WWE has made a habit of delivering satisfying secondary premium live events, and King and Queen of the Ring was no different.
They gave us two intriguing winners to the tournaments in Nia Jax and Gunther — both of whom earned championship matches at SummerSlam — despite some passed-over controversy on the men’s side.
Gunther may be the most interesting because it puts him on the fast track to becoming a world champion in the company just months after losing his Intercontinental championship at WrestleMania.
We got an expected title change when Liv Morgan took down Becky Lynch, and it laid out the start of her storyline for Rhea Ripley’s eventual return.
The Intercontinental championship feud added another layer, and Cody Rhodes and Logan Paul put on a fun and chaotic main event.
WWE leaves Saudi Arabia in a solid place creatively with Jax, Gunther and Morgan in place heading into the summer.
Uncle Howdy was not delivered despite the QR code teases increasing in frequency and detail of late.
Here are five takeaways from the event in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Saturday.
Controversial crowning
The King of the Ring final didn’t come without controversy. Gunther pinned Randy Orton after kicking out of an RKO because he punched the injured knee injury Orton was selling from his run-in with the Bloodline on SmackDown and his opponent worked throughout the match.
Gunther immediately jumped on Orton and stacked him up for a pin to win the tournament. But Orton’s shoulder was clearly way off the mat, and the referee was in perfect position to see it.
Gunther also made no effort to push the shoulder down, making it seem this is what WWE wanted.
Triple H addressed the controversy on social media after the event, saying the referee’s decision would stand. He did tease a rematch at some point between Orton and Gunther, but not for the right to call themselves King of the Ring. It will however add anticipation for Orton’s return.
The match itself told the story of Gunther continuing to reinjure Orton’s knee in a very physical contest. Orton hit RKOs twice, the first time being unable to get to the cover because of the knee.
After the match, Gunther announced he would be challenging for the World Heavyweight championship at SummerSlam and not the Undisputed WWE championship.
That’s bad news for whoever holds the World Heavyweight championship at that time.
Damian Priest and Drew McIntyre will battle for the title at Clash at the Castle in Glasgow, Scotland, on June 15. But the King of the Ring result makes it feel as if Gunther is on the fast track to become the world champion this summer.
Helping hand delivers gold
Morgan’s revenge tour had a successful first stop as she defeated Lynch to become the women’s world champion, but not without some conspicuous help from Dominik Mysterio.
Mysterio said earlier in the show he flew to Saudi Arabia to ensure Morgan didn’t leave with Rhea Ripley’s championship. Even so, his actions raise a ton of questions.
There are multiple times throughout the match where Morgan thought she did enough to win, but Lynch was able to kick out — leading at one point to a mini temper tantrum in the ring.
Mysterio appeared ringside when Becky Lynch had Morgan locked in Dis-Arm-Her submission and ended up distracting the champion. He later threw a chair into the ring for Lynch to use, likely knowing she would refuse, as she did — arguing with Mysterio instead.
It opened the door for Morgan to hit a DDT onto the chair and then Oblivion to defeat Lynch to become a world champion for the second time in her career.
Remember a few weeks ago when Mysterio was seen on Raw coming out of the same locker room as Morgan. This really feels like the two are working together and leading to a bigger storyline when Ripley returns from injury.
After the match, Lynch reamed out Mysterio backstage and said she was going to enact her rematch clause.
Unde-Nia-ble
Jax added some validation to her successful return to the company since the Royal Rumble by becoming just the second-ever Queen of the Ring and immediately challenging Bayley for the WWE Women’s championship at SummerSlam.
She is having some of the best matches of her career and would give Bayley — if she’s still holding the belt in August — a true heel to feud with at SummerSlam. Their last singles match came in 2019.
Jax is also going to have a ton of fun taunting crowds with her crown all summer, which already began after Triple H handed it to her.
She won when Lyra Valkyria was attempting to flip under Jax for a powerbomb off the top rope. Instead, Jax got her footing on the second rope and slammed her butt down onto her opponent’s chest for a gnarly-looking Annihilator. Jax sat down demonstratively with her arms folded just like Yokozuna used to.
This was a really strong outing for Valkyria, who bounced around the ring pulling off moves, sold well and aided in making Jax look good at times. The veteran NXT call-up continues to proved she is a top-level worker.
Letting a breakup brew
WWE delivered a pretty much perfect ending to its Intercontinental Championship triple-threat match, which was arguably the match of the night.
Chad Gable again tried to get Otis’s help to win. The big man was eager to take out Bronson Reed, but reluctant to hit Sami Zayn after apologizing to him for his interference earlier in the week on Raw.
After Otis initially held back from delivering a clothesline to Zayne on the outside, Gable lit into him — telling him to “wake up” and eventually slapping him.
Otis finally relented, but instead of clotheslining Zayn, he hit Gable when the champ ducked.
It knocked Gable out of the match and allowed the champion to get back into the ring. Zayn then delivered a Helluva kick to Reed to retain the championship.
This was perfect because it allowed for a one-on-one rematch between Zayn and Gable and gives some proper time to build the story of Otis eventually having enough of Gable. It should allow for a bigger pop when that moment happens instead of wasting it here.
This match was excellent as the three men really took advantage of the triple-threat format.
There was one point where we got double moonsaults from Gable and Reed. Gable also suplexed both Reed and Zayn at the same time in what was the move of the match.
Rhodes map — with detours
The Rhodes-Paul main event was action-packed and certainly exciting at times. But, man, this was full of a lot of extracurricular stuff.
Paul, of course, went back on his agreement not to use his signature brass knuckles, getting slipped them by his business manager Jeff ringside. He eventually punched Rhodes in the ribs on the outside.
Rhodes later accidentally knocked out the referee briefly, leading to him being unable to successfully pin Paul after hitting a Cross Rhodes.
Paul delivered a low blow and was looking to use the brass knuckles again.
That’s when guest ring announcer and Saudi Arabian actor Ibrahim Al Hajjaj held Paul’s foot and kept him from punching Rhodes one more time.
It gave the champion the opening he needed to deliver the triple Cross Rhodes — a great show of respect to Paul — to put the United States Champion down for a feel-good victory to end the show and retain the Undisputed WWE championship. The champ even told Paul, “I’m Cody Rhodes, bitch,” to hammer things home.
Who is next for Rhodes is anyone’s guess. Maybe they still start a program with Orton at some point, but WWE has time.
This one did have plenty of action with Paul delivering a top-rope Frog Splash — which got some special 360 camera work on Rhodes through the announce table. Rhodes delivered an extremely rare Vertebreaker move.
Paul also delivered one of the best sells for a Figure Four in a while, complaining to the ref to tell Rhodes to take it off and telling Cody he was going to break his leg.
Other Matches
Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill over Indi Hatwelll and Candice LeRae to retain the WWE women’s tag team championships
This was a really good match for Belair, who was out there pulling off power moves and scoring the pin even while working a knee injury.
WWE is still taking the less-is-more approach with Cargill, who rattled off some familiar offense after a hot tag in this kickoff show match.
Cargill and Belair continue to be creative in their tandem offense, and the finish was no different: They pulled off a cool-looking assisted DDT-suplex combo. There two are developing good chemistry little by little.
Biggest Winner: Gunther
Biggest Loser: Bronson Reed
Best Match: Cody Rhodes vs. Logan Paul
Grade: B+
