WWE pay-per-view and livestreaming event
The 2024 King and Queen of the Ring was a professional wrestling event produced by the American company WWE. It was the 12th King of the Ring event, but under a new name, and took place on Saturday, May 25, 2024, at the Jeddah Super Dome in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. It aired via pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming and featured wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. The event hosted the finals of both the 23rd King of the Ring tournament and the second Queen of the Ring tournament, with the last tournaments for each held in 2021.
This was the 11th event that WWE held in Saudi Arabia under a 10-year partnership in support of Saudi Vision 2030, thus marking the first King of the Ring event held outside of the United States. The event was originally scheduled to be held at the same location in May 2023, but plans were changed and it was replaced by Night of Champions. This was the first King of the Ring event since 2015, which was livestreamed exclusively on the WWE Network, the first to livestream on Peacock in the United States, the first to air on traditional PPV since 2002, and the first dedicated event for the Queen of the Ring tournament, which was originally established in 2021 as the Queen's Crown tournament. For the 2024 event, winners of each tournament received a world championship match at SummerSlam.
Six matches were contested at the event, including one on the Countdown to King and Queen of the Ring pre-show. In the main event, Cody Rhodes defeated Logan Paul to retain SmackDown's Undisputed WWE Championship. In other prominent matches, Raw's Gunther defeated SmackDown's Randy Orton to win the King of the Ring tournament, earning a match for his brand's World Heavyweight Championship at SummerSlam, SmackDown's Nia Jax defeated Raw's Lyra Valkyria to win the Queen of the Ring tournament, earning a match for her brand's WWE Women's Championship at SummerSlam, and in the opening bout, Liv Morgan defeated Becky Lynch to win Raw's Women's World Championship.
Production.
Background.
In early 2018, the American professional wrestling promotion WWE began a 10-year strategic multiplatform partnership with the Ministry of Sport (formerly General Sports Authority) in support of Saudi Vision 2030, Saudi Arabia's social and economic reform program. In 2023, WWE had scheduled an event for May titled King and Queen of the Ring at the Jeddah Super Dome in Jeddah, which would have revived the King of the Ring event series but with a rebranding; however, these plans were scrapped with the event replaced by Night of Champions. "Fightful" later reported that WWE did not have plans to reschedule King and Queen of the Ring for later that year, but that the event could possibly be used for a future Saudi Arabian show.
On April 7, 2024, during night two of WrestleMania XL, WWE announced plans to go ahead with the King and Queen of the Ring event in Saudi Arabia at the Jeddah Super Dome, thus marking the 12th King of the Ring and 11th overall event in the Saudi Arabian partnership. It was scheduled to be held on Saturday, May 25, 2024. This marked the first King of the Ring event since 2015, which was livestreamed exclusively on the WWE Network, the first to livestream on Peacock in the United States, the first to air on traditional pay-per-view (PPV) since 2002, and the first King of the Ring event held outside of the United States. It was also confirmed that the May 24 episode of "Friday Night SmackDown" would take place in Saudi Arabia for the first time.
The King of the Ring event was originally primarily based around the King of the Ring tournament, a men's single-elimination tournament that was established by WWE in 1985 with the winner being crowned "King of the Ring". It was held annually until 1991, with the exception of 1990. These early tournaments were special non-televised house shows. In 1993, the promotion began to produce the King of the Ring tournament as a self-titled PPV. It continued as the annual June PPV until the 2002 event, which was the final King of the Ring produced as a PPV. Following the conclusion of the PPV chronology, the tournament began to be held periodically every few years at other PPVs or on WWE's weekly television programs. WWE then revived the event in 2015, but it was again discontinued with the tournament again being periodically held on WWE's other programs. With the event's revival and rebranding as King and Queen of the Ring in 2024, it saw the finals of the 23rd King of the Ring tournament and the second Queen of the Ring tournament (originally known as Queen's Crown), which had been established as the female counterpart in 2021 with the winner crowned "Queen of the Ring", thus being the first dedicated event for the Queen of the Ring. The last King of the Ring tournament was also held in 2021.
Storylines.
The event comprised six matches, including one on the pre-show, that resulted from scripted storylines. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on the Raw and SmackDown brands, while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television shows, "Monday Night Raw" and "Friday Night SmackDown".
