The 2021King of the Ring was the 22nd edition of theKing of the Ring tournament produced byWWE. It was held between wrestlers from theRaw andSmackDownbrand divisions. Tournament matches began on the October 8, 2021 episode ofSmackDown and continued to be held across episodes ofRaw andSmackDown. The tournament concluded at theCrown Jewelpay-per-view andlivestreaming event on October 21. It was the first King of the Ring tournament since2019. WWE also introduced a female counterpart called theQueen's Crown tournament, which was held simultaneously with the 2021 King of the Ring tournament. Raw'sXavier Woods defeated SmackDown'sFinn Bálor to win the 2021 tournament and subsequently became known as King Woods.
TheKing of the Ring tournament is asingle-elimination tournament that was established byWWE 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-televisedhouse 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-titledpay-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 the2002 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 in2006, which was held exclusively for wrestlers from theSmackDown brand—the2008 and2010 tournaments also featured wrestlers from WWE's other brands. In August 2011, thebrand extension ended with both theRaw andSmackDown television shows featuring the full main roster, but in mid-2016, the brand split was reinstated.[4] The tournament's return for 2021 was confirmed on the October 1 episode ofSmackDown during the first night of the2021 WWE Draft. A women's version of the tournament calledQueen's Crown was also announced and held simultaneously with the men's tournament.[5][6][7]
The 2021 King of the Ring tournament was an eight-man tournament, and like the2019 tournament, there were two brackets, one each for theRaw and SmackDown brands, and the winners of each bracket faced each other in the final. The tournament began on the October 8 episode ofSmackDown and continued to be held across episodes ofRaw andSmackDown. The final was held at theCrown Jewel PPV andlivestreaming event on October 21, 2021.[8]
On the October 22 episode ofSmackDown,The New Day (Kofi Kingston 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.[14] The following week, King Woods knighted Kingston as "Sir Kofi Kingston", the Hand of the King.[15] After taking time off in January due to an injury, Woods returned in March and dropped the king gimmick.
