Who Will Become King and Queen of the Ring in 2026?

WWE Night of Champions is set to host the finals for both the King of the Ring and Queen of the Ring tournaments. The Premium Live Event will take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on June 27th, 2026. Fans can tune in via ESPN+ in the United States and via Netflix worldwide. There has been one qualifying match for each tournament so far from this past Raw. Oba Femi beat former United States Champion Carmelo Hayes and current Intercontinental Champion Penta by pinning former United States Champion Solo Sikoa. Iyo Sky beat former Women’s Tag Team Champions Lash Legend and Roxanne Perez by pinning former Women’s United States Champion Giulia. There are only three weeks between now and Night of Champions, so let’s see who is most likely to walk out of both tournaments with a crown on their head.

There is a major difference between this year’s tournaments and previous iterations. Every first-round match is booked as a Fatal 4-Way. The semifinals and finals are traditional one-on-one matchups. This is important to note because previous King of the Ring and Queen of the Ring matchups were one-on-one. Opening the tournaments with Fatal 4-Ways gives more wrestlers exposure, but it doesn’t work for a couple of reasons. The main reason is the match type’s ruleset. There are no countouts or disqualifications. The first person to score a pinfall or submission is deemed the winner of the entire match in a WWE Fatal 4-Way. A losing wrestler isn’t simply eliminated from the match, with the other wrestlers continuing to compete. The other two wrestlers that aren’t involved in the outcome automatically lose the match as a result. This allows WWE creative to lean into common cop-outs such as distraction, interference, and confusion to give certain participants a reason for losing the match. WWE has enough of that going on, and it could tire out fans with how repetitive the trope has become. The easiest way to improve these first-round matchups is to make them elimination-style, with the loser eliminated while the rest continue. This is how WWE conducts its Survivor Series and Elimination Chamber matches.

King of the Ring

On paper, Femi seems the most likely to win this year’s King of the Ring tournament. He’s ‘The Ruler’, after all. His only main roster defeat is at the hands of Brock Lesnar, and he’s only one of two people in the tournament who can boast that they beat ‘The Beast Incarnate’. Femi will make it to the finals for sure. He will look like a ruler before Lesnar comes in to spoil the night. It makes perfect sense. Femi and Lesnar have a win against each other, and there’s no way WWE is going to drop the ball on a rubber match at a top-rated PLE like SummerSlam. The biggest party of the summer takes place in ‘The Beast’s home state, and it’s only a month out from Night of Champions. The former WWE Champion ruining the former NXT Champion’s supposed-to-be moment seems inevitable. Who would be the next likely king?

WWE usually pushes the winners of King of the Ring and Queen of the Ring. Winners of the tournament were midcard talent who needed that little edge to break into the main event scene. That changed last year when Cody Rhodes earned the crown by pinning former mentor and Legacy stablemate Randy Orton. ‘The American Nightmare’ would go on to beat then-WWE Champion John Cena at last year’s SummerSlam, the first time the King of the Ring winner was a former world champion since Sheamus back in 2010. WWE has quite a few former world champions in both tournaments this year, and it’s a possibility they can go back into that well of thought. Jey Uso makes a lot of sense since his Tribal Chief, Roman Reigns, is currently the World Heavyweight Champion. WWE has slowly introduced an evolution of ‘The Bloodline’ story, so it’s possible they load the family with all the belts possible. It feels like WWE is slowly turning Uso heel, though. Ever since the revival of The Bloodline, the former World Heavyweight Champion has acted more like a tweener leaning heel rather than a pure babyface. Losing during the King of the Ring tournament would further that heel turn. Inaugural WWE Universal Champion Finn Balor would be great to watch since he hasn’t sniffed the main event picture in a long time outside his brief feud with CM Punk. As much as ‘The Prince’ deserves another world title run, this isn’t likely to play out. King Balor does have a good ring to it, though. The same goes for one-half of the SmackDown Tag Team Champions, Damian Priest. He’s currently in an angle with teammate R-Truth and the MFTs. It seems likely they will take Priest out in some capacity to cost him his shot at becoming King of the Ring.

