Queen of the Ring tournament
Recurring professional wrestling tournament by WWE
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The Queen of the Ring tournament, originally known as the Queen's Crown, is a women's professional wrestling single-elimination tournament held periodically by WWE. Established in 2021, the winner of the inaugural tournament was Zelina Vega. The prize for winning the tournament is being crowned the "Queen of the Ring" (originally simply "Queen"), and beginning in 2024, a women's world championship match at SummerSlam. It is the female version of WWE's long-standing King of the Ring tournament for male wrestlers. The most recent 2026 tournament was won by Iyo Sky.
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| Promotion | WWE | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Former name | Queen's Crown | ||||||||
| Tournament information | |||||||||
| Established | 2021 | ||||||||
| Current winner | Iyo Sky | ||||||||
| Last completed | 2026 | ||||||||
| Prize | Women's world championship match at SummerSlam | ||||||||
| Editions | 4 | ||||||||
| Format | Single-elimination tournament | ||||||||
| Participants | 16 | ||||||||
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Like the King of the Ring tournament, female wrestlers from the Raw and SmackDown brand divisions participate. There were originally two tournament brackets, one for each brand, and the bracket winners faced off in the final. Since 2025, there have been two brackets, but mixed between the brands, which may result in the final being between two wrestlers from the same brand.[a]
The inaugural tournament was held in October 2021 and culminated at the Crown Jewel pay-per-view and livestreaming event. A dedicated event was to be held in 2023 in conjunction with the men's tournament, but it was cancelled; however, it was rescheduled for 2024 titled King and Queen of the Ring. Along with the tournament's return in 2024, it was renamed as "Queen of the Ring" with the winner earning that moniker to bring it in line with the men's tournament. The tournaments have been held annually since, but with the finals instead occurring at Night of Champions.
History
In 1985, the American professional wrestling promotion WWE, at that time known as the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, renamed WWE in 2002), established the King of the Ring tournament as a men's single-elimination tournament, the winner of which is crowned the "King of the Ring". In 2016, the "Women's Evolution" began in WWE, where the promotion began to treat their female wrestlers on an equal level as the men. In the years following this, WWE introduced female versions of matches that were originally only contested by male wrestlers—such as the Royal Rumble match and Money in the Bank ladder match. In October 2021, WWE established a female counterpart to the King of the Ring tournament, called the Queen's Crown tournament, held between wrestlers from the Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. The inaugural tournament was announced to be held simultaneously with the 2021 King of the Ring tournament.[1][2][3] The tournament began in October 2021, held across episodes of Raw and SmackDown, and culminated at the Crown Jewel pay-per-view and livestreaming event in Saudi Arabia. It was won by SmackDown's Zelina Vega, who defeated Raw's Doudrop.[4]
In March 2023, WWE scheduled an event titled King and Queen of the Ring, which would have been a dedicated event for both the men's and women's tournaments, but on April 13, it was revealed that these plans were scrapped.[5] Fightful later reported that WWE did not have plans to reschedule King and Queen of the Ring for later that year, but the event could possibly be used for a future Saudi Arabian show.[6] In April 2024, WWE announced that they would hold the King and Queen of the Ring event in Saudi Arabia in May 2024. Tournament matches began on the May 6 episode of Raw, and were held across episodes of Raw, SmackDown, and at WWE Live events.[7] Along with its return in 2024, the women's tournament and prize were both renamed as "Queen of the Ring".[8] On May 23, WWE Chief Content Officer Paul "Triple H" Levesque announced that the winner of the 2024 Queen of the Ring tournament would also receive a women's world championship match of their respective brand at SummerSlam.[9] The 2024 tournament was won by SmackDown's Nia Jax, who defeated Raw's Lyra Valkyria, with Jax receiving a match for the WWE Women's Championship.[10]
During the June 6, 2025, episode of SmackDown, the third Queen of the Ring tournament, along with the 24th King of the Ring tournament, was announced to be held that month, culminating at the Night of Champions PPV and livestreaming event on June 28. Like with the 2024 tournament, the winner received a match for the world championship of their respective brand at SummerSlam.[11] The 2025 tournament was won by SmackDown's Jade Cargill, who defeated Raw's Asuka, thus earning a match for the WWE Women's Championship.[12]
