King of the Ring (2019)

Last updated
King of the Ring
KOTR19Poster.jpg
Promotional poster featuring the tournament participants
Promotion WWE
Brand(s) Raw
SmackDown
DateAugust 19 – September 16, 2019
CitySee Locations
VenueSee Locations
King of the Ring tournament chronology
 Previous
2015
Next 
2021
King of the Ring (2019)
Tournament information
Sport Professional wrestling
Location
DatesAugust 19, 2019–September 16, 2019
Tournament
format(s)
Single elimination tournament
Participants16
Final positions
Champion Baron Corbin
Runner-up Chad Gable
Tournament statistics
Matches played15
  2015
2021  

The 2019 King of the Ring was the 21st edition of the King of the Ring tournament produced by WWE and was held for wrestlers from the Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. Tournament matches began on the August 19, 2019 episode of Raw and continued to be held across episodes of Raw and SmackDown over the next month. The tournament final was originally scheduled to be held at the Clash of Champions pay-per-view, but was rescheduled for the following night's Raw on September 16, 2019 at the Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville, Tennessee. It was the first King of the Ring tournament since 2015 and the first held since the brand extension was reinstated in 2016. The tournament featured 16 wrestlers, evenly divided into two brackets, one for Raw and the other for SmackDown, with the winners of each bracket facing each other in the final. The winner of the 2019 tournament was Baron Corbin from Raw, defeating SmackDown's Chad Gable in the final. Corbin subsequently became known as King Corbin and continued this persona until June 2021.

Contents

Background

The King of the Ring tournament is a single-elimination tournament 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). [1] In 1993, the promotion began to produce the King of the Ring tournament as a self-titled pay-per-view (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. [2]

King of the Ring continued as the annual June PPV until the 2002 event, which was the final King of the Ring produced as a PPV. [3] Following the conclusion of the PPV chronology, the tournament began to be held periodically every few years, first making its return in 2006, which was held exclusively for wrestlers from the SmackDown! brand—the 2008 and 2010 tournaments also featured wrestlers from WWE's other brands. In August 2011, the brand extension ended with both the Raw and SmackDown television shows featuring the full main roster, but in mid-2016, the brand split was reinstated. [4] On the August 12, 2019 episode of Raw, it was announced that the King of the Ring tournament would be returning for the first time since 2015. [5] [6] Later that night, the competitors for the 21st King of the Ring tournament were confirmed; [7] a few days later, the 16-man bracket was officially revealed, evenly divided between Raw and SmackDown. [8] The tournament began on August 19 and occurred across episodes of Raw and SmackDown, with the winners of each brand's bracket facing off in the final. The final was originally scheduled to occur at the Clash of Champions PPV on September 15, 2019, [9] but was rescheduled for the following night's Raw on September 16 in Knoxville, Tennessee at the Thompson-Boling Arena. [10]

Bracket

Baron Corbin, the winner of the 2019 King of the Ring tournament Baron Corbin WWE Live 2019.jpg
Baron Corbin, the winner of the 2019 King of the Ring tournament
First round
Raw / SmackDown
8/19/19, [11] [12] 8/20/19, [13]
8/26/19, [14] 8/27/19 [15]
Quarter-finals
Raw / SmackDown
9/2/19, [16] 9/3/19 [17]
Semi-finals
Raw / SmackDown
9/9/19, [18] 9/10/19 [19] [20]
Final
Raw
9/16/19 [21]
        
Cesaro 10:00
Samoa Joe Sub
Samoa Joe Draw [lower-alpha 1]
Ricochet 16:00
Ricochet Pin
Drew McIntyre 14:10
Samoa Joe
Ricochet
14:40
Raw
Baron Corbin Pin [lower-alpha 2]
Cedric Alexander Pin
Sami Zayn 3:35
Cedric Alexander 14:30
Baron Corbin Pin
The Miz 10:00
Baron Corbin Pin
Baron Corbin Pin
Chad Gable 19:10
Kevin Owens 13:25
Elias Pin [lower-alpha 3]
Elias Pin
Ali 11:30
Ali Pin
Buddy Murphy 11:32
Shane McMahon [lower-alpha 4] 8:54 [lower-alpha 5]
SmackDown
Chad Gable Sub [lower-alpha 6]
Chad Gable Pin
Shelton Benjamin 3:52
Chad Gable Pin
Andrade 7:55
Apollo Crews 9:40
Andrade Pin
  1. Match ended in a double pinfall with both men advancing to the semi-finals.
  2. This was a triple threat match.
  3. Shane McMahon made himself special guest referee during the match.
  4. Elias was forced to withdraw from the tournament due to suffering an ankle injury and McMahon made himself his replacement.
  5. McMahon made this a two-out-of-three falls match after originally losing to Gable.
  6. McMahon made Kevin Owens the special guest referee.

    Aftermath

    After winning the tournament, Corbin would dub himself King Corbin [22] and would continue to feud with Chad Gable, the tournament runner-up. At Hell in a Cell, Gable would defeat Corbin. [23] At Corbin's request, Gable was announced as Shorty Gable due to his small stature. Gable would embrace this nickname and later change it further to "Shorty G". [24] Corbin would later defeat Shorty G on the October 11 episode of SmackDown to end the feud. [25]

    In December 2020, King Corbin started a faction with Steve Cutler and Wesley Blake, knighting them as the "Knights of the Lone Wolf" (with lone wolf a reference to his previous nickname), although this would be short-lived as Cutler was released by WWE in February 2021. [26] Corbin's king gimmick ended in June 2021 after he lost his King of the Ring crown in a match to Shinsuke Nakamura, who then took on a king persona, being called King Nakamura; Corbin subsequently reverted to his original ring name, Baron Corbin. [27] On October 8, 2021, just prior to the start of the 2021 tournament that night, Nakamura respectfully relinquished the crown and reverted to his original ring name of Shinsuke Nakamura. [28]

    Locations

    Tournament RoundDate(s)City(s)Venue(s)Event(s)
    FirstAugust 19, 2019 Saint Paul, Minnesota Xcel Energy Center Raw
    August 20, 2019 Sioux Falls, South Dakota Denny Sanford Premier Center SmackDown
    August 26, 2019 New Orleans, Louisiana Smoothie King Center Raw
    August 27, 2019 Baton Rouge, Louisiana Raising Cane's River Center Arena SmackDown
    Quarter-finalsSeptember 2, 2019 Baltimore, Maryland Royal Farms Arena Raw
    September 3, 2019 Norfolk, Virginia Norfolk Scope SmackDown
    Semi-finalsSeptember 9, 2019 New York City [19] [29] Madison Square Garden Raw
    September 10, 2019 SmackDown
    FinalSeptember 16, 2019 Knoxville, Tennessee Thompson-Boling Arena Raw

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