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Friday night saw the controversial Crown Jewel event being staged in the heart of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. While the event was marred by some controversies, once it began, most forgot what happened in the past and focused on the event itself.
Everything from the stage, to the camerawork, and the lighting was near perfect for the event. However, the matches that were staged were somewhat not of the quality you’d expect from such a huge event.
There were some great matches that were scheduled to take place including the first-ever WWE World Cup.
The kickoff saw one of the better matches of the event as Shinsuke Nakamura finally defended his US Championship at a pay-per-view after a hiatus. Rusev has evolved into one of SmackDown’s better wrestlers, and the chemistry between the two got better and better as the match went on.
The WWE Championship match between AJ Styles and Samoa Joe was also pretty fun to watch which resulted in the predicted outcome. Both Styles and Joe have always had great chemistry in the ring.
The same was the case with the Tag Team Match between The Bar and The New Day, and both teams delivered like they usually do. Rollins and Ziggler had yet another match, probably their 100th of the year, and since both the men are good performers, they put on arguably the best match of the night.
The rest of the show was largely forgettable, where part-timers performed in such ordinary fashion that even the Saudi Arabian people who paid the watch the stars of yesterday would have been left with a bad taste in the mouth.
For the wrestling fans outside of the Kingdom, the event was arguably one of the worst for a long time and possibly the worst of the year.
Let’s take a look at 3 reasons which made Crown Jewel one of the worst, if not the worst, pay-per-view of 2018.
#3 Brock Lesnar wins the Universal Championship
The most talked about match on the card; the match that could have blown the place apart; the match that could have paid tribute to Roman Reigns. The match that could have built Braun Strowman for the future.
The match that was another flurry of F5s.
If that was the finish that was planned all along, the match shouldn’t have even been booked in the first place.
Braun Strowman has been built up as a monster for years now. There is nothing that can stop him. Not even an attempted vehicular homicide by Roman Reigns a year ago could stop him. Yet a single shot to the back of the head by a title belt caused that much destruction?
Brock Lesnar is once again the Universal Champion, the first ever two-time Universal Champion, and will continue onto Survivor Series to face AJ Styles. The part-timer has done it once again.
But what about the Monster Among Men? Where will he go from here, after losing yet another title match which was tilted in his favor?
#2 D-Generation X beat the Brothers of Destruction
With a combined age of 206, the four wrestlers headlined the pay-per-view. At this point in their careers, Kane and The Undertaker should rename themselves as the Fathers of Destruction.
The botch-galore match saw all four men not knowing what to do in a match which was decent enough considering the rustiness of the superstars and their ages. However, there was no real need to bring all four men back to the squared circle and put them in harm’s way.
The WWE did just that for the money it was receiving, and this resulted in Triple H sustaining a serious injury even though he is the most active and fittest of the four superstars. We are glad the other three men made it out alive.
All four men are part-timers now, and there was no real reason to headline the show with such a match even though it was the biggest match advertised on the card.
With eight more shows left to be performed in Saudi Arabia according to their contract with the WWE, it is possible that we have not seen the last of these four men together in the ring.
#1 Shane McMahon wins the World Cup
Shane McMahon is the Best in the World! Really, I'm not kidding you.
When the World Cup was first announced, the WWE Universe was extremely excited about how the entire thing will turn out. However, it all went downhill from that day onwards.
First, only US-billed superstars qualified for the tournament which was not appreciated by both fans and some wrestlers. Rusev even went on to call the tournament the “US Open”.
Next, John Cena, who had gained automatic entrance into the tournament, pulled out due to the controversies surrounding the Crown Jewel event. He was later replaced with Bobby Lashley.
Then the match between Kurt Angle and Dolph Ziggler was seen to be a decent one, and Kurt was the favorite but lost to The Show Off which came as a major surprise. Dolph actually went on to the finals.
The cherry on the cake, The Miz, got kayfabe injured right before the final began, and was replaced by none other than yet another part-time wrestler Shane McMahon. Why Rey Mysterio and Randy Orton were overlooked is beyond every single one of us.
Shane McMahon fought a relatively short and painful to watch match where he succeeded in beating Ziggler to win the World Cup.
Yes, all this actually happened on the same night. A night where Brock Lesnar was once again crowned the Universal Champion. A night where Kurt Angle failed to qualify for a dream match between him and Seth Rollins. A night where Shawn Michaels came out of retirement to team up with a part-timer and take on two other part-timers.
A night that most of the WWE Universe would wish had never taken place.
