King of the Ring

This article is about the event series. For the individual tournaments, see King of the Ring tournament and Queen of the Ring tournament. For other uses, see King of the Ring (disambiguation).
King and Queen of the Ring
WWE King and Queen of the Ring logo as of 2024
PromotionsWWE
BrandsRaw (2002, 2024)
SmackDown (2002, 2024)
First event1993

King and Queen of the Ring, formerly and still commonly known as simply King of the Ring, is a professional wrestling event produced by WWE, a Connecticut-based professional wrestling promotion. The event was established in 1993 and centers on the men's King of the Ring tournament, which had been established in 1985, and beginning in 2024, the women's Queen of the Ring tournament, which was established in 2021 and originally known as the Queen's Crown tournament.

The King of the Ring event was originally established in 1993 and was held annually in June as a pay-per-view (PPV) event. During the event's original run as a PPV, it was considered one of the promotion's five biggest events of the year, along with the Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series, dubbed the "Big Five". The 2002 event was the final King of the Ring produced as a PPV. To coincide with the brand extension introduced earlier that same year, the 2002 event featured wrestlers from both the Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. In 2003, the event's PPV slot was replaced by Bad Blood.

The tournament endured a four-year hiatus until its return in 2006 as an exclusive tournament for wrestlers of the SmackDown brand. Instead of a dedicated PPV, however, this tournament concluded at that year's Judgment Day. While subsequent tournaments were periodically held as a non-PPV event and included WWE's other brands, the conclusion to the 2015 tournament was livestreamed exclusively as an event on the WWE Network and also occurred when a brand extension was not in effect; the brand split was then reintroduced in 2016. While the tournaments continued to be held periodically, the event itself was to be revived in May 2023 and rebranded as "King and Queen of the Ring" to incorporate the women's tournament; however, these plans were scrapped as WWE instead held a revived Night of Champions. The rebranded "King and Queen of the Ring" event that was intended for 2023 was rescheduled for May 2024 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. This will be the first King of the Ring event since 2015, the first to air on traditional PPV since 2002, the first held outside of the United States, as well as the first dedicated event for the women's tournament, which was renamed to Queen of the Ring for its 2024 return.