The 2021 King of the Ring was the 22nd edition of the

King of the Ring tournament The King of the Ring tournament is a men's professional wrestling single-elimination tournament held periodically by WWE, a Connecticut-based professional wrestling promotion. Established in 1985, the winner of the inaugural tournament was Do ...

produced by WWE. It was held between wrestlers from the Raw and

SmackDown ''WWE SmackDown'', also known as ''Friday Night SmackDown'' or simply ''SmackDown'', is an American professional wrestling television program produced by WWE that as of currently airs live every Friday at 8 p.m. ET on Fox. Fox Deportes sim ...

brand divisions. Tournament matches began on the October 8, 2021 episode of ''

'' and continued to be held across episodes of '' Raw'' and ''SmackDown''. The tournament concluded at the Crown Jewel

pay-per-view Pay-per-view (PPV) is a type of pay television or webcast service that enables a viewer to pay to watch individual events via private telecast. Events can be purchased through a multichannel television platform using their electronic program g ...

and

livestreaming Livestreaming is streaming media simultaneously recorded and broadcast in real-time over the internet. It is often referred to simply as streaming. Non-live media such as video-on-demand, vlogs, and YouTube videos are technically streamed, but n ...

event on October 21. It was the first King of the Ring tournament since

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

. WWE also introduced a female counterpart called the Queen's Crown tournament, which was held simultaneously with the 2021 King of the Ring tournament. Raw's

Xavier Woods Austin Watson (born September 4, 1986) is an American professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the NXT brand under the ring name Xavier Woods. He appeared on WWE's NXT brand as one-half of the current NXT Tag ...

defeated SmackDown's

Finn Bálor Fergal Devitt (born 25 July 1981) is an Irish professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the Raw brand under the ring name Finn Bálor (), and is a member of The Judgment Day. Devitt is widely known for his t ...

to win the 2021 tournament and subsequently became known as King Woods.

Background

The

is a

single-elimination tournament A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final mat ...

that was established by WWE in 1985 with the winner being crowned "King of the Ring." It was held annually until 1991, with the exception of 1990. These early tournaments were held as special non-televised house shows and were held when the promotion was still called the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, renamed to WWE in 2002). In 1993, the promotion began to produce the King of the Ring tournament as a self-titled

(PPV). Unlike the previous non-televised events, the PPV did not feature all of the tournament's matches. Instead, several of the qualifying matches preceded the event with the final few match then taking place at the pay-per-view. There were also other matches that took place at the event as it was a traditional three-hour pay-per-view.

King of the Ring King of the Ring was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and WWE Network event produced by WWE, a Connecticut-based professional wrestling promotion. The PPV event was held annually in June and was established in 1993 when the promotion ...

continued as the annual June PPV until the 2002 event, which was the final King of the Ring produced as a PPV. Following the conclusion of the PPV chronology, the tournament began to be held periodically every few years, first making its return in

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro votes to declare independence from Serbia; The 2006 ...

, which was held exclusively for wrestlers from the

brand—the

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

and

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

tournaments also featured wrestlers from WWE's other brands. In August 2011, the

brand extension Brand extension or brand stretching is a marketing strategy in which a firm marketing a product with a well-developed image uses the same brand name in a different product category. The new product is called a spin-off. Organizations use thi ...

ended with both the '' Raw'' and ''

'' television shows featuring the full main roster, but in mid-2016, the brand split was reinstated. The tournament's return for 2021 was confirmed on the October 1 episode of ''SmackDown'' during the first night of the

2021 WWE Draft The 2021 WWE Draft was the 16th WWE Draft produced by the American professional wrestling promotion WWE between their Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. The two-night event began with the October 1 episode of '' Friday Night SmackDown'' (in Ba ...

. A women's version of the tournament called Queen's Crown was also announced and held simultaneously with the men's tournament. The 2021 King of the Ring tournament was an eight-man tournament, and like the 2019 tournament, there were two brackets, one each for the Raw and SmackDown brands, and the winners of each bracket faced each other in the final. The tournament began on the October 8 episode of ''SmackDown'' and continued to be held across episodes of ''Raw'' and ''SmackDown''. The final was held at the Crown Jewel PPV and

event on October 21, 2021.

Bracket

Aftermath

On the October 22 episode of ''SmackDown'', The New Day (

Kofi Kingston Kofi Nahaje Sarkodie-Mensah (born August 14, 1981) is a Ghanaian-born American professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the NXT brand under the ring name Kofi Kingston. He appeared on WWE's NXT brand as one-ha ...

and Xavier Woods) had a coronation to formally crown Woods for winning the 2021 King of the Ring tournament. Kingston introduced Woods, now adopting the name of King Woods, who was adorned with the crown, cape, and king's scepter. The following week, King Woods knighted Kingston as "Sir Kofi Kingston", the Hand of the King. After taking time off in January due to an injury, Woods returned in March and dropped the king gimmick.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:King Of The Ring (2021) 2021 in professional wrestling

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...

October 2021 events in the United States

Background

Bracket

Aftermath

See also

References