Shockingly, in today’s climate, the WWE has still sent their talent to Saudi Arabia for the eighth Crown Jewel event, where the two top champions of the men and women, respectively, will face off to determine the Crown Jewel Champions. In the main event, the World Heavyweight Champion Roman Reigns battles the WWE Champion Sami Zayn in singles competition, while Women’s World Champion Liv Morgan faces WWE Women’s Champion Chelsea Green. Meanwhile, The team of The Vision (Bron Breakker & Austin Theory) will face the make-shift duo of Penta and Je-Von Evans for the World Tag Team Championships, and old rivals Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton will face off in a Last Man Standing match. Originally scheduled to take place at the Riyadh Season Stadium, the event instead was moved to the ANB Arena, still in Riyadh.
+ The Vision (Austin Theory & Bron Breakker) (c) (w/ Maxxine Dupri) vs. Penta & Je’Von Evans (WWE World Tag Team Championships): The Vision’s entrance looked really cool in this smaller arena, with Breakker’s music and the lights giving this a big match feel. All four men came to play and looked great; Je’Von and to my great surprise, Theory were the standouts. Theory’s interactions with the crowd were a highlight of the whole show, and this was easily the match of the night
– Sami Zayn vs. Roman Reigns (WWE Men’s Crown Jewel Championship): I was far more fascinated at how vehemently against Riegns this crowd was than the in-ring action. The in-ring action was nothing special and went about exactly as you’d expect this match would. Reigns played the bad guy perfectly fine, as he did for years, and Sami played the underdog, as he has been for years… and really, it was all meaningless. You know how this went without even having to see it
– Liv Morgan vs. Chelsea Green (WWE Women’s Crown Jewel Championship): there was a small group of young girls who were intensely supportive of Liv, but the crowd overall seemed to want Chelsea to win (which makes sense, given the ongoing story). This was not a fun mwatch to watch; after Liv was the worst person in the match she won the title in back at Money in the Bank, she has consistently underdelivered as Champion; and no, I’m not just buying into her bad guy characte. Chelsea is so much better than and can do so much more than what they let her do, and I am waiting for the day she gets to show it properly. I did not enjoy this
– Cody Rhodes vs. Randy Orton (Last Man Standing): the crowd was red hot for Randy Orton and surprisingly against Cody. This match felt long, with lots of early counts and then longer stretches of offence as the match progressed. For my money there was not major, defining moment, and the match stumbled at the end both in the ring and in terms of the story being told. I hate to disagree with a live crowd, but this was not good
> the audience felt very western, with chants including swears. All throughout very vocal few clearly near the recording cameras had their favourites, which did not seem to line up with the ‘intended’ reactions
Should you watch this event: That tag team match was excellent and well worth your time, but everything else was either too predictable or simply not very good. Thankfully, it was only four matches and because I did not watch it live, I did not have to sit through the lengthy in-between garbage.
