WWE isn’t wasting your time on filler matches in the new era

It’s one thing to predict the winners and losers at WWE King and Queen of the Ring, but how about taking a guess at the match order for the event?

The show takes place today (Sat., May 25, 2024) from the Jeddah Super Dome in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, starting at 1:00 pm ET, live on Peacock (in the U.S.) and WWE Network (everywhere else).

WWE has announced five different segments for the main card of this event. Here is my subjective view of how important each of these five segments rank, ordered from most important to least important.

1. Cody Rhodes vs. Logan Paul
2. Randy Orton vs. GUNTHER
3. Becky Lynch vs. Liv Morgan
4. Nia Jax vs. Lyra Valkyria
5. Sami Zayn vs. Bronson Reed vs. Chad Gable

Opening match and Main event

Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes vs. United States Champion Logan Paul is the clear main event of this card. The only other choice would be Randy Orton vs. GUNTHER, but it falls short of the spectacle and championship stakes of the YouTuber’s match.

The opening match is trickier to figure out, as it is typically a faster-paced or high work rate match that does not rank among the least important matches of the night. Perhaps the subjective rankings don’t matter as much in this new WWE era when the PLE main card is only five matches deep; the least important matches are essentially removed altogether (or booked on the pre-show) rather than serving as filler to extend the length of the main card. With that in mind, I’ll go with Zayn’s title defense for the opener. It has the faster pace, and the crowd should be pretty hyped to see Sami.

That gives me the following card:

Segment 1: Sami Zayn vs. Bronson Reed vs. Chad Gable
Segment 2:
Segment 3:
Segment 4:
Segment 5: Cody Rhodes vs. Logan Paul

Everything else

I’ll alternate the men and women’s matches, which means GUNTHER goes in Segment 3, and I need to decide between Nia and Becky for Segments 2 and 4. Becky’s match might include a title change and will probably be a better match, so I’ll put it later in the night.

Finalized card

So here is my final prediction for the match order at WWE King and Queen of the Ring, along with guesses on the bell-to-bell match times:

Segment 1: Sami Zayn vs. Bronson Reed vs. Chad Gable (17 minutes)
Segment 2: Nia Jax vs. Lyra Valkyria (9)
Segment 3: Randy Orton vs. GUNTHER (22)
Segment 4: Becky Lynch vs. Liv Morgan (15)
Segment 5: Cody Rhodes vs. Logan Paul (25)

That’s my prediction for the match order at King and Queen of the Ring. What’s yours?