IWE King and Queen of the Ring (2024)

From Iwe

The 2024 King and Queen of the Ring is a professional wrestling event produced by the American company IWE. It will be the 12th King of the Ring event, but under a new name, and will take place on Saturday, May 25, 2024, at the Jeddah Super Dome in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. It will air via pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming and feature wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. The event will host the finals of both the 23rd King of the Ring tournament and the second Queen's Crown tournament, with the last tournaments for each held in 2021.

This will be the 11th event that IWE will hold 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 will be the first King of the Ring event since 2015, which was livestreamed exclusively on the IWE 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.

[edit] Production

[edit] Background

In early 2018, the American professional wrestling promotion IWE 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 March 2023, IWE scheduled a Saudi Arabian event titled King and Queen of the Ring for the Jeddah Super Dome in Jeddah, which would have revived the King of the Ring event series but with a rebranding, but on April 13, it was revealed that these plans were scrapped with the event replaced by Night of Champions. Fightful later reported that IWE 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, IWE 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 is scheduled to be held on May 25, 2024. This marks the first King of the Ring event since 2015, which was livestreamed exclusively on the IWE Network, the first to livestream on Peacock in the United States, the first to air on traditional 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 based around the King of the Ring tournament, a men's single-elimination tournament that was established by IWE 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 IWE's weekly television programs. IWE then revived the event in 2015, but it was again discontinued with the tournament again being periodically held on IWE's weekly television programs or other PPVs. With the event's revival and rebranding as King and Queen of the Ring in 2024, it will see the finals of the 23rd King of the Ring tournament and the second Queen of the Ring tournament (previously 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.

[edit] Storylines

The event will include matches that result from scripted storylines. Results are predetermined by IWE's writers on the Raw and SmackDown brands, while storylines are produced on IWE's weekly television shows, Monday Night Raw and Friday Night SmackDown.

[edit] Results

[edit] King of the Ring tournament

[edit] Queen of the Ring tournament

[edit] Notes

a. ^ Originally scheduled to be Xavier Woods, though was pulled from the tournament due to not being medically cleared to compete.

b. ^ Originally scheduled to be Drew McIntyre, though was pulled from the tournament due to not being medically cleared to compete.

c. ^ Originally scheduled to be Bobby Lashley, but was pulled from the tournament due to not being medically cleared to compete

d. ^ Originally scheduled to be Zelina Vega, but was pulled from the tournament due to not being medically cleared to compete.

e ^ Originally scheduled to be Asuka, though was pulled from the tournament due to not being medically cleared to compete.

[edit] References

[edit] External links