WWE’s Zelina Vega Pulled From the Queen of the Ring Tournament

The unfortunate news continues for this year’s WWE King and Queen of the Ring. Thus far two WWE superstars have been pulled from the tournament — Drew McIntyre, who fractured his elbow at WrestleMania 40; Bobby Lashley, pulled ahead of this week’s SmackDown; Asuka, replaced by Dakota Kai; and Xavier Woods who was replaced by Kofi Kingston. It appears another name is now being added to the list. 

Zelina Vega, former Queen, will no longer take part in the tournament. Vega, who just switched to Raw from SmackDown in the WWE Draft, was scheduled to wrestle Shayna Baszler at a live event this weekend in a first round tournament match. The winner would move onto the quarterfinals where Lyra Valkyria, IYO SKY and Zoey Stark previously advanced. The winner of Baszler vs Dupri will move on to face former Women’s Champion SKY on tomorrow night’s episode of Raw.

“I have a bit of unfortunate injury news. Zelina Vega will not be medically cleared to compete tonight and therefore will be stepping out of the Queen of the Ring tournament, which is unfortunate given her past history as a Queen of the Ring,” WWE Raw general manager Adam Pearce stated in a video posted to X. “It would have been nice to see her try to regain that crown. But injury bug strikes again. Which opens the door of opportunity for one Maxxine Dupri, who will receive the biggest opportunity of her young career as she will step in tonight against Shayna Baszler. Once again, Zelina Vega out, Maxxine Dupri in. Anything can happen in WWE and it will tonight. Injuries happen, guys, it’s just the way it is. Changes need to be made and this one is official.”

Vega won the crown in 2021 when the first and only tournament took place to crown the inaugural Queen. Both the King and Queen tournaments haven’t taken place since then but WWE announced that this year they’d be making a comeback when they return to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on May 25. Vega’s last match took place back in April when she was quickly defeated by Elektra Lopez in the midst of a feud between the LWO and Legado Del Fantasma. It’s unknown at this time what the nature of her injury is and how long she’ll be away, but Comicbook will monitor the situation and provide updates when they become available.

Comicbook sends well wishes to Vega.