Has there ever been a more mishandled event/match in WWE history than King of the Ring (if you immediately shouted “The Andre the Giant Battle Royal“, you might be onto something)? Let’s start this article as clearly as possible: the concept of King of the Ring is one which is good. However, with the exception of a couple winners during the early days of the event – and a clear peak with the reign of King Booker in the mid-to-late 2000s – King of the Ring has been one giant, prolonged flop spanning decades. With the WWE recently announcing a King and Queen of the Ring Premium Live Event to be held in Saudi Arabia on May 27th of this year, it is worth pointing out why this is yet another likely failed WWE project.
The Case Against King and Queen of the Ring
In principle, King of the Ring and Queen of the Ring are fun and neat little concepts. The winners of both the King and Queen of the Ring tournaments are crowned, what else, the “King” or “Queen of the Ring”. During the Saudi Arabia-held Crown Jewel event held in the fall of 2021, a historic wrong was righted with the introduction of a “Queen of the Ring” – Queen Zelina (Zelina Vega), who won the inaugural women’s equivalent tournament. In addition to the crowning of WWE’s first Queen of the Ring, you may remember this particular event as the one where the King of the Ring tournament was won by Xavier Woods, of New Day and UpUpDownDown fame. For years, Woods had campaigned for the re-introduction of the King of the Ring tournament and title, which had last been won by Baron Corbin in 2019 (bet you forgot about that one) as, being the creative and entertaining mind that he is, he believed he could bring something exciting and fresh to the crown. Instead? King Woods was let down by a lukewarm creative response from those booking the show; a lack of character direction and the King gradually faded away from our screens until he was replaced by Xavier Woods once again. A tragic end to a character Woods no doubt had a lot of hope for.
If you thought King Woods was the only royal victim of bad creative coming out of 2021, you would be mistaken. Zelina, too, was an afterthought as the inaugural Queen of the Ring – and through no fault of her own. Having been the on-screen Queen for a few months after her victory at Crown Jewel in 2021, she disappeared from WWE television altogether and then returned months later as part of Legado del Fantasma, minus her crown and title of “Queen”. Why? Who knows. To make matters worse, when WWE recently began promoting the upcoming King and Queen of the Ring PLE, they made reference to a number of past winners – yet neglected to mention Zelina, who is the first and (currently) only ever winner/wearer of the Queen of the Ring crown. Rightfully, Zelina took to Twitter to point out the obvious disrespect.
Love that the last and FIRST Queen Of The Ring wasn’t shown in that clip but ok 👌🏽
— ZV (@ZelinaVegaWWE) March 7, 2023
A Track Record of Failure
Before the failure of King Corbin in 2019, our most recent three Kings were King Barrett (Wade Barrett, 2015), King Sheamus (Sheamus, 2010) and King Regal (William Regal, 2008). Barrett, who likely won the King of the Ring based on his being English and the country’s association with the British Royal Family, was King for little over a year before leaving both the WWE and professional wrestling as an in-ring competitor. Additionally, he lost a large proportion of matches as King and was treated, much like future WWE monarchs, as an afterthought. Before Barrett was King Sheamus – a character widely synonymous with losses. If you watched WWE around the time of King Sheamus, you will remember him losing match after match – eventually leading into his first run as a humbled babyface. Undoubtedly, King Sheamus was the worst run of Sheamus’ WWE career. Within a couple months of winning King of the Ring, Regal – whose real-life addiction and health issues were well publicized at this point – was losing a “loser leaves the WWE” type match to Mr. Kennedy.
Are you noticing a pattern here? Yes, the King before King Regal was King Booker – arguably the most memorable King of the Ring of all – but that was both 6 Kings and 17 years ago. In the time since, the WWE has tried to emulate the King Booker character with its winners and it has never once worked. Before King Booker, winners mostly did not don a robe, crown and a poorly (though hilariously) performed English accent. Brock Lesnar was King of the Ring in 2002 – do you think his WWE career would have hit such heights with a bad English accent and a red cape?
In Conclusion
Ultimately, the King of the Ring Tournament is one which has historically been a letdown. Yes, it has had its moments – “Austin 3:16” being a King of the Ring moment which changed the course of pro wrestling history. Yes, the Macho King was great. However, it is clear as day that the King of the Ring has mostly been a failure and WWE’s creative does not know how to book a King or Queen of the Ring. Lastly, a company in which anyone can call themselves a King or Queen (for example, Charlotte Flair “The Queen”, Natalya “The Queen of Harts”, Liv Morgan “The Queen of Extreme” etc) is most likely going to have troubles booking someone who actually earns that title within a storyline. The much clichéd definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting the same results. Guess what the WWE is going to do?
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