WWE to return to Saudi Arabia for King and Queen of the Ring

The wrestling event will take place in May at the Jeddah Superdome

Xavier Woods was crowned King of the Ring at Crown Jewel in Riyadh in 2021. Photo: WWE

The WWE is returning to Saudi Arabia for King and Queen of the Ring.

The event will take place at the Jeddah Superdome on May 27 and will be the first live King of the Ring pay-per-view since 2015. Not many details have been released, including which wrestlers will compete.

The last time the WWE crowned a King and Queen of the Ring was at Crown Jewel in October 2021 in Riyadh, with Xavier Woods defeating Finn Balor in the men’s match and Zelina Vega beating Doudrop in the women’s.

This will be the ninth WWE event held in Saudi Arabia after a 10-year partnership was signed between the American wrestling promotion and the country’s Ministry of Sport in 2018. In 2019, it was announced that the WWE had expanded its partnership to hold two "large-scale" shows in the country every year until 2027.

The most recent event was the Crown Jewel. That bout also featured WWE Undisputed Universal champion Roman Reigns, who defeated Logan Paul in the main event.

History of WWE’s King and Queen of the Ring

The event is a single-elimination wrestling match tournament that began in 1985 and was held annually until 1991, with the exception of 1990.

It was then turned into an annual pay-per-view in 1993, with qualifying matches taking place on the weekly shows and the final few matches, such as the semi-finals and final occurring on the pay-per-view model, with a King and later Queen of the Ring being crowned.

The show was an annual pay-per-view until 2002 and was brought back again in 2015, before being announced for Saudi Arabia this year.