I’m not as keen on the other competitors. For one, the winner between Dominik Mysterio, Bron Breakker, Trick Williams, and Priest has to face ‘The Ruler’ in the semifinals. There’s no shot that The Judgment Day, The Vision, Lil Yachty, or Truth is going to make a meaningful impact against Femi. WWE creative is protecting him at all costs. I would love it if L.A. Knight became king, but WWE has yet to book him properly in the main event scene. The former United States Champion doesn’t have as much time as the other younger wrestlers. He deserves a world title run before he hangs up his boots. Royce Keys, Ricky Saints, Talla Tonga, and Je’Von Evans are all going to be future superstars in the company, but it’s unlikely they’re going to get there from the tournament. They should have strong showings to make an impact on the WWE universe as they start that journey.

Seth Rollins seems poised to be the new King of the Ring. The Grand Slam Champion beat Breakker this past Raw after he smashed his former apprentice with one of the tag team belts. Reigns and Rollins have had one-off interactions since WrestleMania 41, with both men still having hatred for one another. WWE can always return to this feud because of its rich history and the way the company has told the story. They could further the storyline with ‘The Visionary’ getting screwed by his former apprentice over during the former’s future title shot, but unlike ‘The Beast’ screwing ‘The Ruler’ over at Night of Champions, Breakker screwing Rollins over at Night of Champions doesn’t hold a lot of value. It makes more sense for Steiner to screw over his former mentor when the stakes are highest. Rollins could even win the title from Reigns and lose it to Breakker shortly after.

2026 King of the Ring: Seth Rollins

Queen of the Ring

There are a lot of former champions in this tournament, too. Liv Morgan is the current Women’s World Champion; Becky Lynch, Alexa Bliss, Charlotte Flair, Jade Cargill, Bayley, and Sky are all former champions. The first three are in the same first-round qualifying match against Chelsea Green, who seems likely to take the pin from the Women’s World Champion. Lynch just lost her Women’s Intercontinental Championship, and it’s not just her who’s saying it. Sol Ruca snatched ‘The Man’s soul at Clash in Italy this past Sunday. That could be the catalyst for an epic falloff angle that could see Lynch screw Ruca over in the latter’s qualifying match. Bliss is in a feud with Cargill, Michin, and B-Fab alongside tag team partner Flair, and it’s likely that ‘Little Miss Bliss’, ‘The Queen’, and ‘The Storm’ will screw each other over and ruin their chances of becoming Queen of the Ring. Lyra Valkyria just challenged Ruca for the Women’s Intercontinental Championship. She could pull a surprise victory in the qualifying round over Ruca to solidify her reasoning for going after the Women’s Intercontinental Championship. The last qualifying round sees Bayley, Raquel Rodriguez, Jacy Jayne, and Kiana James fight for a spot to face off against ‘The Genius of the Sky’ in the semifinals. Of all the qualifying matchups, this is the hardest to predict. The former women’s champion, or ‘Big Mami Cool’ is the most likely to win the qualifying Fatal 4-Way, but WWE has every reason to put Jayne or James in the semifinals, too. Fatal Influence could easily help Jayne get a win, and James has seen a massive push in her booking since this year’s Women’s Royal Rumble.

This prediction is solely based on the events after the first Queen of the Ring qualifying matchup. Perez walked back into The Judgment Day’s clubhouse, upset with herself after Sky moved on to the semifinals. She was looking for support from Rodriguez, JD McDonagh, and ‘Dom Dom’, saying how she was supposed to be Queen of the Ring. Morgan walked into the clubhouse, talking about how she was getting a crown fitted for her head after becoming Queen of the Ring. ‘Big Mami Cool’ was trying to get the Women’s World Champion to be aware of Perez’s breakdown, but the champ gave a superficial response to her pupil. She said that they’re all a family, to which Perez responded that her ‘family’ wasn’t there ringside when things weren’t going her way. Morgan continued her narcissistic rant about how Judgment Day would have both, since she was going to become Queen and Mysterio would be the King. Rodriguez was perplexed and even questioned Morgan, but the champ appeased all of Judgment Day, saying they were going to get both crowns in any way possible. This angle made it seem like Rodriguez would advance to the semifinals on her own and get help from someone in Judgment Day besides Perez to reach the finals. ‘Roxy’ won’t take part in anything until the final. Morgan and Rodriguez will face each other in the finals, where Perez will screw over Morgan to help ‘Big Mami’ Cool become Queen of the Ring and challenge Morgan for her belt. The three could eventually find their way to fighting for the Women’s World Championship by the end of the year to finally break up The Judgment Day.

2026 Queen of the Ring: Raquel Rodriguez