The finals of the 2026 tournaments were again held at Night of Champions, but this time allowing the winners the choice of which world championship to challenge for at that year's SummerSlam. Despite holding Raw's Women's World Championship, Liv Morgan was entered into the tournament, explaining that she wanted to win the tournament and then go to SummerSlam and win SmackDown's WWE Women's Championship to become a double world champion.[13] Morgan along with fellow Raw wrestler Iyo Sky made it to the final, where Sky defeated Morgan to win the tournament, who subsequently chose to challenge Morgan for the Women's World Championship at SummerSlam.[14]
Queen gimmick
Similar to the King of the Ring tournament, the prize for winning the Queen of the Ring tournament is earning the title of "Queen of the Ring"; it was originally simply "Queen" in 2021 when the tournament that year was called Queen's Crown. As several King of the Ring winners took on a king's gimmick with varying degrees of indulgence, inaugural women's winner Zelina Vega adopted a queen's gimmick and began to refer to herself as Queen Zelina. She began wearing a crown, a cape, and carrying a scepter, while speaking and acting in a regal manner, though acting more like a tyrannical queen due to Vega portraying a heel.[15] After taking a brief hiatus in mid-2022, Vega returned in October and dropped the queen gimmick.[16]
2021 tournament
.jpg) The inaugural winner Zelina Vega, who became Queen Zelina | |
| Tournament information | |
|---|---|
| Sport | Professional wrestling |
| Location | |
| Dates | October 8, 2021–October 21, 2021 |
Tournament format | Single elimination tournament |
| Participants | 8 |
| Final positions | |
| Champion | Zelina Vega |
| Runner-up | Doudrop |
| Tournament statistics | |
| Matches played | 7 |
The 2021 Queen's Crown was the inaugural edition of the Queen of the Ring tournament, and the only version to be called Queen's Crown. Consisting of eight female wrestlers, four each from the Raw and SmackDown brands, the tournament was divided into two brackets, one for each brand, and the winners of each bracket faced each other in the final. The inaugural tournament began on the October 8 episode of SmackDown and continued to be held across episodes of Raw and SmackDown. It concluded at the Crown Jewel pay-per-view and livestreaming event on October 21, 2021. In the final, SmackDown's Zelina Vega defeated Raw's Doudrop to become the inaugural winner.[17][4]
Bracket
| Quarterfinals SmackDown (October 8)[18] Raw (October 11)[19] | Semifinals SmackDown (October 15)[20] Raw (October 18)[21] | Final Crown Jewel (October 21)[4] | ||||||||||||
| Zelina Vega | Pin[18] | |||||||||||||
| Toni Storm | 2:10 | |||||||||||||
| Zelina Vega | Pin[20] | |||||||||||||
| SmackDown | ||||||||||||||
| Carmella | 2:40 | |||||||||||||
| Liv Morgan | 1:40 | |||||||||||||
| Carmella | Pin[18] | |||||||||||||
| Zelina Vega | Pin[4] | |||||||||||||
| Doudrop | 5:55 | |||||||||||||
| Dana Brooke | 1:25 | |||||||||||||
| Shayna Baszler | Pin[19] | |||||||||||||
| Shayna Baszler | 2:45 | |||||||||||||
| Raw | ||||||||||||||
| Doudrop | Pin[21] | |||||||||||||
| Doudrop | Pin[19] | |||||||||||||
| Natalya | 3:00 | |||||||||||||
List of winners
A women's world championship match at SummerSlam would become an additional permanent prize beginning in 2024, with the winners of the 2024 and 2025 tournaments specifically earning a match for the world championship of their respective brand at the event, while beginning in 2026, the winners have a choice of which world title to challenge for at SummerSlam.
| † | Winner from Raw brand | ‡ | Winner from SmackDown brand |
| # | Year | Winner | Tournament final | Runner-up | Ref | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Event | Date | Location | |||||
| 1 | 2021 | Zelina Vega | Crown Jewel | October 21, 2021 | Riyadh, Saudi Arabia | Doudrop | [4] |
| 2 | 2024 | Nia Jax | King and Queen of the Ring | May 25, 2024 | Jeddah, Saudi Arabia | Lyra Valkyria | [10] |
| 3 | 2025 | Jade Cargill | Night of Champions | June 28, 2025 | Riyadh, Saudi Arabia | Asuka | [12] |
| 3 | 2026 | Iyo Sky | Night of Champions | June 27, 2026 | Riyadh, Saudi Arabia | Liv Morgan | [22] |
Queen of the Ring winner's championship opportunity
- – Victory
- – Loss
| # | Winner | Brand | Event | Date | Championship | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nia Jax | SmackDown | SummerSlam | August 3, 2024 | WWE Women's Championship | Defeated Bayley. |
| 2 | Jade Cargill | SummerSlam Night 1 | August 2, 2025 | Lost to Tiffany Stratton. | ||
| 3 | Iyo Sky | Raw | SummerSlam Night 1 | August 1, 2026 | Women's World Championship | Lost to Liv Morgan. |
Reception
The original 2021 Queen's Crown tournament was heavily criticized by fans for not being on equal ground with the men's tournament that year. The length of the tournament's first six matches were a combined 13 minutes and 40 seconds, equaling an average of roughly two minutes and 15 seconds per match. This was in stark contrast to the first six matches of the 2021 King of the Ring tournament, where none were shorter than eight minutes.[23]