Hiya!

I was worried the WWE wasn’t going to push through with this year’s Crown Jewel event. Okay, maybe “worried” isn’t the most appropriate word. More like I was “interested” with how the WWE was going to handle it. With the general turmoil happening in that region of the planet, I was half expecting them to move Crown Jewel to a new location, like how the Esports World Cup was held in Paris earlier this year. Well, they did move venues but still within the area.

I do think they did make changes due to the heightened security measures as this year’s Crown Jewel only had a total of 4 matches officially noted on the card. I’m assuming this was done to limit the number of people needed to go there. The WWE did send their big guns as they had made Crown Jewel their “RAW champion vs. Smackdown champion” pay-per-view event instead of Night of Champions. The question becomes if these 4 matches are good enough we forget the standard WWE pay-per-view normally has 5 matches.

So, let’s see if they did! Let’s check out each of the 4 matches to see if they were any good!

The first match of the night was Cody Rhodes vs. Randy Orton in a Last Man Standing match. I already have a quick spoiler on my thoughts on what I thought of this match last week. I still have to do my due diligence and actually talk about some specific thoughts on what happened during this match. Now, I still had hopes both Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton can do something here. After all, this is a Last Man Standing match so they can go all out, right? I just don’t think they did.

I honestly can’t think of that many highlights which happened during the match. They did try to be creative with Randy tossing Cody through the “cowl” of the Arabic announce desk. I guess it was fun when the action spilled into the audience but all that happened was Orton smashed Rhodes over the head with a trash can and the lit a couple of times. The powerbomb through the table was supposed to be a highlight I think but it felt underwhelming. The biggest spot of the match had Rhodes setting Orton on top of the announcer’s table then climbing a ladder to hit an elbow only for Randy to dodge the move, sending Cody crashing through the table himself.

The finish came after the aforementioned ladder and table spot. Randy rolled Cody into the ring and went for a punt kick. Rhodes avoided the attack and, for some reason, the miss hurt Orton’s arm? Anyway, Rhodes then hit a Cody Cutter from the top rope and then hit his Cross Rhodes finisher but Orton would still be able to get up. Rhodes then carried the steel steps into the ring and set Orton on top of it. Cody then got a chair and tried to strike the prone Randy with it but The Viper countered with a low blow. Orton then went for his RKO finisher but Rhodes reversed it into 3 consecutive Cross Rhodes. It looked like Randy wasn’t going to make the 10-count but Cody stopped the referee from finishing the count. Orton then flopped back to the canvas and Rhodes then hit a punt kick of his own to Randy. Orton could not answer the 10-count meaning Cody Rhodes is the Last Man Standing.

This was booooring! In my opinion, the point of a Last Man Standing is so the competitors can elevate the brutality. This one just came off as a standard No DQ match with a very looooong wait to see if the guy would stay down or not. Both Rhodes and Orton played it safe here and the match suffered for it. I’m not saying this needed insane and death defying spots. What this needed was more creative savagery, which this severely lacked.

The next match saw The Vision, consisting of Bron Breakker and Austin Theory (with Maxxine Dupri) defending their RAW Tag Team Championships against the team of PENTA and Je’von Evans. I’m honestly disappointed the WWE didn’t have PENTA team up with Rey Fenix, his Lucha Brothers tag team partner in AEW and his real life brother. Still, I do like Je’Von Evans’ energy and he does seem like a good match for PENTA’s kinetic style. Some of the highlights here include PENTA and Evans hitting a double suicide dive to Theory and Breakker, Je’von flipping over Austin to hit a reverse blockbuster, Theory countering Evans’ Red Dot Kick signature with a Blue Thunder Bomb for a 2-count, The Vision hitting a belly-to-back suplex and flying clothesline combo to Je’von, Evans countering Breakker’s spear with a flying running knee and Maxxine Dupri making her presence known by draping Theory’s foot on the bottom rope after PENTA hit a beautiful springboard tornado DDT.

The finish saw The Vision’s Bronson Reed running in and hitting a Death Valley Driver to PENTA as well as taking out Evens while Dupri distracted the official. The Vision then hit the Steinerizer double team move to PENTA but PENTA kicked out! All of a sudden, Oba Femi‘s music started playing and The Ruler stepped out! Reed tried to attack Femi but ran into a running European uppercut by Oba. Oba then picked Bronson up and tossed him off the stage (and through some conveniently placed tables)! Femi then made his way to ringside, distracting Breakker, who stepped outside of the ring to face off against Oba. Evans tried to hit a suicide dive to the distracted Breakker but Bron caught him in mid-air but PENTA saved his partner by hitting a top rope splash to the outside. PENTA then hit his Mexican Destroyer finisher to Austin with Je’Von following that up with his OG Cutter finisher to become the NEW RAW Tag Team Champions!

This was a pretty good match but mostly because of how bombastic PENTA and Je’von Evans’ offense. I am disappointed we didn’t really see Bron Breakker or Austin Theory get to do anything really impressive here. I do like the run in by Bronson Reed and Oba Femi as well as it added to the chaotic excitement.

The next match saw Liv Morgan, the RAW Women’s Champion, taking on Chelsea Green, the Smackdown Women’s Champion, in the Women’s Crown Jewel “champion vs. champion” match. I do like how the women are now able to dress in more “colorful” costumes now rather than the bland single color for their full body outfits. It gives them some chance to show of their personality but I still would prefer if they got to wear their “regular” gear. I know that’s probably not going to happen any time soon but one can dream! Sadly, while their outfits do have more pizazz, the action in the ring didn’t. To be fair, that’s mostly because of the storyline their pushing about Chelsea Green not fully believing in herself. Still, there were only a few notable highlights like Green hitting a superplex to Morgan, Liv hitting a codebreaker to counter a double axhandle attack from Chelsea and Green hitting a couple of suicide dives to Morgan to the outside. Like I said, not much really happened… until the final moments, at least.

