So, Crown Jewel happened this past weekend in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (surprisingly), but seeing that the event was already a few days ago and I haven’t made a review/match ratings post over it then I figure that train has now left the station, but I can still talk a little over the event as well as some of WWE’s current state of affairs in general. Firstly, and probably most importantly, I’m surprised and kind of disgusted in the fact that they even decided to go through with Crown Jewel in Saudi Arabia right now. I know it’s usually one of the yearly Saudi shows anyways and would feel kind of weird to not host it over there, but with the state of the world in the middle east currently and the fact that they had to change this event to a smaller venue, tighten the security measures for the wrestlers and overall event, switch which airport they flew into because their usual one was bombed a few weeks before the event, among countless other chaotic moments leading up to this it felt like a risk even carrying through with it. Especially for the safety of your talent, but it’s corporate America and at the end of the day, they’re going to make sure they make their dollar by any means necessary.
Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton competed in a Last Man Standing match to kick off the show at Crown Jewel and while it was a war and weapons were involved aplenty and they fought through the crowd and everything, it honestly still felt slow and like it was missing a little something to me. Like the pace and intensity didn’t pick up really and the match just relied on the moment of Cody Rhodes performing the punt kick on Randy, something we all knew was coming because it had been talked about for weeks leading up to the match so the impact wasn’t as heavy as it would have been. I still had fun with the match while it was going, but I just feel like so much has been left on the bone of this Cody/Randy saga, I’m not even sure what I truly wanted or expected but it felt like this was one of the most dense and natural stories they could’ve told right now and I haven’t felt the feelings I should’ve during their feud. Penta and Jevon Evans won the World Tag Team Championships off of The Vision as well and it just feels or seems like another big L handed to Bron Breakker. At this point, I’m honestly hoping this downfall of his just leads to him eventually exploding and going on a dominant tear because this stuff with The Vision has really not been it and its made him feel like he’s slipping in his status. Which stinks too because when ‘The Vision’ first came around I was pretty excited about having another faction and the original iteration of it with Seth Rollins at the head of the stable and Paul Heyman managing them all was actually a really good and dominating group of talent. Since then, it has caused nothing but injuries and basically took none of them anywhere unfortunately, but Penta and Jevon are hot right now and really over with the crowd, so I guess it makes sense really.
Chelsea and Liv faced off for the Women’s Crown Jewel Championship, and I was really pulling for Chelsea in this one. The entire story leading up was Chelsea having confidence issues in herself and imposter syndrome over holding the world title and Liv was capitalizing on her self-doubt tenfold. Well, Chelsea proved herself…kind of…and beat Liv. The main reason I say kind of is because Liv beat her up pretty good for a majority of the match and Chelsea ended up winning by catching her off guard with a quick pin. So, while I’m glad Chelsea won, it still felt like she kind of got away with one more so than she proved herself to be worthy or even better, but the way the match went made a lot more sense when a few moments later as Chelsea celebrated, Liv and the Judgment Day gals attacked her from behind and started beating her down. Her “best friend” Tiffany (Miss Money in the Bank by the way) ran down to her aid and fought them off before bashing CHELSEA in the head with the briefcase and cashing in on her. She hit a quick Prettiest Moonsault Ever on her and scored the 3-count to become new WWE Women’s Champion. This was probably the most exciting, pop-worthy, headline making moment of the entire PLE. At least it was for me, but it definitely provided the most story for WWE’s actual weekly show as well. Tiffy is going to be a heel once again and Chelsea is the babyface of all babyfaces now who’s been backstabbed and betrayed by her bestie when she FINALLY reached the mountaintop of her industry. I sort of figured this would happen eventually so I kind of saw it coming, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t deliver either.
Then the main event of the evening saw Roman Reigns and Sami Zayn go to battle for the Men’s Crown Jewel Championship. This was the best overall match of the evening I’d say and was what you’ve come to expect out of recent Roman Reigns main events. They destroyed each other, hit multiple finishers, back and forth battle of wills till the very end. They both threw everything but the kitchen sink at one another, but in the end Roman Reigns comes out on top as he does. Sami Zayn was THE babyface of the match, the guy is like Saudi’s Superman at this point, they absolutely love him and Roman got some boo’s and jeers throughout the match but was still vastly acknowledged with the 1’s to the sky. I feel like even if you don’t like Roman, you’re joining in on that live, it’s just too fun not to. Herd mentality man. Charles Robinson came down basically just to take a bump which I expected to be the case as soon as I saw him come running down the ramp man. He’s THE bump guy in the world of WWE referees and I love it. Sami walloped him with a helluva Heluva kick (see what I did there), but in the end Sami got what he really wanted anyways. The respect and acknowledgment of Roman Reigns is what he’s been after all along and Roman hugged him and raised his arm after the match.
I’m just kind of happy that we are past the Crown Jewel event and time of year and we can move onto Survivor Series and build for War Games and the USA vs Mexico 5v5 match. WWE has hit a little bit of a lull it feels like following Money in the Bank. Survivor Series and the John Cena classic and Worlds Collide events in December could definitely help to elevate the back end of the year as we roll through the holidays and then before you know it it’s the Royal Rumble and WrestleMania season again. Crazy. Especially this coming WrestleMania season considering it’s supposed to take place in Saudi Arabia as well and more than likely will. Let’s just hope things are cooled down or at least feel a little easier for travel at that point, but my goodness it feels like a recipe for disaster at this current moment. I’ll be back to discuss Survivor Series: War Games here at the end of the month so the WWE talk isn’t over. Just for now.
That’s about all I have for this one though folks! Thanks for taking out some time to read along with me today! Make sure to like the page on social media or come back to the website often to keep up with all my latest posts over WWE, NFL, horror films, new movies I go to see in theaters, and occasionally even more. Thank you again and until next time, be good to one another!
