WWE Rebrands Previously Announced King And Queen Of The Ring Event

Back in March, WWE announced that on May 27, "live from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, it's all happening in Jeddah. All hail!" before making its King and Queen of the Ring event official. Thursday evening, however, WWE announced a change of plans.

"The May 27th Premium Live Event in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia will now be WWE Night of Champions!" the official WWE account tweeted.

That said, there is no word yet on whether or not the King and Queen of the Ring tournaments (or perhaps finals) will take place that night or be moved. In February, it was reported that WWE was looking to bring back the tournaments in May, three weeks after the Backlash premium live event took place in San Juan, Puerto Rico. From 1993 until 2002, the King of the Ring was largely its own event, but its significance waned over the past twenty years. That was until 2021 when at WWE Crown Jewel, Xavier Woods defeated Finn Balor to become the new king while Zelina Vega knocked off Piper Niven (then known as Doudrop) in the first-ever Queen's Crown tournament final.

What has remained throughout was the likelihood of the event taking place in Saudi Arabia, where to this date WWE has run eight premium live events. That is still the case going forward, despite the rebranding for the evening. At the time when King and Queen of the Ring tournament rumors were beginning to swirl, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund still reportedly had a "definite interest" in purchasing WWE. However, it was announced earlier this month, that WWE had been purchased by Endeavor and will be merged with UFC.