King of the Ring (2010)

King of the Ring (2010)
Tournament information
Sport	Professional wrestling
Location	United States;
Date	November 29, 2010
Tournament; format(s)	Single elimination tournament
Participants	16
Final positions
Champion	Sheamus
Runner-up	John Morrison
Tournament statistics
Matches played	14
	← 2008 2015 →

King of the Ring
King of the Ring
	Sheamus, winner of the 2010 King of the Ring tournament at the 2010 Tribute to the Troops
Promotion	World Wrestling Entertainment
Brand(s)	Raw; SmackDown
Date	November 29, 2010
City	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Venue	Wells Fargo Center
King of the Ring tournament chronology
← Previous; 2008	Next →; 2015

The 2010 King of the Ring was the 19th edition of the King of the Ring tournament produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). The tournament was held as a special episode of Raw that aired on November 29, 2010, at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; qualifying matches were held the previous week. Unlike the previous 2008 tournament that featured wrestlers from the Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brand divisions, the 2010 tournament only featured wrestlers from Raw and SmackDown following the closure of the ECW brand in February 2010. The 2010 tournament was won by Raw's Sheamus, who defeated John Morrison, also from Raw, in the tournament final and subsequently became known as King Sheamus.

Despite the show being mainly focused on the King of the Ring tournament, the main event featured Jerry Lawler (who was celebrating his birthday that day) facing WWE Champion The Miz for the title in a Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match, which marked Lawler's first match for the WWE Championship. Lawler lost due to distractions from Alex Riley and Michael Cole. CM Punk joined on commentary for the show.

Background

The King of the Ring tournament is a single-elimination tournament that was established by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in 1985 with the winner being crowned "King of the Ring." It was held annually until 1991, with the exception of 1990. These early tournaments were held as special non-televised house shows and were held when the promotion was still called the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, renamed to WWE in 2002).^[1] In 1993, the promotion began to produce the King of the Ring tournament as a self-titled pay-per-view (PPV). Unlike the previous non-televised events, the PPV did not feature all of the tournament's matches. Instead, several of the qualifying matches preceded the event with the final few matches then taking place at the pay-per-view. There were also other matches that took place at the event as it was a traditional three-hour pay-per-view.^[2]

King of the Ring continued as the annual June PPV until the 2002 event, which was the final King of the Ring produced as a PPV.^[3] Following the conclusion of the PPV chronology, the tournament began to be held periodically every few years, first making its return in 2006, which was held exclusively for wrestlers from the SmackDown! brand. The 2010 tournament was the 19th King of the Ring tournament. Although the 2008 tournament featured wrestlers from all three of WWE's brands at the time—Raw, SmackDown, and ECW—the 2010 tournament only featured Raw and SmackDown as the ECW brand was disbanded in February 2010. The tournament took place as a special episode of Raw that aired on November 29, 2010, at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; qualifying matches were held the previous week on the November 22 and 26 episodes of Raw and SmackDown, respectively.^[4]

Qualifying matches

On the November 22 episode of Raw, it was announced that an eight-man interpromotional King of the Ring tournament would take place between wrestlers from Raw and SmackDown the following week on Raw,^[5]^[6] with the last tournament being held in 2008, which was won by William Regal.^[7] Later that night, qualifying matches were held between wrestlers of the Raw brand. In the first match, Sheamus defeated R-Truth. The next qualifying match was scheduled between Ezekiel Jackson and Raw Mr. Money in the Bank The Miz. However, Miz's NXT season two rookie Alex Riley substituted for him because Miz had "suffered an anxiety attack", with Jackson defeating Riley. In the third qualifying match, United States Champion Daniel Bryan defeated Ted DiBiase Jr. in a non-title match. In the final qualifying match for the Raw roster, John Morrison defeated Tyson Kidd. The qualification for the tournament continued on the November 26 episode of SmackDown, with qualifying matches being held between wrestlers of the SmackDown brand. Kofi Kingston became the first person from the SmackDown roster to qualify for the tournament by defeating Jack Swagger. In the second qualifying match, Alberto Del Rio defeated Big Show by countout. In the third match, Drew McIntyre defeated MVP. In the final qualifying match for the SmackDown roster, "Dashing" Cody Rhodes defeated Rey Mysterio.^[8]

Bracket

Qualifiers^[9]

Quarterfinals^[9]

Semifinals^[9]

Final^[9]

Raw

Sheamus

Raw

R-Truth

11:05

Raw

Sheamus

SmackDown

Kofi Kingston

4:06

SmackDown

Kofi Kingston

SmackDown

Jack Swagger

17:22

Raw

Sheamus

N/A

BYE

SmackDown

Drew McIntyre

SmackDown

MVP