Although the history of the King of the Ring tournament dates back to the eighties, it wasn’t until 2021 that WWE hosted its first women’s alternative under the Queen’s Crown Tournament guise. The tournament was ultimately won by Zelina Vega after she defeated Doudrop at Crown Jewel, subsequently becoming Queen Zelina.
With WWE reportedly looking to rejig its premium live event, it appears the Queen of the Ring tournament could be set for a second go-around. The sports entertainment giant recently filed two trademarks with the event name, one that hints at the tournament airing its second outing, and the other that indicates Queen of the Ring-related merchandise.
News of the tournament’s potential second run was first broken by Dave Meltzer in a recent Wrestling Observer Newsletter. If the King of the Ring is set to return as a premium live event, it would mark the first time since 2002 that the tournament has been promoted as its own card.
WWE Queen Of The Ring 2021: What Happened?
Promoted as the Queen’s Crown Tournament, the tournament was formally announced on the October 2, 2021 Friday Night SmackDown to be held alongside the 23rd King of the Ring tournament. Matches aired across two weeks of Raw and SmackDown programming, concluding at Crown Jewel.
Competing in the tournament were Raw’s Dana Brooke, Shayna Baszler, Doudrop, and Natalya, and Zelina Vega, Toni Storm, Liv Morgan, and Carmella from the SmackDown roster. Baszler, Doudrop Vega, and Carmella all advanced to the semifinals before the field was whittled down to just Doudrop and Zelina.
The tournament received major backlash on social media, owing to the length of matches in comparison to those in the King of the Ring tournament. In total, the bracket only took twenty minutes to complete; in comparison, no match in the King of the Ring tournament lasted less than eight minutes.