Major Surprise Leaked About WWE’s Plans For King Of The Ring

The 2026 WWE King of the Ring tournament kicked off on Raw this week.

In the first match, Oba Femi defeated Penta, Solo Sikoa, and Carmelo Hayes in a 4-way clash to secure his spot in the semi-finals. He will face the winner of the match between Dominik Mysterio, Bron Breakker, Trick Williams, and Damian Priest.

Two other matches will also take place, where 8 superstars will vie for 2 semi-final spots.

The final will take place at WWE Night of Champions in Saudi Arabia on June 27, with the winner challenging the world champion of their respective brand at SummerSlam in August.

Surprise Update About 2026 WWE King Of The Ring Winner

The Stamford promotion usually follows a process that determines brackets in terms of tournaments, as well as the winner. However, in a major reveal during WrestleVotes Radio, it was claimed that the company did not have the winner of the King of the Ring finalized when the brackets were first revealed during the Clash in Italy post-show.

In speaking with a source tied into WWE Creative, we’ve learned the winner of this year’s King of the Ring tournament was not firmly decided upon when the brackets were revealed last Sunday. According to the source, at least three superstars have been pitched internally as potential winners and were strategically positioned throughout the tournament field with the possibility in mind that they could win the thing.

This revelation surprised Joey Votes, who questioned how the company could reveal the brackets without deciding on a winner.

You got to figure one’s Oba and then give me your other two because — not to cut you off, but the backing of this report is how do you release a bracket where creative is not on the same page on who’s going to win the thing when you release it to the public? It just — when I heard this, I said, you guys have to be kidding me.

At this point, TC chimed in and debated that WWE may have done it purposefully, considering how wrestlers have sustained injuries, forcing the creative team to pivot from active storylines.

Well, I have the exact opposite reaction of you there. Okay, let’s hear it. I think this is somebody who has been bitten by a dog once, bitten by a dog twice, and bitten by a dog three times. So much that when you get close to any kind of dog, you don’t go in with your hand directly out. You kind of are a little bit more timid, a little bit more trepidatious.

I think the injuries are exactly what WWE is worried about this point in time, having one specific person in mind to book through this tournament, that if they were to get hurt, they’re left holding the bag yet again. So I think this is smart business by WWE to have multiple options in place if one of them gets hurt, if two of them get hurt, they have all three storylines sort of ready to go in any break glass in case of emergency sort of situation.

TC then went on to list wrestlers who could potentially win the tournament at Night of Champions in Riyadh.

So whether it’s Oba, whether it’s Seth Rollins or maybe even Bron Breakker or LA Knight, I could see any four of those guys being the three that they had plans for here. And I think that’s smart business to do that.

TC also proposed that having back-up plans for major storylines would serve WWE’s creative team well in the long-run.

What I’m saying is I think that if they could have all these plans in place not only for the King of the Ring tournament, but for other things as well — Money in the Bank, Royal Rumble — have plans in place, multiple plans, contingency plans. Where it doesn’t blow up in your face if a guy goes down, as we’ve seen happen time and time again over the last 18 months.

Joey Votes agreed with TC’s idea of having back-up plans before discussing Oba Femi as the potential victor. He then speculated about how much of a role Brock Lesnar would play in the outcome of the tournament despite not competing in it.

Oba, and I think also maybe the status of Brock Lesnar and what he wants. I mean, you have to remember Brock Lesnar calls a lot of his own shots in terms of where he’s going to be wrestling, when he’s going to be wrestling. Not 100%, but he has a big input in that.

So maybe there’s some, hey, let’s see what happens with Brock here. Maybe we could do something different with Oba. Maybe we have Brock cost Oba that will get him out of the tournament.

There is no doubt that WWE’s indecision in determining the King of the Ring tournament winner is a surprise. But it is understandable if the creative team is being cautious due to the recent injuries suffered by wrestlers on the main roster.

H/T: Ringside News