Fresh-off from a solid 32nd edition of Summerslam PPV, WWE made a ground-breaking announcement to keep the fans hyped. In a press release on the official website of the company, they have now confirmed that King of the Ring is returning. The tournament with an elimination-style format will begin from next week onwards where the very first match will take place on WWE Raw. This was indeed huge news coming out of last night’s flagship show that hugely promoted the returning show.
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With Paul Heyman and Eric Bischoff involved with both WWE Raw and Smackdown programming, we have predicted big changes may be coming up in WWE. The announcement of King of the Ring return must be a part of the process. While the new executive directors have come up with the idea, Vince McMahon gave the final sanction to it, making the return official.
“The king has returned.” ?
The #KingOfTheRing tournament RETURNS NEXT MONDAY on #RAW! pic.twitter.com/48WKyuyfyV
— WWE (@WWE) August 13, 2019
As per the confirmations from WWE.com, 16 superstars from WWE Raw and Smackdown will compete in King of the Ring 2019 tournament. The winner of this series will become the next King of the Ring that could hand him over a Main Even slot. Going by the history of this tourney, numerous Hall of Famers received their first big break after winning this one. For now, WWE also confirmed the 16 superstars who will compete in the 2019 edition,
The following Superstars have been confirmed to represent their respective brands in the tournament.
Raw
The Miz
Ricochet
Cedric Alexander
Samoa Joe
Drew McIntyre
Baron Corbin
Sami Zayn
Cesaro
SmackDown LIVE
Kevin Owens
Ali
Apollo Crews
Chad Gable
Elias
Andrade
Buddy Murphy
Shelton Benjamin
The last time we have seen the King of the Ring tournament was in 2015 which was won by Bad News Barrett. It was one of those occasions where WWE could not utilize the superstars to his full potential as he left the company, thereafter.
EXCLUSIVE: @RealKurtAngle talks about what it could mean for the winner of this year’s #KingOfTheRing tournament, which begins on #Raw! pic.twitter.com/LT4kVWRAIh
— WWE (@WWE) August 13, 2019
If we consider this as an exception, then there are several examples of King of the Ring giving birth to legends. The likes of Harley Race, Bret “Hit Man” Hart, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, Edge, Booker T, Kurt Angle, Triple H, Brock Lesnar and more had the honor to become in-ring royalty. As of now, WWE has not declared any official matchup to begin the tournament. We are likely to get the update as next week’s episode of WWE Raw closes in.
