WWE Announces Return of the King of the Ring Tournament

WWE announced on Monday Night Raw this week the prestigious King of the Ring tournament will be returning on next week’s episode of Monday Night Raw.

The announcement did not give us a bracket for the single-elimination tournament, nor did it mention if the winner would get a future world championship shot like the previous versions of the tournament did.

Previous winners of the tournament include Harley Race, Randy Savage, Ted DiBiase, Bret Hart, Owen Hart, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, Triple H, Billy Gunn, Kurt Angle, Edge, Brock Lesnar, Booker T, William Regal, Sheamus and Bad News Barrett. The last tournament took place in April 2015, giving Barrett his new gimmick as King Barrett.

The contestants for this year’s tournament will feature 16 wrestlers; eight from Raw and eight from SmackDown. The competitors are Baron Corbin, Cesaro, Cedric Alexander, Drew McIntyre, Ricochet, Sami Zayn, Samoa Joe, The Miz, Ali, Andrade, Apollo Crews, Buddy Murphy, Elias, Kevin Owens and Shelton Benjamin.

It’s also worth noting that during Raw the commentary team said the tournament would “start” next week, so it’s unclear how long WWE plans on spacing the tournament out. Previous iterations took place at the designated King of the Ring pay-per-view, others spanned several weeks of television and the later versions took place on a single episode of Raw.

Should he keep his title a full week, Elias will be the only one of the 16 to enter the tournament as a reigning champion. “The Drifter” nailed R-Truth in the back with a guitar and pinned him on Raw to start his third reign as the WWE 24/7 Champion.