The finish came when Liv had to put her leg on the bottom rope to break a pinfall attempt after Chelsea hit her Unpretty-Her finisher. Green started to climb the ropes but got distracted by Raquel Rodriguez and Roxanne Perez who made their way ringside. This allowed Morgan enough time to recover and shove Green to the outside. Liv then tells them to go to the back as she didn’t need any help taking out Chelsea. Morgan then continued her assault on Green and hit a top rope codebreaker. She tried to combo that into her Ob-Liv-Ion finisher but Green held onto the ropes to break the move. Chelsea then stacked up a stunned Liv to get the pinfall victory and become the Women’s Crown Jewel champion!

While I do love the ending, this match isn’t anything to write home about. I get they were trying to tell a story with Chelsea Green having some self-doubt and her win kind of clearing it out. The action itself was very lackluster and pretty boring if you ask me.

The story isn’t over yet, however. After the match, Triple H entered the ring to present Chelsea Green with the Women’s Crown Jewel belt. She gave a speech about believing in yourself and you can make it. Unfortunately for Green, Liv Morgan decided to play spoiler and attack her from behind. Tiffany Stratton then rushed in with her Money in the Bank briefcase and attacked Morgan! She tried to cash in the contract but Rodriguez and Perez ran in to try to prevent that. Chelsea then takes them both out by knocking Roxanne into Raquel. In a stunning turn, Stratton then uses the briefcase to blindside Chelsea Green! Tiffany then cashes in the contract not against Liv but against Chelsea! Stratton hits her Prettiest Moonsault Ever finisher on a prone Green to become the NEW Smackdown Women’s Champion!

Okay, does the cash in make the match worth it? Kind of. The drama of Tiffany Stratton seemingly cashing in against Liv Morgan only to backstab her friend, Chelsea Green, is classic heel turn storytelling and I like it. This is also good because Tiffany Stratton is much better as a heel than a face anyway. Having her cash in on super fan favorite Chelsea Green is a good way to get the fans to hate her.

The final match of the night was the Men’s “Champion vs. Champion” Crown Jewel match. This pitted the RAW’s top guy, Roman Reigns, the current WWE World Heavyweight Champion, against the current top guy on Smackdown, Sami Zayn, the current Undisputed WWE Champion. As I know both of them are really good performers in the ring, my expectations were pretty high for this one. Thankfully, I wasn’t disappointed! Lots of highlights here to talk about, including the simple act of Zayn dumping Reigns over the top rope and then immediately clotheslining the OTC out again to show dominance, Sami blocking a superplex attempt and hitting a sunset flip powerbomb, Roman missing a superman punch with Zami countering with a blue thunder bom and Zayn connecting with his Helluva Kick finisher while Reigns was setting up for a spear for a 2-count.

The finish saw Sami aping Roman’s superman punch and almost hitting the official leading to Reigns accidentally hitting the referee with a superman punch of his own. Zayn went on a tear afterwards, hitting Reigns with an exploder suplex into the corner and then his Helluva Kick finisher. Unfortunately, since the referee was downed by Roman’s errant superman punch, there was no one to make the 3-count! Another referee came rushing in but Reigns recovered enough to make the kickout at 2. Sami is understandably upset and he takes his frustrations out on the official by hitting a Helluva Kick to him as well!

Zayn then took his championship belt and tried to clock Reigns with it but Roman countered with a superman punch and then a spear! The original referee then crawls into position but the pause allowed Sami to recover enough to kick out. Reigns actually starts giving Zayn props for putting in a good fight worthy of the main event. They start slugging at each other with Roman getting the upper hand but Sami gets right back up! Reigns keeps knocking him down but Zayn keeps getting back up!

Roman then goes for another superman punch but Sami counters with another exploder suplex into the corner! Zayn then goes for another Helluva Kick but runs right into Reigns’ superman punch. Roman goes for a spear but Sami counters that with a superman punch of his own! Zayn then apes Reigns’ pre-spear ritual but gets hit by Roman’s spear instead. Reigns then gives more props to Zayn but enough is enough. Reigns hits one more spear to Zayn to get the pinfall victory and win the Men’s Crown Jewel championship. After the match, Sami Zayn demands a handshake and the respect from the OTC. Reigns declines and instead hugs Sami instead. Roman then raises Sami’s hand in the air.

I thought this was a really good match worthy for main event status. Both Sami Zayn and Roman Reigns did a lot of really fun spots and it certainly helped how invested the live crowd was. I do wish there was a little more chaos when the referees were downed. It would have been great to have had Roman Reigns tried something unsportsmanlike to Sami Zayn to show he was also desperate to win the match to sort of even Zayn’s attempted cheap shot. Still, it’s a minor gripe for a really entertaining match.

Overall, however, I don’t really think this year’s Crown Jewel was the crowning achievement of anything. 2 of the 4 matches were good but that just means 2 of the 4 matches were bad. I really hated the Last Man Standing match as it just felt too slow and that match really drags down the entire show. I guess, all-in-all, the show is fine? Not exactly a glowing review, is it?

Byee!

What did you think of this year’s Crown Jewel pay-per-view event? Let me know in the comments section below!