WWE King of the Ring results (2024) and commentary from Danny Damage!
Previously On…
WWE King and Queen of the Ring is a stupid, unnecessarily wordy name for a PPV/PLE which should perish in the flames of the forced equity fad. I refuse to waste my breath (and fingers) calling it something that will probably be dropped in the future when someone in charge comes to the same conclusion.
Yes, women are a big part of the world and of pro wrestling, but forcing an equal 50/50 split of the wrestling business is dumb. I said this years ago when Stephanie McMahon invented women’s wrestling and the Divas (apparently) evolved into female combatants.
I say “apparently” because many of the fairer sex today still chose to compete for the World Arse Cheek Championship and encourage the average indie/AEW fan to gawk at their bits and not their move-set. Now, this isn’t exclusive to Arena Emptying Wrestling, but it’s a big part of the scene over there. On the other side of the tracks, WWE also has many devoted to this discipline, even if they are trained so much better.
I know loads of you get wowsers in your trousers for a scantily clad blonde Bratz doll who looks like she’s been sedated for nefarious purposes, but Liv “Torture Porn” Morgan is one of the guiltiest culprits of this. She’s had plenty of time to prove to those without erections that she’s competent in the ring, yet has failed to do so.
If she enjoys pretending to be hurt, crying and crawling away like she’s in some type of horror flick, that’s fine, but there are plenty of other places for this. It doesn’t need to get in the way of my wrestling. Love or hate Ronda Rousey, Morgan beat the legit MMA star on multiple occasions and she’s still one of the least convincing fighters on the roster. So, what was the point?
There are others who act like they want to be taken seriously, but the sex-fuelled culture of WWE’s previous leadership was to blame for being reduced to objects of public sexual gratification.
Take Naomi for example. Before she and Sasha Banks ran screaming from WWE, she looked disappointed that her entire gimmick revolved around her being a glow-in-the-dark go-go dancer who rubbed her downstairs on every entrance ramp she ran/slid down, often leaving a snail trail for some poor soul to clean up.
Naomi put some distance between herself and WWE and had the chance for reinvention in TNA/the indie scene. Fast forward to her return to WWE (post-Vince McMahon) and what do we have? A glow-in-the-dark go-go dancer who can’t resist shaking her arse (and sometimes smoothing her opponent with it) at every opportunity. </hopes for being impressed>
IMO, Naomi hit the nail on the head when she teamed up with Tamina and tried to be a heel for a couple of months. She was serious, intimidating and relatively convincing. Now, I just see dance moves and her eyes looking at where to place her feet, not someone supposedly in a fight.
Such a shame, and by this point, just another case of “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know” is responsible for her presence. See also: her husband.
WWE King of the Ring Results (2024)
As I was waiting around for the show to start, I caught most of the kick-off show. Jade Cargill and Bianca Belair got a nice, quick win and they established a double-team move as a finisher.
On top of that, the full body suits that prevent heads in the live Saudi crowd from exploding/rolling may have helped the quality of the match somewhat too. What I mean by this is that not stressing about your chest meat falling out of your top may offer your subconscious the chance to focus entirely on the job at hand, especially when you’re still rather new to everything.
Good stuff.
Becky Lynch vs. Liv Morgan (Women’s World Title)
Winner: Liv Morgan (pinfall)
Becky’s ring gear looked like a tuxedo and it was very distracting. It looked so out of place and Liv’s red gimp suit didn’t do much to help either. It felt like they should have been rolling around and hair-pulling on a low-budget movie set in attire like that and not in front of all these people in a professional wrestling ring.
Anyway, the crowd was really into the match and behind Becky from the moment they popped at her entrance music. There were a few guys with tingles in their undercarriage who cheered for Morgan, but Lynch had the overall support of the building.
Becky looked to have the match won when she had Liv in a submission hold, but Dominik Mysterio’s arrival caused Lynch to forget she was in a scrap and she turned her focus onto Dom.
Mysterio slid in a chair behind the referee’s back, which landed in front of a confused Becky. This allowed Liv to DDT Lynch onto said chair, fail miserably at throwing the chair out of the ring, and hit her shitty finish on Becky to steal the belt.
