I got home a few minutes ago from watching the King of the Ring PPV. Initial thoughts: some matches with solid wrestling, some mistakes in booking, some surprises...

- and the crowd was silent for most of it.

The crowd only popped for the street fight (Shane and Kurt really busted their butts for a solid hardcore match), and for the surprise appearance of Booker T... but except for on a few high spots, there was no other crowd heat at all the rest of the night.

Right away the fact that the tournament was so truncated was painful. 3 matches, the Finals happening at the start of the second hour. The King of the Ring is one of the WWF's "big five" concept events; this watered it down way too much.

Like Kurt Angle's win last year, this finish was too predictable. The only thing in question was whether Rhyno or Edge would win; once the winner of their match was decided, we knew who'd be the new King.

DDP's brawl with the Undertaker proved unsatisfying. Nothing resolved, no furthering of a storyline.

Austin winning in a casual way took the steam out from what had been a solid match until then, thanks to the Canadian Chrisses.

To borrow a review style from Rick Scaia, I give this show a Thumbs Middle, slightly up from a Thumbs Down because of the lack of heat.