WWE: Nia Jax Will Become QUEEN of Friday Night SmackDown

WWE has kickstarted its road to Clash at the Castle, and one of the best ways to enter a royal castle for professional wrestling is by establishing the Queen of the Ring. Indeed, WWE has already confirmed the full brackets for the Queen of the Ring 16-Contestant Tournaments. The winner of the King of the Ring tournament will likely earn a World Championship opportunity against either Bayley or Becky Lynch/Liv Morgan. Liv Morgan is being considered a world champion option here only because she recently challenged Becky Lynch to a championship match in her ongoing revenge tour.

Liv Morgan was the last superstar eliminated by Becky Lynch when Becky won the Battle Royal on Raw a few weeks ago to win the World Title that Rhea Ripley relinquished. Liv bounced back from that loss by defeating Nia Jax to earn this world title shot. Since Liv has a strong story with Rhea Ripley and wants to take everything away from her, it seems likely that Morgan will win the title nefariously with Dirty Dom's help. Becky was merely an emergency transitional champion used to elevate and put over Liv on a big stage so that Liv's title victory was not relegated to a random Raw Battle Royal.

With that being said, the following will focus on the three top contestants to win the King of the Ring Tournament on the road to WWE Clash at the Castle 2024.

Dark Horse: Lyra Valkyria

Lyra Valkyria is not going to win the Queen of the Ring Tournament because she only recently got called up to the main roster, and it would be too soon for her to win and move on to a world title shot. This tournament should merely be used as a showcase for her impeccable wrestling abilities. However, anyone would be remiss to neglect the fact that the former NXT World Champion has a solid chance at battling her current rival, Iyo Sky, in the semifinals of this tournament and possibly pulling an upset. This was already teased when Lyra helped Becky Lynch fend off Damage Control last week on Raw.

(3) Jade Cargill/Bianca Belair

As our Raphael Garcia justifiably pontificated, Jade Cargill and Bianca Belair should not be in the QOTR Tournament because they should be focused on defending the tag titles they recently won from Kabuki Warriors at Backlash. This is reminiscent of the issues Sasha Banks and Naomi had with the booking of the tag titles in 2022. Since Cargill and Belair are already tag champs, WWE should not double whammy and over-push them into winning this tournament by any means. Nonetheless, it can't be denied that these two juggernauts have a high probability of winning this entire tournament.

(2) Iyo Sky

Iyo Sky is the betting favorite on Raw to advance to the finals and win the QOTR Tournament because she has the most credibility as a former World Champion who was recently in a main event WrestleMania title match with Bayley that quite frankly stole Night 2, in terms of in-ring quality. She has also teased the idea of targeting the World Title on Raw by ambushing Becky Lynch and Liv Morgan with Damage Control. However, since Iyo just recently lost a World Title and had her time in the limelight, she does not really need to win this tournament to get back in the world title picture.

(1) Nia Jax

Nia Jax is the betting favorite on SmackDown to advance to the finals and win the QOTR Tournament because she already teased a future title feud with Bayley for the World Title and winning this tournament will solidify her spot as the number one contender. Bianca Belair has been teasing a worked leg injury, so she will still be protected in defeat once she gets eliminated from the tournament. Jade Cargill, on the other hand, does not have an excuse, but WWE will have to find a way to execute a screwy finish, like a count-out or DQ, in order to protect her in defeat as well.

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