WWE King of the Ring could be about to make a return for the first time since 2019.
A new report from Andrew Zarian of the Mat Men Podcast, notes that the tournament will take place in October. The finals will be held in Saudi Arabia alongside the finals for the newly created Queen of the Ring tournament.
Plans for Queen of the Ring were first reported back in July. Should the finals take place in Saudi Arabia, that would mark a landmark moment for women’s wrestling in the country.
On the very first super-shows WWE produced in the Kingdom, no female competitors were allowed on them. However, that changed at Crown Jewel in 2019 when Lacey Evans and Natalya became the first female wrestlers to compete on a WWE show in the country.
King of the Ring tournament to take place in October
The finals also taking place in Saudi Arabia (Along with the Queen of the Ring finals) pic.twitter.com/rXzdLaXPe5
— Andrew Zarian (@AndrewZarian) August 13, 2021
The King Of The Ring tournament was originally created back in the late 1980’s. The tournaments were held at regular house show events and went untelevised. During this spell, winners included Randy Savage and Harley Race.
The tournament later became a special show in it’s own right in 1993, with Bret Hart triumphing in the final. The show was then broadcast annually until 2002. Notable winners include Stone Cold Steve Austin, Triple H, Kurt Angle and Brock Lesnar. The tournament was revived in 2005, but took place mainly across WWE’s regular programming.
The King Of The Ring pay-per-view was briefly brought back in 2015, which saw the crowning of “King Barrett,” but has not not appeared since. The last recognised King Of The Ring winner was Baron Corbin who was crowned king on the September 16th 2019 episode of Monday Night RAW.
Baron Corbin retained the ‘King’ name until a recent episode of SmackDown where he lost to Shinsuke Nakamura. Since then Corbin has descended into financial ruin, most recently asking for money from the likes of John Cena and Drew McIntyre.