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WWE Announces 8 Huge King & Queen Of The Ring Qualifying Matches

By John Canton • Published 4th May 2024
WWE Sheamus vs Gunther

The WWE King & Queen of the Ring tournaments are set to begin with several huge matches announced for Raw.

Now that WWE Backlash France has come and gone, next up on WWE’s PLE calendar is the King & Queen of the Ring event taking place on May 25th in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

To crown the King and Queen of the Ring, World Wrestling Entertainment plans to have a big tournament featuring wrestlers from both Raw and Smackdown. These wrestlers are the ones who were drafted to both brands during the WWE Draft in late April.

During the Backlash PLE, a video aired announcing the women’s and men’s matches in the tournament. The following women’s matches will take place on the Raw brand.

Zoey Stark vs. Ivy Nile
Shayna Baszler vs. Zelina Vega
Lyra Valkyria vs. Asuka
IYO SKY vs. Natalya

Meanwhile, on the men’s side, they have announced these matches featuring Raw wrestlers.

Drew McIntyre vs. Finn Balor
Kofi Kingston vs. Rey Mysterio
Ricochet vs. Ilja Dragunov
Gunther vs. Sheamus

When the Backlash crowd saw the graphics for the matches, they gave the biggest reaction to the GUNTHER/Sheamus match. That’s because they had a legendary match at Clash at the Castle 2022 and again at WrestleMania 39 with Drew McIntyre. As Sheamus likes to say, it’s “banger after banger” when those two men meet.

A tweet from WWE Raw GM Adam Pearce confirmed that those eight matches will happen this Monday, May 6th on Raw in Hartford, CT.

What About Smackdown’s Participation In The WWE King & Queen Of The Ring Tournament?

During the clip that aired during Backlash about the King & Queen of the Ring tournament, WWE announcers Michael Cole & Corey Graves mentioned that Smackdown will start their tournament matches on the May 10th edition of Smackdown. They didn’t announce if they would have eight matches, which may be difficult to do since Smackdown is one hour shorter than Raw.