WWE will be bringing back both the King and Queen of the Ring tournaments for an upcoming PLE in May, the location of the show has been revealed. WWE is also bringing back the Backlash event on May 6.
Pwinsider.com Elite reports the King and Queen of the Ring premium live event is scheduled to take place in Saudi Arabia on May 27th.
The last time WWE held these tournaments was in 2021 in Saudi Arabia at the Crown jewel event.
Xavier Woods was crowned King of the Ring while Zelina Vega became Queen of the Ring, then known as the Queen’s Crown.
Baron Corbin won the ’19 King of the Ring tournament last night on RAW
Corbin faced off against Chad Gable in the tournament finals Monday evening and picked up the victory after a hard-fought battle by hitting the End of Days.
Corbin’s King of the Ring coronation will be tonight on SmackDown Live.
Baron recently spoke about runner-up Chad Gable during an interview and said he’d try to make the wrestler his jester should he be victorious in the tournament.
WWE announced yesterday that Elias is injured and will not be able to compete in tonight’s King of the Ring quarterfinals match against Chad Gable on SmackDown from Madison Square Garden.
Elias is reportedly suffering from a legitimate ankle injury, according to PWInsider. The decision to pull him from the ring was made just yesterday.
Last night on SmackDown Elias was replaced by Shane McMahon. In the soryline fued between Shane & Kevin Owens, Shane made Owens the special guest referee and promised to drop his $100,000 fine if he does his job correctly – meaning make sure Shane wins.
In the match, Gable got a quick pin for the win, then Shane made it 2 out of 3 falls, Owens did his best to help Shane with quick counts but in the end Shane tapped out. Shane then attacked Owens and fired him.
After yet the latest hiatus of the event, the King of the Ring has been revived yet again by WWE. The tournament returned for the first time since 2015 last night on RAW.
Some of the greatest Superstars in WWE history have won past editions including Triple H, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Booker T and the recently deceased Harley Race. Many of the past winners have even adopted king gimmicks after winning such as Booker T becoming King Booker and Randy Savage becoming the Macho King.
But someone who has had “King” in his name throughout essentially his entire career is Jerry “The King” Lawler. The King isn’t thrilled with the idea of The King of the Ring returning as it, in part, infringes upon his gimmick as he told Wrestling Inc’s Andy Malnoske.
“When they had the very first King of the Ring tournament, that’s what made me show up in the WWE because I was a little PO’d about it, and I still am to be honest with you. It’s so easy to win a couple of matches and slide a crown on yourself and call yourself the King of the Ring. I’ve been doing this 49 years to earn this crown right here [shows off his crown],” said Lawler.
“For them to have a one-night or two-night tournament to crown a king, I’m not too crazy about it. But they use it as an opportunity to promote somebody and put somebody in the spotlight which, in that respect, I understand so I can’t be too upset about it.
“I promised them that I wouldn’t go in the ring and spoil the coronation of the new king.”
The King of the Ring preliminary matches will take place on both RAW and SmackDown with the finals being held at Clash of Champions.
Last night on RAW Jerry Lawler was attacked by “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt after he talked up the King of the Ring Tournament and before he was able to interview Sasha Banks.
Next Monday’s WWE RAW from St. Paul, Minnesota will feature the return of the King of the Ring tournament. The rest of the competition will play out over the next few weeks.
The finals of the KOTR tournament will take place at the WWE Clash of Champions pay-per-view on September 15 from the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, according to Dave Meltzer of F4Wonline.com. The tournament matches will be held on both RAW and SmackDown until the finals are determined. WWE should be announcing the KOTR brackets soon.
The sixteen-man tournament will feature 8 Superstars from RAW and 8 Superstars from SmackDown – the red brand will be represented by Baron Corbin, Cesaro, Cedric Alexander, Drew McIntyre, Ricochet, Sami Zayn, Samoa Joe, and The Miz. The blue brand will be represented by Ali, Andrade, Apollo Crews, Buddy Murphy, Chad Gable, WWE 24/7 Champion Elias, Kevin Owens, and Shelton Benjamin.
The last KOTR tournament took place in April 2015, and was won by Bad News Barrett. Before that the last tournament was held in November 2010, won by Sheamus.
The King of the Ring tournament will be returning on next week’s WWE RAW.
WWE has announced that next Monday’s RAW from the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota will feature the return of the KOTR tournament.
King of the Ring was an annual event from 1985-2002. After that the tournament happened either on Raw or WWE Network, with the most recent winners being Sheamus and Bad News Barrett.
The following was posted on wwe.com:
Don’t miss the return of the celebrated WWE King of the Ring tournament next Monday night on Raw, live at 8/7 C on USA Network.
Sixteen Superstars from Raw and SmackDown LIVE begin their quest to become in-ring royalty as the illustrious King of the Ring tournament returns next Monday night, live on Raw.
The winner of this intensely competitive tourney will join the likes of Harley Race, Bret “Hit Man” Hart, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, Booker T, Kurt Angle, Triple H and Brock Lesnar as bearers of the King of the Ring crown.
The following Superstars have been confirmed to represent their respective brands in the tournament.
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