Triple H Reveals New Stakes For WWE King And Queen Of The Ring Winners

Looks like the winners of the tournaments will get more than just a nifty crown.

by Scott Carlson

WWE programming has had its challenges at times in staving off the post-WrestleMania doldrums, but they've managed to assemble two really solid tournaments in the King and Queen of the Ring, which conclude this weeks at the eponymous PLE in Saudi Arabia.

On Thursday, Triple H raised the bar and the stakes for the finals of the two tourneys by announcing that both winners will receive title matches against the main champion on their respective brand at SummerSlam.

The decision to have the winner of this royal tournament series face a world champion at SummerSlam is not entirely unprecedented. The 2002 KOTR tournament -- eventually won by Brock Lesnar -- carried the additional prize of a WWE Undisputed Championship match at SummerSlam. Lesnar would defeat The Rock for the title, marking one of the quickest ascensions in company history.

Previous Kings of the Ring also have gone on to face world champions at SummerSlam (though not as a specific stipulation): Owen Hart unsuccessfully challenged brother Bret Hart in 1994, and Mabel lost to Diesel in 1995.

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Gunther is set to face either Randy Orton or Tama Tonga in the King of the Ring finals, while the Queen of the Ring finals will pit Lyra Valkyria against Bianca Belair or Nia Jax.

After years of waning significance and infrequent usage during the past decade-plus, infusing a world championship match into the tournaments could make King and Queen of the Ring a more prominent, prestigious prize and revitalize the event for WWE.

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Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.