I guess WWE heard all the meltdowns and tantrums from the rabid Liv Morgan fanbase around her WrestleMania absence. They should just ignore them and let them tire themselves out.
Sami Zayn vs. Chad Gable vs. Bronson Reed (Intercontinental Title)
Winner: Sami Zayn (pinfall)
On their way down to the ring, Chad Gable told Otis to wait until the correct time to get involved. Otis adhered to this and stood still for most of the match, despite it being no-DQ/triple threat rules.
As expected, there was too much indie stupidity in this one; which was sad as there were some decent bits to it too. Three-way submissions and throws come off looking cheesy as hell and they shouldn’t be getting shit like this on Chad Gable after years of misusing him as Shorty G, the Shush Guy, and so on.
After the chaotic triple threat had gone on for a while, Gable told Otis that it was time. Otis took down Bronson on the outside, so Gable threw Zayn to him for some more of the same. Otis refused to hurt Sami, so Chad got in his sidekick’s face, shoved him around and slapped him. Otis then decided he could take a swing at Zayn, but his clothesline hit Gable when Zayn ducked.
Back in the ring, Reed was recovering from Otis’ assault, Sami capitalised and beat him with a Helluva Kick to retain his belt.
Nia Jax vs. Lyra Valkyria (QotR Final)
Winner: Nia Jax (pinfall)
It’s become clear that the slight bit of improvement from Nia Jax seen when fighting Rhea Ripley in Australia wasn’t just a fluke.
Since returning, Jax has trimmed down some more and she seems more mobile around the ring. She looks to be taking her job more seriously and has even picked up a couple of new things. Good for her.
What started to spoil this match for me wasn’t Jax or her coming close to injuring her opponent, but the unbelievable nature of what was in front of our eyes. Not everyone can have a Rey Mysterio reverses EVERYthing/father play-fighting with his small child style of wrestling match. Hell, most of Rey’s moves make me tune out if the opponent is too much bigger than him as (IMO) he/his style exposes the business more than most.
Last year’s Queen of the Ring final featured too much of this nonsense with Zelina Vega vs. Doudrop/Piper Niven, but at least WWE didn’t repeat the outcome this year.
Lyra tried to turn a Super Samoan Drop into a Sunset Bomb, but Jax blocked it and splatted her with a Banzai Drop where she stood.
Post-match, Triple H walked down to hug the winner and place the crown on her head.
People aren’t going to care about this year’s Queen of the Ring pretty soon, so giving it to Nia for some heat is a good idea.
Backstage Banter:
Becky Lynch kicked off at Dominik Mysterio and then told Byron Saxton that she’d be making use of her rematch clause on Monday Night Raw in a few days.
Gunther vs. Randy Orton (KotR Final)
Winner: Gunther (pinfall)
Unlike most guys on the roster, Randy Orton doesn’t look small stood next to Gunther. It’s really easy to forget just how big a lad Randy is.
Once the contest started, they had a nice classic wrestling match, where they sized each other up for a while…AND THEN THE CHOPS STARTED.
Orton’s face told a story, before his near-bloody chest took over narrating it. Randy went for an RKO a little too early in the fight, so Gunther stepped back and allowed Orton to crash and burn, hurting himself in the process.
From that point, Gunther worked on Randy’s back and tormented him for some time. Once Orton saw an opening, he managed to hit an RKO, but he was in too much pain to crawl over for the pin. Gunther rolled out of the ring and forced Randy to chase him.
Orton back-dropped Gunther onto the commentator’s table a few times before getting back into the ring, but Gunther recovered quicker than Orton’s back allowed him to and the tables turned again.
Now, Gunther damaged Randy’s leg and tried to pull it off with a few single-leg Boston Crabs. Once again, Orton opportunistically struck with an RKO, but his messed up leg caused him to hold a weak pin attempt, which Gunther reversed and pinned Randy with a crucifix.
Triple H didn’t attempt to place the crown on Gunther and just handed it to him. Gunther refused to put the hideous bit of stage jewellery on his head and held it up in the air instead.
