Queen's Crown tournament

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The Queen's Crown tournament logo

The Queen's Crown tournament is a women's professional wrestling single-elimination tournament held by WWE, a Connecticut-based professional wrestling promotion. Established in 2021, the prize for winning the tournament is being crowned "Queen". It is considered the female counterpart to WWE's long-standing King of the Ring tournament for male wrestlers.

Like the King of the Ring tournament, wrestlers from the Raw and SmackDown brand divisions participate. The inaugural tournament, consisting of eight female wrestlers, began on the October 8, 2021, episode of SmackDown. Taking place across episodes of Raw and SmackDown, the tournament culminated at the Crown Jewel pay-per-view and Peacock/WWE Network event, where SmackDown's Zelina Vega defeated Raw's Doudrop to be crowned the inaugural Queen.

History[]

In 1985, the American professional wrestling promotion WWE, at that time known as the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), established the King of the Ring tournament as a men's single-elimination tournament, the winner of which is crowned the "King of the Ring". In 2016, the "Women's Evolution" began in WWE, where the promotion began to treat their female wrestlers on an equal level as the men. In the years following this, WWE introduced female versions of matches that were originally only contested by male wrestlers—such as the Royal Rumble match and Money in the Bank ladder match. In October 2021, WWE established a female counterpart to the King of the Ring tournament, called the Queen's Crown tournament, held between wrestlers from the Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. The inaugural tournament was announced to be held simultaneously with the 2021 King of the Ring tournament.[1][2][3]

Queen gimmick[]

Similar to the King of the Ring tournament, the prize for winning the Queen's Crown tournament is being crowned "Queen", though unlike the King of the Ring tournament, the winner is simply called "Queen" instead of "Queen of the Ring". Just as several King of the Ring winners have taken on a king's gimmick with varying degrees of indulgence, inaugural Queen's Crown winner Zelina Vega adopted a queen's gimmick and began to refer to herself as Queen Zelina. She began wearing a crown, a cape, and carrying a scepter, while speaking and acting in a regal manner, though acting more like a tyrannical queen due to being a heel.[4]

2021 tournament[]

Queen's Crown (2021)
Tournament information
SportProfessional wrestling
Location
  •  United States
     Saudi Arabia
DatesOctober 8, 2021–October 21, 2021
Tournament
format(s)
Single elimination tournament
Participants8
Final positions
ChampionZelina Vega
Runner-upDoudrop
Tournament statistics
Matches played7
← First

The 2021 Queen's Crown was the inaugural edition of the Queen's Crown tournament. Consisting of eight female wrestlers, four each from the Raw and SmackDown brands, the tournament was divided into two brackets, one for each brand, and the winners of each bracket faced each other in the final. The inaugural tournament began on the October 8 episode of SmackDown and continued to be held across episodes of Raw and SmackDown. It concluded at the Crown Jewel pay-per-view and Peacock/WWE Network event on October 21, 2021. In the final, SmackDown's Zelina Vega defeated Raw's Doudrop to become the inaugural winner.[5]

Bracket[]

Quarter-finals
SmackDown (October 8)[6]
Raw (October 11)[7]
Semi-finals
SmackDown (October 15)[8]
Raw (October 18)[9]
Finals
Crown Jewel
(October 21)[10]
         
Zelina Vega Pin[6]
Toni Storm 2:10
Zelina Vega Pin[8]
SmackDown
Carmella 2:40
Liv Morgan 1:40
Carmella Pin[6]
Zelina Vega Pin[10]
Doudrop 5:55
Dana Brooke 1:25
Shayna Baszler Pin[7]
Shayna Baszler 2:45
Raw
Doudrop Pin[9]
Doudrop Pin[7]
Natalya 3:00

Reception[]

The Queen's Crown tournament was heavily criticized by fans for not being on equal ground with the men's King of the Ring tournament. The length of the tournament's first six matches were a combined 13 minutes and 40 seconds, equaling an average of roughly two minutes and 15 seconds per match. This is in stark contrast to the first six matches of the King of the Ring tournament, where none were shorter than eight minutes.[11]

References[]

  1. ^ WWE [@WWE] (October 2, 2021). "HERE WE GO!! #SmackDown" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  2. ^ Heydorn, Zack (October 1, 2021). "WWE announces Queen's Crown and King of the Ring tournaments". Pro Wrestling Torch. Archived from the original on October 2, 2021. Retrieved October 18, 2021.
  3. ^ Rose, Bryan (October 1, 2021). "WWE announces King of the Ring, Queen's Crown tournaments". Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Archived from the original on October 2, 2021. Retrieved October 18, 2021.
  4. ^ Powell, Jason (October 25, 2021). "10/25 WWE Raw Results: Powell's live review of the "season premiere" with the new post draft roster, fallout from WWE Crown Jewel". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved October 25, 2021.
  5. ^ Currier, Joseph (October 7, 2021). "KOTR, QUEEN'S CROWN TOURNAMENT MATCHES SET FOR WWE SMACKDOWN". Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online. Retrieved October 9, 2021.
  6. ^ a b c Powell, Jason (October 8, 2021). "10/08 WWE Friday Night Smackdown results: Powell's review of Rey Mysterio vs. Sami Zayn in a King of the Ring tournament match, Liv Morgan vs. Carmella in a Queens Crown tournament match, contract signing for Becky Lynch vs. Bianca Belair vs. Sasha Banks at WWE Crown Jewel". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved October 9, 2021.
  7. ^ a b c Powell, Jason (October 11, 2021). "10/11 WWE Raw Results: Powell's live review of Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair vs. Bianca Belair and Sasha Banks, WWE Champion Big E and Drew McIntyre meet face to face, King of the Ring and Queen's Crown opening round matches". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved October 12, 2021.
  8. ^ a b Powell, Jason (October 15, 2021). "10/15 WWE Friday Night Smackdown results: Powell's review of the supersized edition with Brock Lesnar, Becky Lynch vs. Sasha Banks in a non-title match, Finn Balor vs. Sami Zayn in a KOTR semifinal match, Carmella vs. Zelina Vega in a Queen's Crown semifinal match, Sonya Deville vs. Naomi". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved October 19, 2021.
  9. ^ a b Powell, Jason (October 18, 2021). "10/18 WWE Raw Results: Powell's live review of Charlotte Flair vs. Bianca Belair for the Raw Women's Championship, Shayna Baszler vs. Doudrop in a Queen's Crown semifinal match, Xavier Woods vs. Jinder Mahal in a KOTR semifinal match, final hype for Crown Jewel". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved October 19, 2021.
  10. ^ a b Powell, Jason (October 21, 2021). "WWE Crown Jewel results: Powell's live review of Roman Reigns vs. Brock Lesnar for the WWE Universal Championship, Becky Lynch vs. Sasha Banks vs. Bianca Belair for the Smackdown Women's Championship, Big E vs. Drew McIntyre for the WWE Championship, Edge vs. Seth Rollins in a Hell in a Cell match, Goldberg vs. Bobby Lashley in a No Holds Barred match". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved October 21, 2021.
  11. ^ Casey, Connor (October 19, 2021). "WWE's Queen's Crown Tournament Has Been Alarmingly Short". Comic Book Resources. Retrieved 2021-10-21.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
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