After much speculation, concern, and a measurable degree of criticism, Crown Jewel took place in Saudi Arabia this past weekend. Originally scheduled to be a stadium show, the pay-per-view was moved in doors amid safety concerns after Yemen forces attacked the Saudi International Airport several times in the weeks leading up to the event. While last weekend’s Saul “Canelo” Alvarez fight took place without incident, the fact that the PPV had to be moved at all was enough of a reason for the WWE crew not to travel there.
As I’ve written in a few articles over the past few weeks, money is the determining factor, not anything else. Reportedly, CM Punk and Kevin Owens declined to make the trip, which is probably why their match took place on Smackdown the day before Crown Jewel. I could be wrong on this, but with just four matches on the card, only a handful of performers on the line-up, and the announce team calling the broadcast at the WWE studios in Stamford, it appeared that the company took the absolute least amount of the roster to Saudi Arabia as possible. The ability to get paid the estimated $50 million for the show and get back to America was probably the goal for this entire fiasco.
Again, if there was enough of a security risk that the pay-per-view had to be moved to a different venue, that was enough of a reason not to go in the first place, but I digress.
Randy Orton vs. Cody Rhodes opened the show, and while the last match standing stipulation can be a slower pace because of the counts involved to eventually get to the finish, this marquee bout moved at a rather glacial pace. In some respects, this reminded me of the Seth Rollins/Roman Reigns main event from Summer Slam a few months ago. It was slow, plodding, and at times, just boring. Don’t get me wrong, these guys didn’t mail it in, the effort was there, but it just didn’t hit the mark the way that they probably intended. It was an attempt to shoehorn faux drama into the narrative when it just wasn’t there. In fact, considering that the live crowd sided with Orton and were vocally against Cody, it made the presentation seem that much more out of place. This went almost thirty minutes, and the very slow pace became a tedious viewing experience, despite being the first match on the card.
At one point, Orton bumped his head on the steel steps that were in the ring, suffering a nasty cut in the process. Orton spilled blood on the canvas from the hard way cut, and it looked to be in a bad spot on the side of his head. The unintentional crimson added some intensity, but again, the crowd was behind Orton so when Cody nailed him with the punt kick for the finish, almost as if to be the dramatic crescendo of the feud, it fell somewhat flat. Listen, the top WWE guys probably make at least a million dollars each for these Saudi shows so who I am to criticize their efforts to secure that cash? But from a presentation stand point, this was the wrong match in front of the wrong crowd, even if it was the right finish for the storyline. Cody Rhodes got the victory, and it will be interesting to see who he works with next, specifically if he’s slated for a main event angle.
The WWE Tag Team title match was fun, it gave the show a dose of fast-paced action that it needed, especially based on where the PPV was headed by the end of the night. Considering that with the continued push that Je’Von Evans is getting on Raw, and the fact that the office has to keep Penta busy for a while, if for no other reason than to merchandise the Money in The Bank briefcase, it made sense for them to win the belts here. I understand that dropping the titles might take some steam away from The Vision stable, the group that was plagued with injuries, but outside of Austin Theory, everyone in the faction is probably destined for bigger roles anyway. As I said, this was an entertaining segment, and the title switch gave the event something newsworthy so that this didn’t boil down to a glorified house show, specifically because nothing was truly at stake in the main event. The spot with Bronson Reed and Oba Femi was a solid addition to the segment to continue to showcase Oba without rushing him up the card before he might be truly prepared for it. The interaction between Oba and Bron Breakker might be an indication of where the storyline goes next. At the conclusion, Evans and Pentagon won the belts, and while they are a throw together tag team, that doesn’t mean that the pairing won’t be productive in the big picture.
Speaking of booking something to make the pay-per-view newsworthy, the women’s Crown Jewel championship match, as well as the aftermath, was very well done. The match itself wasn’t anything too spectacular, but it was solid for what they did. I’m not sure continuously casting Chelsea Green as someone that supposedly shouldn’t have the ability to be in the role of a champion will actually benefit her in terms of star power in the long run, but perhaps the angle that was set up will help progress the narrative. The 15-minute match had enough time to get into second gear, but it wasn’t too long to overstay its welcome. The roll up finish where Chelsea looked surprised that she won was designed to reinforce the storyline of the unexpected champion, but again, I’d argue that it doesn’t translate completely since the audience believes in her character. However, the Tiffany Stratton cash-in where she made it appear that she was going to challenge for Liv Morgan’s title before she turned heel to blindside Green with the brief case was a brilliant piece of business. The performer cast as the underdog gets the big victory before the sneaky heel snatched it away, it sets up for what should be a feud with layers of depth to it. That being said, the key to any of this is that the office actually has plans to do that so that Chelsea doesn’t get completely overlooked on the shows.
The main event was another attempt at a dramatic Shakespearean type of performance from Roman Reigns, but unfortunately, it missed the mark, albeit not quite as much as the previously mentioned Summer Slam match against Rollins. This was 25 minutes of mostly slow, plodding theatrics and there was only a small portion of the match that had any steady action to it. The spots where they are talking to each other to try to manufacture drama often didn’t work, and I’m still not sure why after a pin fall attempt or between sequences that there’s a deliberate stall before the next spot. If these matches are supposed to be perceived as important, why isn’t there an urgency or direct effort to try to win?
It appears that the objective from the corporate side of things is to try to sell this type of performance as some type of dramatic fine art of entertainment, but it usually just comes across as very boring, which isn’t something that should be associated with Roman or Sami Zayn, considering how talented they are. If this was about ten minutes shorter and kept the action a lot tighter, it would’ve been a better match.
Until next week
-Jim LaMotta
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