WWE CROWN JEWEL

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

CODY RHODES vs. RANDY ORTON "LAST MAN STANDING MATCH" (27:24): The big story concerning this show was whether or not it was going to take place in Saudi Arabia. Last month, The Houthis from Yemen bombed the Riyadh airport, killing 14 people and injuring over 300. Canelo went on to have his boxing match there on Halloween, but the F1 race scheduled in Saudi Arabia was cancelled. The only notable difference on this show was that the announcers, Corey Graves and Michael Cole, weren't there live but did the commentary from some unknown location (probably Stamford, CT). Money talks, so fuck safety concerns to the wrestlers and HHH and whatever production crew had to go. I would say that this wasn't a big show or anything because there were only 4 matches, but TKO fucking blows by not having a lot of matches on PPV's anymore. I guess they're trying to do the bare minimum possible to save money on these shows, why else only have PPV's with 4 or 5 matches and a ton of commercials? This show was 2 hours and 37 minutes long. There was 81 minutes of wrestling on this show and 75 minutes of other stuff: video packages, entrances, and commercials. The last big New Japan show had 9 matches. The last AEW PPV had 12 matches. What the fuck, TKO? 4 matches? 4? What is this company even doing, anymore? It's a fucking joke. These are supposed to be Pay Per Views...meaning you have to pay to watch them. This show was on the ESPN app in the U.S. and on Netflix everywhere else. The ESPN app in the U.S. costs $25 a month. Most cable companies have access to the app for free, but you're still paying for cable. Why are they giving the bare minimum on these PPV's to their customers? Eventually, you would think this penny pinching would piss off their fan base, right? I wonder if TKO would even care if the Houthis decided to blow up this show and one of the wrestlers died. Would they even pay for their funeral? Probably pay for, like, a wood casket because it's cheaper. As for this actual show: it was fine and typical WWE. Because Saudi Arabia is paying them millions, they did attempt to give them something: the show had a Money in the Bank cash in and a title change. And Oba Femi, unannounced, showed up. This first match was basically a hardcore match, which was pretty tame to watch, especially if you watched AEW's Blood & Guts show on Wednesday that was fucking gruesome and insane (explosions, thumbtacks, glass, barbed wire, flourescent light tubes, buckets of blood and Darby Allin getting tossed off the cage through four tables). Orton and Cody used trashcans, tables, a ladder, and a Singapore cane. Cody jumped off a ladder and crashed onto the announce table when Orton moved. The finish came when Cody punted Orton in the head and Orton couldn't get up by the 10 count. The best thing about this show was the raucous crowd. I was watching Youtube the other night and someone had posted a show from 1982 that had a cage match with Ric Flair. I watched a few minutes of it and the crowd in 1982 was raucous as well. You don't see raucous crowds like that these days. It's almost as if the people in Saudi Arabia are living in the past, so similar to a wrestling crowd from 1982. It's like their society hasn't evolved like the rest of the world. **1/2

JE'VON EVANS & PENTA vs. THE VISION (BRON BREAKKER & AUSTIN THEORY) (14:32):

Je'von and Penta won the tag titles in this match. Why the WWE doesn't have The Lucha Brothers tag team is baffling to say the least. The only reason I can think of is that they don't want to be like AEW. I can't think of any other reason, because they're not doing it if the reason is they want Penta as a singles wrestler. That argument is off the table. The WWE doesn't have much of a tag team division, do they? I think The War Raiders are the only real tag team, and they're barely on TV. This match was entertaining. Je'Von is a big star, it's just too bad the WWE refuses to push him to the main event as a singles wrestler for whatever reason. Oba Femi came out to stop Bronson Reed from interfering. Oba tossed Reed off the stage through two tables. **1/2

CHELSEA GREEN vs. LIV MORGAN (16:16)/ TIFFANY STRATTON vs. CHELSEA GREEN (0:04): This was for the superfluous Crown Jewel championship. It was the two women's champs wrestling. They gave Chelsea Green the big, shocking win, then had Tiffany run out, turn on Chelsea, cash in her Money in the Bank contract, and pin Chelsea to win the title. So Tiffany is a heel now? Okay. That makes no sense. I thought she was popular. This match was no good. Big surprise. The women's division is really floundering with Rhea and Bianca injured. *

ROMAN REIGNS vs. SAMI ZAYN (24:08): The last time the WWE was in Saudi Arabia, Sami Zayn won the title. He lost that title 8 days later. It feels like they can't decide if they want to push Sami or not. He won the title back from CM Punk and is still the champion, thus this was a champion vs. champion match for the Crown Jewel title. Going for the Crown Jewel title is basically a punishment these days, as you have to risk your life to go to Saudi Arabia to try to win it. The crowd was definitely behind Sami more in this match, even though Sami kicked the referee and knocked him out at one point. Another ref got knocked out. Roman eventually won. Match was good. Sami is fantastic on the mic, though, after the match yelling at Roman that he deserves respect and to shake his hand. Roman hugged Sami instead of shaking his hand. **1/2