King of the Ring tournament to begin on WWE Raw next week

For the first time in over four years, WWE is putting on a King of the Ring tournament.

It was announced tonight that this year’s King of the Ring will begin on Raw next week. There will be 16 wrestlers in the tournament. Eight participants will be from Raw, while the other eight will be from SmackDown.

Here’s the full list of participants:

Raw —

  • The Miz
  • Ricochet
  • Cedric Alexander
  • Drew McIntyre
  • Cesaro
  • Baron Corbin
  • Sami Zayn
  • Samoa Joe

SmackDown —

  • Elias
  • Kevin Owens
  • Chad Gable
  • Andrade
  • Shelton Benjamin
  • Buddy Murphy
  • Ali
  • Apollo Crews

Further details on the matchups for the tournament and the schedule for it have yet to be revealed.

This will be the first King of the Ring since 2015. Wade Barrett was the winner of that year’s tournament.

Don Muraco was crowned as the inaugural King of the Ring winner in 1985. The event was an annual pay-per-view from 1993-2002.