On the April 22 episode of "Raw", Gunther announced he would take part in the King of the Ring tournament, making him the first official participant. Later that same night, 2021 men's tournament winner Xavier Woods as well as Drew McIntyre announced their participation. On the May 3 episode of "SmackDown", Carmelo Hayes, LA Knight, and Santos Escobar announced their participation. Both tournaments began on the May 6 episode of "Raw", with three first round matches for each tournament being held on both "Raw" and then "SmackDown" on May 10, with the remaining four first round matches held during the WWE Live events on May 11 and 12, which are typically non-canon to the television product. Due to various medical reasons, some announced participants for the first round matches were replaced: Woods was replaced by his New Day tag team partner Kofi Kingston, McIntyre was replaced by Jey Uso, Asuka was replaced by her Damage CTRL stablemate Dakota Kai, Bobby Lashley was replaced by his Pride stablemate Angelo Dawkins, and 2021 women's tournament winner Zelina Vega was replaced by Maxxine Dupri. On May 23 during an appearance at the WWE Experience attraction in Saudi Arabia, WWE Chief Content Officer Paul "Triple H" Levesque announced that the winners of both tournaments would receive a match for the world championship of their respective brand at SummerSlam, marking only the second time the men's tournament rewarded an award other than the namesake title, after 2002, and the first time for the women's tournament.
On the April 22 episode of "Raw", Becky Lynch won a 14-woman Battle Royal by last eliminating Liv Morgan to win the vacant Women's World Championship. The following week, as Lynch was celebrating her victory, she was interrupted by Morgan and Nia Jax—the latter's last night as part of the Raw roster as she was drafted to SmackDown in the 2024 WWE Draft. A match between Morgan and Jax was then scheduled for later that night, where Morgan won, prompting Lynch to give Morgan a title match. The title match was subsequently scheduled for King and Queen of the Ring.
On the March 11 episode of "Raw", Sami Zayn won a gauntlet match by last eliminating Chad Gable to become the number one contender for the Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania XL. In the weeks leading up to event, Gable trained Zayn for his championship match, which he won. Because of Gable's help, Zayn gave him a title match. Before the match, however, Bronson Reed warned that he would go after the winner. Zayn defeated Gable to retain the title, but after the match, Gable attacked Zayn while celebrating with his family, turning heel in the process. Later, Gable explained that the reason he attacked Zayn was because he felt disrespected by Zayn after he brought the title to him while he was down in the corner of the ring, and also after seeing Zayn celebrating his win with his family, something that Gable was not able to do after he lost an Intercontinental Championship match back in September 2023. After being attacked by Reed, Zayn defended his title against him on the April 29 episode, which Zayn won by disqualification after Gable attacked him. The following week, Zayn attacked Gable during his match with Reed, causing another disqualification. Later that night, Zayn announced that he would defend his title against Gable and Reed in a triple threat match at King and Queen of the Ring, which was later made official.
After successfully defending the Undisputed WWE Championship at Backlash France, Cody Rhodes appeared on the following "SmackDown". After being introduced by SmackDown General Manager Nick Aldis, he announced that Rhodes' next opponent would be United States Champion Logan Paul, and a Champion vs. Champion match was scheduled for King and Queen of the Ring. On the following episode, during the contract signing for the match, the contract stated that both Rhodes' and Paul's titles would be on the line at the event. However, when Paul was about to sign the contract, he tore it up, before bringing out his own contract, which stated that only Rhodes' title would be on the line. After being mocked by Paul, Rhodes signed the contract, confirming that he would defend the Undisputed WWE Championship against Paul at the event.
On the May 10 episode of "SmackDown," Bianca Belair defeated Candice LeRae to advance in the Queen of the Ring tournament despite interference from LeRae's tag team partner, Indi Hartwell. Two weeks later, Belair lost in the semifinals of the tournament, hurting her knee in the process. LeRae and Hartwell mocked Belair's injury backstage until her tag team partner, Jade Cargill, came to her defense. Cargill then said that she would talk to SmackDown General Manager Nick Aldis, and then, it was announced that Belair and Cargill would defend the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship against LeRae and Hartwell on the Countdown To King and Queen of the Ring pre-show.
Aftermath.
After the show, WWE Chief Content Officer Paul "Triple H" Levesque noted the mistake in the King of the Ring final but said the referee's decision was final. He also said that there would likely be a rematch between Gunther and Randy Orton. Because of his win, Gunther received a match for Raw's World Heavyweight Championship at SummerSlam, where he defeated Damian Priest to win the title. During Gunther's speech on the following "Raw", he was interrupted by Orton, who noted that because of that mistake in the King of the Ring final, that ultimately allowed Gunther to become champion. He then said that he wanted his rematch at Bash in Berlin so he could take the World Heavyweight Championship from Gunther, who accepted the challenge. It was also stipulated that if Orton won the championship, he would be transferred to Raw while Gunther would be transferred to SmackDown.
Because of her win in the Queen of the Ring final, Nia Jax received a match for SmackDown's WWE Women's Championship at SummerSlam. Jax would go on to defeat Bayley at the event to win the championship.
References.
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