10 New Directions For WWE After Clash In Italy 2026

7. A New King Of The Ring

WWE Clash In Italy Oba Femi
WWE.com

WWE revealed the brackets for both the King and Queen Of The Ring tournaments following Clash In Italy, and they make for compelling reading. Fatal-4-Ways will spotlight the opening round, then it'll be a straight shoot out in singles bouts after that in the semi finals and at the final stage. Those finals, for the record, are set to take place at Night Of Champions on 27 June.

A quick glance at the KOTR brackets shows some of the star power at WWE's fingertips for this year's tourney. The most likely winners are Oba Femi, Bron Breakker, Trick Williams, Seth Rollins or Je’Von Evans, and that's not a bad list of choices. It's a bloody great list of choices, to be honest about it.

Personally, this fan can see Oba, Williams, Rollins and maybe LA Knight advancing from the first round. Then, Oba can beat Trick, Seth can top LA, and that'd leave 'The Architect' ripe for a kicking at the hands of Femi in Saudi Arabia for the final. Oh yes, 'King' Oba is on the way.

There's a bit more on him to come deeper in these pages, because Femi definitely has more going on than trying to squeeze a crown onto his head, but he stands out as the premier choice to win King Of The Ring 2026. That'd bag Oba a title shot at SummerSlam too. Why not, eh? He's developing nicely, and one defeat to Brock Lesnar won't cut him off at the knees.

All hail 'The Ruler'.

Contributor

Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood. Jamie started writing for WhatCulture in 2013, and has contributed thousands of articles and YouTube videos since then. He cut his teeth penning published pieces for top UK and European wrestling read Fighting Spirit Magazine (FSM), and also has extensive experience working within the wrestling biz as a manager and commentator for promotions like ICW on WWE Network and WCPW/Defiant since 2010. Further, Jamie also hosted the old Ministry Of Slam podcast, and has interviewed everyone from Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels to Bret Hart and Trish Stratus.