Recapping the 2026 Queen of the Ring Tournament's Opening Match

One night after WWE's Clash in Italy event, WWE remained in Italy for Monday Night Raw. Though in the case of some here in the States, it's Monday Afternoon Raw (for me, it was Monday Late Morning Raw), because everything on Netflix is live coast to coast, time zone by time zone. As promised, WWE kicked off their King and Queen of the Ring tournaments, which will continue on all through the month of June. The Finals of both will take place at Night of Champions, and the winners will receive a top championship match at SummerSlam, which will take place on August 1 & 2 in Minnesota.

Regarding Queen of the Ring, this is the fourth edition of the tournament for the Women's Division, with the first tournament taking place in 2021, which was won by Zelina Vega. The preceding two tournaments occurred in 2024 and 2025, with the former adding the championship match stipulation, and they were won by Nia Jax and Jade Cargill, respectively. In every instance, 16 women competed in the tournament, but beginning with the 2025 tournament, the format changed from four rounds of one-on-one matches, to a Quarterfinal round consisting of four-way matches, with the four winners advancing to the Semifinals.

As for which match kicked off the tournament, it was Lash Legend, Iyo Sky, Roxanne Perez, and Giulia facing off in the first Quarterfinal matchup. Lash entered this match in a good spot, not only coming off a Women's Tag Team Championship run, but her partner, Nia Jax, is a one time Queen of the Ring. Roxanne Perez enters with a lot of accolades; two-time NXT Women's Champion, former NXT Women's Tag Team Champion, and former WWE Women's Tag Team Champion. Giulia's been NXT Women's Champion, and has held the relatively new Women's United States Championship twice. As for Iyo, she's the most accomplished, having become the seventh and latest member of the Women's Grand Slam Champions list.

We see Lash show off how powerful she is (she has at least eight inches over the other girls), and then, Roxanne start stealing the match by feigning an alliance with Giuila, but backstabbing her right after. Iyo's actually the only babyface (at the moment) in this match, though I recall someone on social media picking Giulia to win the whole thing. Not only did Giulia not win this bout, she was actually pinned... by Iyo!

Iyo Sky became the first Semifinalist in this year's Queen of the Ring tournament, and I'm a tad surprised that she won. I knew Lash and Roxanne wouldn't win, they're still months away from receiving singles elevation, but I figured Giulia would at least advance. I don't have Iyo winning this, but what if she does win, and actually jumps ship and goes after Rhea Ripley at SummerSlam? Oh, the possibilities!

Michael Cole announced that the tournament will continue on this Friday's SmackDown, but it wasn't announced which match will take place. We do know the Quarterfinal match that will occur next Monday on Raw. In Paris, Becky Lynch, Alexa Bliss, Chelsea Green, and Liv Morgan. Yeah, Liv Morgan--the current reigning Women's World Champion--is in this tournament. Why? I said this before, this makes no sense. That spot could have went to anyone. If this is their way of covering for the fact that Stephanie Vaquer is out, then it's the wrong method.

One woman who was not happy about this is Maxxine Dupri, and she vented her frustrations to Raw GM Adam Pearce. It's terrible what they're doing to Maxxine now. She went from beating Becky Lynch for the Women's IC Title, to being stuck in catering in just a matter of months. Based on we've been seeing in the last few weeks, Maxxine's turning heel. Great! I would love to see evil Maxxine again. What I don't want to see is Maxxine being part of The Vision, though it does look like that's the direction they're going. Maxxine doesn't need The Vision. If it were up to me, Maxxine and Ivy Nile would back together, this time as heels, with Ivy as the muscle and Maxxine as the evil mastermind.

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Queen of the Ring is off to quite an amazing start! It's going to be quite a fun ride, and I'm very excited to see which match will serve as the second Quarterfinal on Friday!