During the event's run as a PPV, it was considered one of the promotion's five biggest events of the year, along with the Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series, dubbed the "Big Five." The 2002 event was the final King of the Ring produced as a PPV. To coincide with the brand extension introduced earlier that same year, the 2002 event featured wrestlers from both the Raw and SmackDown! brand divisions. In 2003, the event's PPV slot was replaced by Bad Blood.
The tournament endured a four-year hiatus until its return in 2006 as an exclusive tournament for wrestlers of the SmackDown! brand. Instead of a dedicated PPV, however, this tournament concluded at that year's Judgment Day. While the tournament has since been held periodically as a non-PPV event and included WWE's other brands, the conclusion to the 2015 tournament aired exclusively as an event on the WWE Network and also occurred when a brand extension was not in effect. It has thus far been the last tournament to air as a separate event from WWE's other programs. While tournaments have been held since, the event itself was to be revived in 2023 and rebranded as "King and Queen of the Ring" to incorporate the women's Queen's Crown tournament; however, these plans were scrapped as WWE instead decided to revive Night of Champions. The rebranded “King and Queen of the Ring” that was intended for 2023 is scheduled to return on May 25, 2024 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
History
The King of the Ring tournament is a single-elimination tournament in which the winner is crowned the "King of the Ring." The tournament was established in 1985 by the then-World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and was held annually until 1991, with the exception of 1990. These early tournaments were held as special non-televised house shows in an effort to boost attendance at these events.[1]
In 1993, the WWF began to produce an annual June pay-per-view (PPV) titled King of the Ring. The inaugural PPV took place on June 13, 1993, at the Nutter Center in Dayton, Ohio. Unlike the previous non-televised events, the PPV did not feature all of the tournament's matches. Instead, several of the qualifying matches preceded the event with the final few matches then taking place at the pay-per-view. There were also other matches that took place at the event as it was a traditional three-hour pay-per-view.[2] The King of the Ring pay-per-view was considered one of the promotion's "Big Five" PPVs of the year, along with the Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series, up until its disestablishment after the 2002 event[3]—it was the only event of the five to never be hosted at least once at Madison Square Garden. In 2003, the event's PPV slot was replaced by Bad Blood.[4]
In early 2002, the WWF was renamed World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE)[5] following a lawsuit from the World Wildlife Fund over the "WWF" initialism.[6] Also around this time, the promotion introduced the brand extension, in which the roster was divided between the Raw and SmackDown! brands where wrestlers were exclusively assigned to perform.[7] The 2002 tournament and PPV was in turn held for wrestlers from both brands.[4]
After a four-year hiatus, the tournament returned in 2006 and was held exclusively for wrestlers from the SmackDown! brand. Unlike the previous years, however, there was not an associated pay-per-view. Instead, tournament matches took place across episodes of SmackDown! with the finale being held at Judgment Day.[8] While WWE has continued to periodically hold the tournament across their other programs, the semifinals and final of the 2015 tournament aired exclusively as an event on WWE's online streaming service, the WWE Network, which launched in February 2014. It has thus far been the only tournament since 2002 to have its own dedicated event. This 2015 tournament also occurred when a brand extension was not in effect.[9]
In October 2022, Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter reported that WWE was planning to resurrect the King of the Ring event in 2023 to replace the Hell in a Cell event.[10][11] This was officially confirmed by WWE on March 6, 2023, with the company announcing that the event would be rebranded as "King and Queen of the Ring" to incorporate the women's Queen's Crown tournament that was established in 2021. This would have seen the event's return to PPV, in addition to airing on WWE's livestreaming platforms. It was scheduled for May 27, 2023, and would have been the ninth event that WWE held in Saudi Arabia in support of Saudi Vision 2030.[12][13] However, on April 13, it was revealed that WWE decided to scrap the revival and would instead hold Night of Champions, thus reviving the Night of Champions event.[14] According to Mike Johnson of PWInsider, the decision to change the event to Night of Champions was a creative choice to revive and bring that event to an international market.[15]Fightful later reported that WWE did not have plans to reschedule King and Queen of the Ring for later that year, but the event could possibly be used for a future Saudi show.[16]
^Sullivan, Kevin (November 23, 2010). The WWE Championship: A Look Back at the Rich History of the WWE Championship. Gallery Books. p. 124. ISBN9781439193211. At the time, SummerSlam was one of WWE's "big five" Pay-Per-Views (Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, King of the Ring, and Survivor Series were the others), ...
