EAW King of Elite Tournament

King of Elite is a professional wrestling single-elimination tournament held by Elite Answers Wrestling. The tournament is held annually throughout the month of January and the finals are hosted at its namesake free-per-view. The only full tournament hosted at the FPV itself was the very first King of Elite Tournament in 2008.

History

The King of Elite Tournament is a single elimination tournament that began as a two-night tournament to crown a "King of EAW," the winner receiving a literal crown as a reward for their victory. During the era of Extreme, the matches were Extreme Rules singles matches until only two competitors remained. The two remaining competitors had then competed in a TLC Match. Since then, however, the King of Elite finals have taken on other formats. The modern King of Elite Tournament allows for one finalist from each brand (Showdown, Dynasty, Voltage, and previously Empire) to compete against one another in the finals after winning the tournament held on their respective brand. This has resulted in finals matches with match stipulations such as Fatal-4-Ways or triple threats.

Once a competitor has won the crown, they were given the title of the "King of Extreme" (under Extreme Answers Wrestling), or more recently the "King of Elite" (under Elite Answers Wrestling). The winner is also able to cash-in their crown for a world championship opportunity of their choosing. Unlike the Iconic Cup, 24/7 Contract, or Cash in the Vault Briefcase, the holder of the King of Elite crown is required to announce when they will cash-in their opportunity against the champion.

Only twice in history has the crown changed hands after the King of Elite tournament: MaK became King of Extreme after taking the crown from Knocka, and Captain Charisma became King of Extreme after taking the crown from Power. Every winner of the tournament is allowed to also don the use of a "king gimmick". MaK gave himself the title of "King MaK" when we won the crown from Knocka. Others would follow suit with the use of the "king gimmick" with Robbie V ("King Robbie V"), Power ("King Power"), Captain Charisma ("King Charisma"), Dark Demon ("King Demon"), Liam Catterson ("King Catterson"), and Lannister ("King Lannister"). Only one person has used the "king gimmick", but not used the title of king. Robbie V when winning the King of Extreme crown for an unprecedented second time chose to be named Mikado Sekaiichi.

King of Extreme/Elite event dates and venues

Event	Date	City	Venue	Winner
King of Extreme (2008)	October 25th and 26th, 2008	Las Vegas, Nevada	Caesar's Palace	Knocka1
King of Extreme (2010)	January 30th, 2010	Beijing, China	Beijing National Stadium	Robbie V
King of Extreme (2011)	January 29th, 2011	N/A	N/A	Power2
King of Extreme (2012)	January 28th, 2012	Dublin, Ireland	The O2 Arena	Dark Demon
King of Extreme (2013)	January 26th, 2013	Oakland, California	Oakland Coliseum	Liam Catterson
King of Extreme (2014)	January 25th, 2014	Las Vegas, Nevada	Caesar's Palace	Mikado Sekaiichi
King of Elite (2015)	January 24th, 2015	Athens, Greece	O.A.K.A. Stadium	Lannister
King of Elite (2016)	January 30th, 2016	Rosemont, Illinois	Allstate Arena	Eclipse Diemos
King of Elite (2017)	January 28th, 2017	Copenhagen, Denmark	Royal Arena	Tiberius Jones/IV
King of Elite (2018)	January 6th, 2018	Marseilles, France	Stade Velodrome	Theron Nikolas
King of Elite (2019)	February 2, 2019	Johannesburg, South Africa	FNB Stadium	Malcolm Jones
King of Elite (2020)	February 8, 2020	Rome, Italy	Stadio Olimpico	Visual Prophet
King of Elite (2021)	February 14, 2021	Tampa, Florida	Raymond James Stadium	Kassidy Heart3
King of Elite (2022)	February 6, 2022	Houston, Texas	NRG Stadium Park	Andre Walker

¹Knocka lost his crown to MaK. ²Power lost his crown to Captain Charisma.³Kassidy Heart is the first female Elitist to win a King of Elite tournament.

King of Extreme/Elite Cash-in Matches

Winner	Champion Faced	Event Used	Result
Knocka	N/A	N/A	Lost Crown to MaK
MaK	StarrStan	Grand Rampage II	Won EAW World Championship
Robbie V	Cyclone (Cy Henderson)	EAW Draft Show	Failed to win EAW World Championship
Power	N/A	N/A	Lost Crown to Captain Charisma
Captain Charisma	Mr. Insult	Road to Redemption	Won EAW World Heavyweight Championship
Dark Demon	Ashten Cross	Showdown	Won EAW World Heavyweight Championship
Liam Catterson	Y2Impact	Dynasty	Won EAW Answers World Championship
Mikado Sekaiichi	Tyler Parker	Reasonable Doubt (2014)	Won EAW World Heavyweight Championship
Lannister	Jamie O'Hara	King of Elite (2016)	Won EAW World Championship
Eclipse Diemos	Lucian Black	Territorial Invasion (2016)	Failed to win EAW World Heavyweight Championship
Tiberius Jones	Drastik	EAW Pain For Pride X	Won EAW Championship
Theron Nikolas	Darkane	Operation: Doomsday (2018)	Won EAW Answers World Championship
Malcolm Jones	Ahren Fournier	Grand Rampage (2019)	Won EAW Championship
Visual Prophet	Drake King	Pain for Pride 13	Won EAW World Heavyweight Championship
Kassidy Heart	Jack Ripley	Under Siege	Won EAW Answers World Championship