At King Saud University Stadium in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the WWE hosted Crown Jewel despite political tensions and great criticism. As big as the discussions about the highly remunerated event were in the run-up to the event, the booking was as unkind. The highlight was without question the eagerly awaited in-ring comeback of Shawn Michaels, who met the Brothers of Destruction The Undertaker and Kane in the Main Event alongside his DX partner Triple H.
Winner and still United States Champion: Shinsuke Nakamura per Kinshasa, after he missed Rusev an “accidental” Low Blow. A rather short and irrelevant match for a Midcard title that unfortunately has been irrelevant again for quite some time. After the short renaissance of the IC title in recent years, WWE unfortunately once again forgets its B titles, although the IC counterpart still focuses on Champ Seth Rollins. For Nakamura, on the other hand, this kickoff performance is almost a highlight, as the WWE has completely forgotten it since the end of the feud vs. The perspective for both participants looks accordingly bad, theoretically one could start the whole thing again because of the headbutts in Rusev’s soft parts – but what for? An exit from the WWE of Shinsuke in the coming year is unfortunately becoming more and more obvious in view of his miserable booking.
Winner and still SmackDown Tag Team Champions: The Bar per Brogue Kick from Sheamus against Big E, after Big Show had already missed him the WMD from Apron. Logical booking by playing Big Show as the trump card against the three unicorns. So New Day should be out of the title race for now and The Bar could dedicate themselves to new opponents – ideally the Usos, who would have more than deserved another push.
Winner and still WWE Champion: AJ Styles per Phenomenal Forearm. This was preceded by an extremely intense and stiff match, in which Joe Styles hurled a huge Suicide Dive into the commentator’s desk. It is to be feared that Joe will now crash similarly as Nakamura before, after he had to lose again and again against the Champ. At the same time you have to ask yourself more and more, who should become a credible challenger after the Survivor Series in the SmackDown Roster, because meanwhile Styles felt that everything and everyone has already been defeated.
Winner and new Universal Champion: Brock Lesnar per F-5. What can I say about that? Baron Corbin took Strowman the title before the match began, followed by a few F-5s and then the successful cover. That’s it, that’s it. Lesnar has once again been champion, Strowman has been defeated once more completely unnecessarily, although he MUST win the title and Raw will once again get along without Main Title for months. Not to mention that not a single F-5 looked good.
Winner and “Best in the World”: Shane McMahon per Coast to Coast in the final vs. Dolph Ziggler. No, that’s not a typo, Shane McMahon seriously won this tournament and then pranced over the ramp for minutes to rub it all in. The actual final was surprisingly Ziggler vs. The Miz, but Miz sold a leg injury early in the match when leaving the ring, whereupon he could not continue. At that moment it became obvious that the whole tournament should only be used to build SmackDown vs. Raw for the Survivor Series. Corbin, who was still trying to distract Shane, was expelled early from the hall, whereupon the exit was obvious.
Winner: Triple H & Shawn Michaels after pedigree of Triple H against Kane. The Brothers of Destruction clearly worked here as heels and took Triple H out of the match quite early, so that Michaels stood alone in the ring for a long time and had to suffer hard. Among other things, the Heart Break Kid showed a Moonsault to the outside, but he only caught his opponents to a limited extent. Overall, however, he left a very fit impression and impressed in his first match after eight and a half years, for which he earned the “You still got it” chants more than honestly. A beautiful nostalgic moment for the fans in the hall and on the screens – no more, no less.
Again and again the WWE presents shows to its fans that are difficult to swallow and offers booking decisions that even in retrospect cannot yet be understood. But Crown Jewel undercut EVERYTHING! Compared to this show the Greatest Royal Rumble was a real masterpiece. The tag and US matches were short accessories that would otherwise have been ticked off 1:1 in the same way at SmackDown. The first round of the tournament was quickly over for breakfast, so that in the semi-finals the match quality increased. But what does it mean when Shane McMahon seriously wins the “Best in the World” title in this tournament and to top it all off, even though he didn’t even take part in it until the final?
At this point it cannot be excluded that one wanted to land here still another side blow against CM Punk. Yes, from a storyline point of view Shane’s triumph makes sense, but the same effect on the Survivor Series could have been achieved if McMahon and Corbin had massively interfered in the match and ultimately Shane had made the decision. Of course he seems even more egomaniacal – but what do you want to achieve with it?
The only effect is that you have seen six completely meaningless matches before and a Dolph Ziggler at the end – as so often before – was treated like dirt. If you also consider that the royal supergau around the Universal Championship preceded the whole thing, where you once again decided for stagnation instead of progress, that probably says it all. Sure, Lesnar will return to the WWE after his UFC match against Daniel Cormier to collect more money. But for all those who were happy about Roman Reigns’ title win to finally have an active title race again, this booking is an additional blow. Will Lesnar be left with the title until Roman hopefully returns? It would be absolutely to be trusted by the WWE. Instead, they would have had the opportunity to crown Strowman here, push him to the absolute top face and then make a comeback at Reigns’ to put two absolute megastars in their prime against each other.
Instead they decided for another huge FU in the direction of the fans. The only relevant factor for Crown Jewel was the nostalgia factor in the Main Event, which the fans in Riyadh celebrated accordingly. Oh yes, and Host Hulk Hogan was also present to give a short introduction to the show at the beginning. This may have been enough for pure oldschool fans to leave this show with a good feeling, but everyone else might have been more than served. The catastrophic decision about the Universal Championship or McMahon’s ego trip – it’s up to you to decide what was your personal low point. But in any case, the WWE has casually undercut everything it has so far achieved in 2018 in terms of PPV technology (and also otherwise).