{"id":162806,"date":"2026-06-10T08:00:53","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T12:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=162806"},"modified":"2026-06-09T21:56:28","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T01:56:28","slug":"5-fantastic-king-of-the-ring-matches-on-television","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2026\/06\/10\/5-fantastic-king-of-the-ring-matches-on-television\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Fantastic WWE King & Queen of the Ring Matches On Television"},"content":{"rendered":"

The King of the Ring tournament<\/a> is a crowd favorite in WWE. It has featured some of the greatest wrestlers in WWE history and has remained a precursor to pushes to the top of the card. Whoever emerges victorious is considered a top contender for whichever World Championship they desire.<\/p>\n

King of the Ring was a one-night tournament for several years, containing great matches that have helped continue the legacy of the PLE. In the past few years,\u00a0 we have seen this tournament branch out into programs such as Raw and SmackDown, which have continued the trend of fantastic King of the Ring matches. We have been lucky to get some incredible matches on free T.V, and those are listed below.<\/p>\n

Chad Gable v Baron Corbin (King of the Ring Finals, Raw, 2019)<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The King of the Ring had gone years without a true standout contest. It was moved solely to television and was more of a gimmick change for the winner. Only in 2019 did the world see a return to form for the King of the Ring tournament when Chad Gable and Baron Corbin turned in a barn burner of a match.<\/p>\n

Chad Gable and Baron Corbin<\/a> were two of the more underrated talents on the roster. It was fantastic to see them in a match where they could showcase just how great they are. When the tournament was announced, not many thought this final would take place. It was wonderful to see these two mix it up with some of the best wrestling that the King of the Ring had seen.<\/p>\n

Gable\u2019s wrestling talent was never in question, and Baron Corbin knew exactly how to play within his heel role. The crowd was very much into this match, and it got a great reaction when it finished. This was a fitting addition to the history of the King of the Ring finals.<\/p>\n

Gunther v Sheamus (King of the Ring First Round, Raw, 2024)<\/strong><\/h2>\n

WWE decided to put on a banger in the first round of King of the Ring 2024. Gunther and Sheamus had a great backstory to play off of, and the match history to boot. These two men put on 5-star classics every time they stepped in the ring. There was no mat wrestling in this match; \u00a0only two brutes throwing haymakers for the 21 minutes.<\/p>\n

\"A
A WWE Raw graphic of the “Ring General” Gunther. (Photo Credit: WWE)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Throwing these two together, to start, the King of the Ring tournament was a thing of genius. Their history of delivering when the lights are at their brightest gives them instant credibility. The fans were fully invested in everything they did, and this match stands with both their matches at WrestleMania and Clash at the Castle<\/a>. Incredibly, this match was given away on free television.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

IYO SKY v Lyra Valkyria (Queen of the Ring Semifinal, Raw, 2024) <\/strong><\/h2>\n

Lyra Valkyria<\/a> was the underdog story of Queen of the Ring. Her path to the finals was littered with fantastic matches. Of which she delivered amazing performances and scored 3 huge upsets. The crowd loved her spirit, but not many gave her a chance to make it all the way to Saudi Arabia. It was incredible the talent she defeated, including a massive upset over IYO SKY on Raw.<\/p>\n

\"A
A photo of WWE star IYO SKY. (Photo Credit: By Sarah Bellia – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=165083578)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This was a dream match for WWE. SKY and Valkyria were incredibly popular with the audience, and they had the movesets necessary to wow the crowd. It was a great back-and-forth match that included the type of wrestling and great reversals that SKY and Valkyria were used to. In the end, Valkyria\u2019s upset win was a great moment, and one that made Queen of the Ring memorable.<\/p>\n

Kofi Kingston v Jack Swagger<\/a> (King of the Ring Qualifier, SmackDown 2010) <\/strong><\/h2>\n

Kofi Kingston and Jack Swagger are another pair of underrated talents who got a chance to showcase their ability. They were tapped to start the King of the Ring tournament in 2010 and were given ample time on SmackDown to put together a fantastic match.<\/p>\n

It was the classic story of power versus speed, with Swagger trying to keep the high-flying Kingston down. The chemistry was there, and the wrestling was crisp. It was great to see Kingston dip more into the wrestling pond, moving away from his usual style.<\/p>\n

<\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n

The fact that, as a qualifying match, this contest was given 17 minutes should say something about the job that both men did. This was a highly entertaining match that should have taken place later on in the King of the Ring. Both men were still getting great reactions from the crowd, and they were loving every minute of it.<\/p>\n

Mustafa Ali v Buddy Murphy<\/a> (King of the Ring Qualifier, SmackDown Live 2019) <\/strong><\/h2>\n

When SmackDown Live was created, it was the brand of opportunity. The blue show saw many up-and-coming names get their shot under a big stage. It was a time when the Cruiserweight division was not shoved down to the bottom of the card, but instead celebrated for the amazing talent it had. One of the best times that these wrestlers were highlighted was when Buddy Murphy and Mustafa Ali turned in an all-time performance.<\/p>\n

Ali and Murphy opened the King of the Ring tournament, personifying everything great about the cruiserweight ranks. This was not just a high-flying match, but one that included a creativity that couldn\u2019t have been pulled off by anyone else.<\/p>\n

Larger wrestlers wouldn\u2019t have had the fluidity that Ali and Murphy showed as they tried to best one another. Perfectly mixing high-flying and hard-hitting action was the status quo whenever these two men stepped into the ring.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The King of the Ring tournament is a crowd favorite in WWE. It has featured some of the greatest wrestlers in WWE history and has remained a precursor to pushes to the top of the card. Whoever emerges victorious is considered a top contender for whichever World Championship they desire. King of the Ring was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4518,"featured_media":162563,"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":[4,2192,3,320],"tags":[9744,9745],"class_list":["post-162806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wwe","category-wrestling","category-wwe-universe","category-wwe-women","tag-wwe-king-of-the-ring","tag-wwe-queen-of-the-ring"],"modified_by":"Michael Joseph Sugue, Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162806","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\/4518"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162806"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162806\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":162818,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162806\/revisions\/162818"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}