The King of the Ring tournament has been a staple of the WWE since the 1980s, and has been used to push wrestlers' careers to the next level. The list of King of the Ring tournament winners reads like a who's who of WWE, with past winners including the likes of "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, Bret "The Hitman" Hart, Kurt Angle, Randy Savage, Booker T, Triple H, and Brock Lesnar, and winning the tournament is a distinct honor for any WWE superstar.
Since Brock Lesnar won the King of the Ring tournament in 2002, the tournament has been held sporadically instead of every year, with the last tournament taking place in 2015 and won by Bad News Barrett. Now WWE has confirmed that the King of the Ring tournament is making a comeback, with tournament matches to take place on Raw and SmackDown in the weeks leading up to the Clash of Champions pay-per-view on September 15.
The King of the Ring tournament finals will take place at Clash of Champions, and WWE fans can start placing their bets on who they think will take away the victory. WWE has released the official King of the Ring 2019 bracket, revealing every superstar who is participating in this year's version of the tournament.
As can be seen by the King of the Ring 2019 bracket, the tournament will consist of eight superstars from Raw and eight from SmackDown, culminating in a SmackDown vs. Raw match at Clash of Champions. At a glance, it seems like the wrestlers that are most likely to advance to the finals include the likes of Samoa Joe, Drew McIntyre, and Baron Corbin on the Raw side, whereas we can see SmackDown wrestlers Kevin Owens, Buddy Murphy, and Andrade also making it far in the tournament. With Owens feuding with Shane McMahon and utilizing Steve Austin's Stunner, it seems as though he is the most likely candidate to win the whole thing, as an homage to Austin's historic 1996 win.
In the meantime, it will be interesting to see if the King of the Ring tournament is incorporated into the upcoming WWE 2K20 video game at all. Most WWE 2K games have featured King of the Ring tournaments, and with the tournament getting a new focus on WWE television, we don't see why it wouldn't return for WWE 2K20.