WWE King and Queen of the Ring History: Full list of past winners

Who doesn't like a good tournament in your professional wrestling programming? One of the longest and most prestigious has been WWE's King of the Ring tournament. What was once a common annual event has become a rarity. There were huge gaps in the 2000s and 2010s.

In 2021, WWE presented the Queen of the Ring tournament, which would feature members of their women's roster competing for the crown.

Throughout the past month, WWE has hosted King and Queen of the Ring tournaments, with brackets split between RAW and SmackDown. The winners of the King and Queen of the Ring tournaments will be crowned at the titular premium live event on Saturday, May 25, at 1:00 p.m. ET, live from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Now, let's look at the winners of the King and Queen of the Ring tournaments over the years.

WWE King of the Ring history: Full list of past winners

There have been 22 years in which a King of the Ring winner was crowned, with the most recent being in 2021. Let's look at the full list of winners in the table below:

The very first winner of the King of the Ring tournament was Don Muraco, who beat The Iron Sheik in the finals in 1985.

The list of winners features a who's who of wrestlers, some of whom are Hall of Famers. Names like "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, "Macho Man" Randy Savage, Kurt Angle, Bret Hart, Owen Hart, Harley Race, and Edge.

Bret Hart holds the distinction of being the only wrestler to win the King of the Ring tournament twice. No wrestler has ever repeated as King of the Ring.

After 2002, King of the Ring was a sparingly used tournament. In 2006, Booker T defeated Bobby Lashley in the Finals of what was a SmackDown exclusive tournament. In 2008, William Regal defeated CM Punk. Sheamus beat John Morrison in the 2010 Finals. Bad News Barrett defeated Neville to win King of the Ring in 2015. Baron Corbin defeated Chad Gable to win in 2019.

The most recent winner was Xavier Woods, who defeated Finn Balor in the Finals at Crown Jewel in 2021.

WWE Queen of the Ring history: Full list of winners

Back in 2021, an eight-women's tournament was announced, with a winner being crowned Queen of the Ring at the Crown Jewel premium live event.

Zelina Vega took on Doudrop, now Piper Niven, in the Queen of the Ring Tournament Finals. Vega defeated Doudrop to become the inaugural winner of the Queen of the Ring.

At the WWE King and Queen of the Ring premium live event, Nia Jax was crowned the second winner of Queen of the Ring after defeating Lyra Valkyria.