This weekend WWE will head back to Saudi Arabia for the King and Queen of the Ring Premium Live Event. While the show will feature championship defenses from Cody Rhodes, Becky Lynch and Sami Zayn, it will also contain the finals of the King and Queen of the Ring tournaments. In the finals for the men’s side, Raw superstar Gunther will go up against the winner of Randy Orton vs. Tama Tonga from SmackDown. For the Queen of the Ring, recent NXT call-up Lyra Valkyria will go one-on-one with the winner of Bianca Belair vs. Nia Jax.
The tournaments haven’t been held since 2021, the same year the inaugural and only Queen was crowned. With it coming back, WWE is adding extra stakes. Along with being able to claim you are the King or Queen, the winners will also get a title shot at this year’s SummerSlam, taking place in Cleveland Ohio.
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“In the past, the King and Queen of the Ring, it was such an honor to be in that tournament and to win that tournament on your own, to have that launch you to another place, but I wanted that tournament to kind of stand on its own and I didn’t want to announce this part of it until we got here,” WWE CCO Triple H announced at an event in Saudi Arabia. “But, I’ll let all of you know tonight that the winner of the King of the Ring tournament and the winner of the Queen of the Ring tournament will both go on to receive championship matches with the title of their respective brands. They will both get world title shots, either WWE or World title at SummerSlam.”
Although SummerSlam is still about three months away, it’s gaining a lot of traction in the city of Cleveland. According to WrestleTix, the event has already sold over 45,800 tickets and is on track to overtake Detroit record-setting show with 45,971 tickets sold. The Cleveland Browns Stadium is currently set up to hold 52,679. WWE hasn’t hosted a PLE event in the city since Fastlane 2019 and it’s the first SummerSlam to take place in the city since 1996 at the Gund Arena (now Rocket Mortgage Fieldhose). Several WWE superstars are from the Cleveland area, including The Miz, Johnny Gargano and the United States Champion Logan Paul.
