There is new speculation on WWE possibly bringing back the King of the Ring tournament this year after comments made by Adam Pearce, Xavier Woods, and King Baron Corbin.
Corbin appeared on WWE’s The Bump this morning for an interview as he prepares to put his crown on the line against Shinsuke Nakamura on Friday’s WWE SmackDown. Kayla Braxton brought up how Xavier Woods is interested in becoming King of the Ring, something he has talked about as a career goal in media interviews for several years now. Corbin was asked if this is the first time since becoming King of the Ring that he’s felt real heat of being on the throne.
“No, I think that everybody’s kind of had their eye on it, just like people do with championship titles,” Corbin said of the crown. “They want an opportunity at that, they want a chance, they want to earn it, they want to own it, and I think that’s what the crowd does to people, and then you have people that are cowards, like Shinsuke, that want to steal it, but at least Xavier Woods wants to earn an opportunity to wear the crown. I think that’s important to him, to his career, and I’m happy to make it a disappointment, a regret in his long career that he will have, that he came up short in a tournament that he cares so dearly about.
“But the tournament is what’s necessary to wear that crown, and I won it. If you want a shot, you talk to somebody, maybe cry to a few people, and try to get another tournament set up. Xavier Woods, I would love to face him in that tournament, absolutely. It could be in the finals, it could be first round. I mean, his dream will be cut short, but I’m happy to do it. I’m happy to defend it in the right circumstances.”
Pearce responded to Corbin’s interview and said they have had many conversations about King of the Ring and his crown. Pearce also indicated that there may be more to come as he told fans to stay tuned.
“I know that I have had many conversations with @BaronCorbinWWE on this very topic. Stay tuned,” Pearce wrote.
A fan on Twitter wrote how Pearce suggested that a King of the Ring tournament could be in the works. Pearce dismissed those comments.
Pearce wrote back, “Adam Pearce didn’t ‘suggest’ anything.”
Woods responded to Pearce’s initial response to the Corbin interview and mentioned how he wants the KOTR tournament to return, especially after he never got his intergender singles match against Reckoning of the now-defunct RETRIBUTION group.
“Since I couldn’t get my logical match against reckoning it would be greeeaaaatttttt if we could get this one right. GIVE ME A #KOTR TOURNAMENT. please and thank you sir,” Woods wrote to Pearce.
Pearce responded to Woods and wrote, “Should a #KOTR Tournament come to pass, it wouldn’t just be for you. It’d be for us all, my friend.”
Woods also responded to the interview comments from Corbin, promising to make him bend the knee if the KOTR tournament does return.
“When the tournament does happen, please believe that I’ll be the one forcing @BaronCorbinWWE to bend the knee #RespectTheCrown,” Woods wrote.
The King of the Ring tournament was held almost yearly in the late 80s and the 90s, and then from 2000-2002, 2006, 2008, 2010, and 2015. The tournament returned in 2019 with Corbin getting the win, defeating Chad Gable in the finals. The 2015 KOTR event was the last to be held as a WWE Network or pay-per-view (the quarterfinals aired on RAW, the rest on the WWE Network). The 2019 tournament was held over several RAW and SmackDown episodes.
There’s no word yet on if WWE has plans to bring King of the Ring back this year, but we will keep you updated.
Stay tuned for more. You can see the related posts below, along with Corbin’s GIF replies to Woods and Pearce:
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