{"id":136797,"date":"2025-06-20T21:29:03","date_gmt":"2025-06-21T01:29:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=136797"},"modified":"2025-06-20T21:29:03","modified_gmt":"2025-06-21T01:29:03","slug":"wwe-king-of-the-ring-2025-1st-finalist-crowned-in-tense-semis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2025\/06\/20\/wwe-king-of-the-ring-2025-1st-finalist-crowned-in-tense-semis\/","title":{"rendered":"WWE King of the Ring 2025: 1st Finalist Crowned In Tense Semis"},"content":{"rendered":"

On this week’s WWE SmackDown<\/a>, Sami Zayn and Randy Orton fought it out to determine who advances to the finals of this year’s King of the Ring tournament. As everyone expected, two of WWE’s best put on a massive clinic. These men fought like their lives depended on it because, in some way, it did.<\/p>\n

\"A
Photo Credit: WWE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A guaranteed shot at a world championship at WWE SummerSlam hangs in the balance at Night of Champions, and Randy Orton is now only one step away from booking his place for the main event of the two-night extravaganza. He will face either Cody Rhodes or Jey Uso in the finals in Riyadh.<\/p>\n

Sami Zayn fought tooth and nail in this match, coming extremely close to beating Orton for the finals spot. Unfortunately, Randy’s veteran instincts would pay off. As Zayn was going for the Helluva Kick, Orton would counter with an RKO out of nowhere, allowing him to advance in this grueling tournament.<\/p>\n

More From LWOS Pro Wrestling<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n

Header photo \u2013 WWE \u2013 Stay tuned to the\u00a0<\/i><\/em>Last Word on Pro Wrestling<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0for more on the WWE SmackDown card tonight & results for June 20, 2025, King of the Ring, Queen of the Ring, and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world.<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n

You can check out WWE programming on\u00a0<\/i><\/em>Netflix<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(Raw),\u00a0<\/i><\/em>USA Network<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(SmackDown),\u00a0<\/i><\/em>The CW<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(NXT),\u00a0<\/i><\/em>Tubi<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(WWE Evolve),\u00a0<\/i><\/em>A&E<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(WWE Superstar Sunday \u2013 Rivals, WWE LFG, and Greatest Moments) and\u00a0<\/i><\/em>Peacock<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(WWE Main Event as well as archives and premium live event streaming). Follow WWE on social media to relive top moments and matches on\u00a0<\/i><\/em>YouTube<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>, and catch fast-paced action on X (<\/i><\/em>WWE Speed<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>).<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On this week’s WWE SmackDown, Sami Zayn and Randy Orton fought it out to determine who advances to the finals of this year’s King of the Ring tournament. As everyone expected, two of WWE’s best put on a massive clinic. These men fought like their lives depended on it because, in some way, it did. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3735,"featured_media":136837,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12,2192,26,4,3],"tags":[721,58,106,8874],"class_list":["post-136797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-wrestling","category-smackdown","category-wwe","category-wwe-universe","tag-king-of-the-ring","tag-randy-orton","tag-sami-zayn","tag-wwe-king-and-queen-of-the-ring"],"modified_by":"Michael Joseph Sugue, Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3735"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136797"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136797\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":136838,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136797\/revisions\/136838"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}