Cody Rhodes vs. Logan Paul (Undisputed Title)
Winner: Cody Rhodes (pinfall)
Although we all knew that Cody wasn’t going to lose his belt so soon after finally taking it from Roman Reigns, everyone involved did a great job of dangling a few brief moments of doubt in our faces and making this match feel serious.
In the opening minutes, the guys wrestled around and showed each other what they had. Logan managed to shine, showing that he’d done his homework and was telegraphing a lot of Cody’s arsenal. As per a recent interview with Michael Cole, he was trying to prove the point that he doesn’t need to cheat.
After this was established, one of Paul’s pals on the front row handed him a pair of brass knuckles when Cody and the referee had their backs turned. Cody came flying towards Logan, but his stomach/ribs ate a fist full of brass enhancement.
This caused Cole to start jumping up and down and lecturing Logan about breaking his promise. As Paul went over to gob off at the commentary team, Cody had recovered and launched himself out of the ring and onto his opponent.
Logan then attempted to Pedigree Rhodes through the announce table while shouting “Logan-Paul-Levesque era”, but Cody surprised him with a Cutter instead. The referee would have counted Paul out, but Rhodes stopped the count at nine and insisted on beating him in the ring.
This act almost backfired on the champion when Logan regained control and frog-splashed Cody through the Arabic announce table, but he could only get a two-count.
Next, the referee took a bump, so Paul landed a low blow and pulled the brass knucks out of his tights. Then, Ibrahim al Hajjaj, the local hero/Arabic special guest ring announcer who was still at ringside, grabbed Logan’s foot and sacrificed himself to buy Cody a few seconds.
Once Paul refocused on his opponent, Rhodes had regained his senses, blocked the loaded fist, hit two Cross Rhodes and pinned the challenger to retain his belt.
Cody celebrated with the excited crowd and Paul looked disappointed at his failure. Perhaps he’s got a face turn lined up in the future and the interaction/relationship with Michael Cole is the seed-planting stage of that plan.
And Another Thing…
This was another fun show that didn’t offend the senses too often…bar the triple threat match, which still had some decent moments.
The live fans were into it and they didn’t come close to taking over the event like the French did at Backlash.
Adverts weren’t plastered everywhere in place of the KotR logos and even Logan Paul’s special guest Prime bottle was missing. Ideally, this presentation is perfect and it would help WWE with its integrity, a word Vince McMahon abolished, but I do understand that sponsor money lubricates the whole process and not every PPV/PLE is going to have the financial backing of a royal rich kid. As I always say, balance balance balance.
One more thing regarding my grumble about using the King of the Ring name. Yes, I get it, the Saudi theme of royalty demands it, but the KotR show used to stand out for being an endurance tournament, not just another PPV.
Originally, all of the matches were contested on the same card/night and it made the PPV/PLE special, but now, we just get the finals at the event with the tournament’s name with the KotR name being used to draw interest on Raw/SmackDown. Instead of showing that a wrestler outlasted three back-to-back opponents in one night, it just shows they won a single match at a PLE.
Additionally, because some delusional people think women’s wrestling is as big of a draw as men’s wrestling, everything is shared evenly and (booking) outcomes are forced. This means that it would be near-impossible to hold both the men’s and the women’s tournaments in full on one card, unless they split that up into a two-night event just like WrestleMania and (as of 2026) SummerSlam.
What would have made more sense is if King of the Ring was the main attraction and it was held in a way it used to be and the Queen of the Ring could be in conjunction with NXT and aired sometime beforehand. In fact, just give the women their own show and let’s find out how many people would watch that instead. It’s not my intention to be mean, but it would put to bed all of the “women’s wrestling is just as popular” bullshit.
Still, doing that runs the risk of doing what WWE does with every gimmicky PPV/PLE like Royal Rumble and War Games; where we get a steak-based starter course before our steak-based main course and the impact is mitigated significantly by the time the main event finally rolls around.
– OLDER PPV RESULTS –
- WWE Backlash 2024
- WWE WrestleMania 40 (Night 2)
- WWE WrestleMania 40 (Night 1)
- WWE Elimination Chamber 2024
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