King of the Ring Competitors?

2008 King of the Ring will be a special broadcast on USA this coming Monday as the regularly scheduled Raw TV show. It will be a special 3 hour show starting at 8PM EST. The tournament is set to feature 8 wrestlers squaring off in matches, until there is just one winner. The grand prize winner, will get to reign as King (until next year's event). The last official King of the Ring for WWE was King Booker who presided over Smackdown and Raw with Queen Sharmelle, until he eventually left for "that other wrestling organization".

Here's some speculation for the 8 who will be in it. Remember the tourney includes names from Raw, Smackdown and ECW all competing.

Shelton Benjamin
MVP
Paul Burchhill
Shawn Michaels
Batista
Matt Hardy
Kofi Kingston
Santino Marella

I don't see either man winning, but Shawn Michaels and Batista would be a good idea as they have the upcoming Backlash fight. This could intensify the feud maybe by having each man interfere in the other's match, costing them the win.

One of the best scenarios above would have it come down to Matt Hardy vs. MVP in the final match, with Hardy winning the bragging rights to become King.

For some reason Paul Burchhill, Shelton Benjamin and MVP make the most sense to win a King of the Ring tournament right now. Burchhill hasn't really had any feuds yet and seems like he'd be a good fit for the role. Katie could be named his "Queen" to extend their strange relationship. MVP, we all know loves to brag about his in-ring accomplishments, so he makes a good candidate to win also. Shelton is similar to MVP on ECW as he continues to say he's the "Gold Standard", so we may see "King Shelton". Edge would be a fitting king and immediately make Vickie his "queen", which would probably irritate fans even more.

Santino Marella would be a longshot but is another guy who loves to irritate the fans, and being able to tell everyone he is "King" of WWE would definitely do that. A few other names to consider for the tourney: Carlito, Vladimir Kozlov, Festus, Tommy Dreamer, The Miz, John Morrison & Finlay.

At this point I can't see any of the major title holders outside of MVP or maybe Chris Jericho being in the tournament, or any of the title challengers. I wouldn't expect we see Undertaker, JBL, Cena or Orton, but Triple H is a possibility so he can continue his claim as the "King of Kings".

Feel free to leave your thoughts below on who will be competing and who will win the tournament..