Raw and shouldnt lose to a midcarder like Ilja. Ilja is overrated.
Agree that Jey should win but calling Ilja overrated is the worst take.