King of the Ring
Official logo of the 2015 King of the Ring tournament
Promotion	WWE
Date	April 27–28, 2015
City	Green Bay, Wisconsin (April 27) Moline, Illinois (April 28)
Venue	Resch Center (April 27) iWireless Center (April 28)
WWE event chronology
← Previous Extreme Rules Next → Payback
King of the Ring event chronology
← Previous 2002 Next → 2024
King of the Ring tournament chronology
← Previous 2010 Next → 2019

The 2015King of the Ring was aprofessional wrestling event produced byWWE. It was the 11thKing of the Ring event and was held on Tuesday, April 28, 2015, at theiWireless Center inMoline, Illinois. Unlike previous King of the Ring events, which aired on traditionalpay-per-view (PPV) from 1993 to 2002, the 2015 event waslivestreamed exclusively on WWE's online service, theWWE Network, which made it the first King of the Ring event to air on the platform, as well as the first dedicated King of the Ring event since2002. The event featured the semifinals and finals of the 20thKing of the Ring tournament, which was won byBad News Barrett, who defeatedNeville in the final and subsequently became known as King Barrett.

The opening round matches for the tournament were held on the April 27, 2015, episode ofMonday Night Raw, which aired on theUSA Network from theResch Center inGreen Bay, Wisconsin. This was the first tournament held since 2010 and the last to have a separate dedicated event until 2024; the event was planned to be revived in 2023 but was canceled and rescheduled for 2024 titledKing and Queen of the Ring to incorporate the women'sQueen of the Ring tournament, which was established as a female counterpart in 2021. This was also the only tournament held since the end of the firstbrand extension in 2011, which was reintroduced in 2016.

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 matches 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] The King of the Ring PPV was considered one of the promotion's "Big Five" PPVs, along withWrestleMania,SummerSlam,Survivor Series, andRoyal Rumble.^[3]

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.^[4] 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 April 2011, WWE ceased using its full name of World Wrestling Entertainment with "WWE" becoming anorphaned initialism.^[5] That August, the brand extension ended with both theRaw andSmackDown television shows featuring the full main roster. The 2015 tournament was the 20th King of the Ring tournament. It was held over two nights. The opening round matches were held on the April 27, 2015, episode ofRaw, which aired on theUSA Network from theResch Center inGreen Bay, Wisconsin. The semifinals and final were then held the following day on April 28 from theiWireless Center inMoline, Illinois before aSmackDown taping andaired live on WWE'slivestreaming service, theWWE Network, which launched in February 2014. It was the first King of the Ring to have a separate dedicated event since the 2002 PPV, as well as the first to air on the WWE Network.^[6][7]

Raw (Quarter-final matches) – April 27

WWE Network event (Semi-final and final matches) – April 28

In July 2016, the brand extension was reinstated, with WWE's main roster again divided between theRaw and SmackDown brands.^[8] The next King of the Ring tournament was then held in 2019 and was an interbrand tournament, featuring wrestlers from both brands. Each brand had a separate bracket, and the winners of each bracket faced off in the tournament final. Qualifying matches for the2019 tournament began in August and took place across episodes ofRaw andSmackDown. The tournament final was originally scheduled to be held at that year'sClash of Champions PPV, but was rescheduled for the following night'sRaw on September 16, 2019.^[1][9][10]

After eight years, the event was planned to return to PPV and livestreaming in 2023, with that year's event rebranded as "King and Queen of the Ring" to incorporate the women'sQueen's Crown tournament that was established in 2021.^[11] However, on April 13, it was revealed that WWE decided to scrap the revival and would instead holdNight of Champions, thus reviving theNight of Champions event.^[12] It was reported that the decision to change the event to Night of Champions was a creative choice to revive and bring that event to an international market,^[13] as well as to please business partners inSaudi Arabia and add intrigue to the show with the crowning of a newWorld Heavyweight Champion.^[14]Fightful later reported that WWE did not have plans to reschedule King and Queen of the Ring for later that year, but the event could possibly be used for a futureSaudi Arabian show.^[15]King and Queen of the Ring was then rescheduled for Saudi Arabia in May 2024.^[16]

• King of the Ring
• 2015 WWE Network events
• Organized events in Moline, Illinois
• Professional wrestling shows in Wisconsin
• Professional wrestling shows in Illinois
• Green Bay, Wisconsin
• 2015 in Wisconsin
• 2015 in Illinois
• April 2015 in the United States

• Use mdy dates from July 2021
• Articles with short description
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