The King and Queen of the Ring tournaments have a noticeable increase in star power this year, with top wrestlers like Randy Orton, Bianca Belair, and GUNTHER all still alive just a couple of days before the whole thing wraps up on Saturday (May 25) in Saudi Arabia.

With that in mind, Triple H just announced huge stakes for the tourney winners. The King and Queen will each receive a WWE or World title match in August at SummerSlam 2024, against the top champion of their respective brand:

This is a great idea, as it now makes the King and Queen of the Ring tournaments have almost the same tie-in with SummerSlam as the Royal Rumble has with WrestleMania. It would have been even better if WWE announced these stakes from the very start of the tournaments, so I’ll assume the creative team had yet to finalize this plan at that point.

GUNTHER, Orton, and Tama Tonga remain in the King of the Ring tournament, and these new stakes now make me think that Orton is the favorite to go all the way. Cody Rhodes vs. Randy Orton at SummerSlam makes all the sense in the world and is a much better attraction than either Rhodes vs. Tonga or GUNTHER vs. Damian Priest / Drew McIntyre.

On the women’s side, Lyra Valkyria could be looking at a Women’s world title match against Becky Lynch if she keeps her underdog story going all the way through the end of the Queen of the Ring tournament. That outcome doesn’t seem likely to me, however, with Bayley vs. Queen Bianca Belair or Bayley vs. Queen Nia Jax looking like more plausible SummerSlam title matches.

How do you like these new tournament stakes, Cagesiders? Does it change your prediction for which wrestlers will become the King and Queen of the Ring on Saturday in Saudi Arabia?