Best & Worst of WWE Crown Jewel: John Cena/AJ Styles create magic, Seth Rollins breaks the jinx, Roman Reigns shocked

Live from Perth, Australia, the WWE Universe witnessed perhaps the best PLE of the year tonight: Crown Jewel. There is a ton to admire and appreciate, and not much to really criticize after a show whose heart showed the heart of professional wrestling in its beautiful form: AJ Styles vs John Cena in an ode to wrestling legends, wrestling fans, and one another in one of the very best matches of the year.

With that said, let's dive right into discussing the best and worst of WWE Crown Jewel 2025.

Best: Crown Jewel featured AJ Styles vs John Cena in one of the best matches ever seen inside the squared circle

AJ Styles and John Cena, born just weeks apart in 1977, are currently 48 years old. While Cena is set to call it a day on December 13 and has just four more dates left in his career, Styles is set to say goodbye to professional wrestling a few months hence. A rivalry that once stemmed from the TNA vs WWE angle morphed into a love letter to PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING and attained its pinnacle tonight, perhaps topping one of the greatest trilogies of all time that wrestling fans witnessed back in 2016-17.

Before the match, ring announcer Alicia Taylor made a special announcement for AJ Styles at the behest of John Cena. Once the bell rang, it did not take much time for Cena and Styles to get going, and their legendary chemistry was on full display. The match featured tributes to Randy Orton, Frankie Kazarian, The Miz, Sting, Rusev, Shawn Michaels, Christopher Daniels, The Undertaker, Chris Jericho, Bray Wyatt, Samoa Joe, and more.

In a highly emotional match, Cena defeated Styles following a Tombstone Piledriver and an AA for the win. Thereafter, the two men embraced. Cena has now had two of the best matches of the year, and each of his major matches, besides the WrestleMania disaster and the weird Wrestlepalooza squash, has been a superhit. He is having perhaps the best year of his career from a bell-to-bell perspective, and his polarising heel run and limited dates make fans appreciate these last few months all the more.

AJ Styles and John Cena may now feel their bodies breaking down and such, but as far as claiming that they have slowed down in the ring, that would be an absurd thing to say.

Worst: The Women's Crown Jewel Championship match did not get enough time

Women's World Champion Stephanie Vaquer added another feather to her cap when she defeated WWE Women's Champion Tiffany Stratton to be crowned the 2025 Women's Crown Jewel Champion. While the decision was the right one, the match was rather short and therefore underwhelming.

Tiffany Stratton may be getting good babyface reactions, but she has not been involved in any decent stories or had any exceptional matches to excuse the lack of effort WWE Creative has put into her character and the stories she is involved with. The SmackDown women's division as a whole is dead. As such, tonight, too, featured a babyface vs babyface match with no heat.

As for Vaquer, with the wealth of talent on RAW, we can hopefully finally see her involved with something substantial. WWE has pushed her well enough; it is now time to present her in a way that exacerbates her aura and in-ring acumen.

Best: Seth Rollins finally beats Cody Rhodes to become the Men's Crown Jewel Champion

From a storyline perspective, Seth Rollins vs Cody Rhodes was the most enticing match on the card. The build had been superb, such that WWE was successful in really playing up: what if Seth Rollins loses? He HAD to win. And when things began breaking down in The Vision, that made the prospect of Rollins losing all the more exciting. That said, Rollins did need this win, and he needed to do it by himself, as he did.

Rollins may have cheated, but he still got one over Rhodes by himself. So, where does that leave him and Paul Heyman and the rest of the faction? These are interesting questions that will be answered in due course, but it made sense for Cody to lose here inasmuch as now, it sets up an interesting direction for him as well. Way down the line, Rollins and Rhodes will inevitably clash once again, and by then, they'll have a different story to tell.

The match itself was rich in storytelling and was solid as expected, given Rollins and Rhodes' previous three encounters. However, Cena and Styles having stolen the show before it was even over obviously had its impact, contrast-wise, on an otherwise superb match.

One may posit that the main event went perhaps a tad bit too long, when taking into context how short the Women's Crown Jewel Championship Match was. As for the Men's Crown Jewel Championship, expect Seth Rollins to be as humble and salt of the earth as ever. Seth's about to turn into a new kind of madman now.

Worst: The women's tag team match at Crown Jewel: pacing and result

In terms of matches being too short or too long at Crown Jewel, the match between the team of Rhea Ripley & Iyo Sky (adorably yet kind of weirdly known as Rhiyo) and Asuka & Kairi Sane (The Kabuki Warriors) just went too long. Some of that time could have been allocated towards Tiffany Stratton vs Stephanie Vaquer, or perhaps one more match on the show.

As great as the Crown Jewel PLE was, with entrances and video packages and ads, the pacing feels off and becomes glaring when there are just five matches on the card. The matches do get abundant time, but some of them then tend to go on too long. The result of the match itself was also questionable. The Kabuki Warriors just turned heel; they must be presented as a threat, especially in such a tag team division.

Best/Worst: Roman Reigns vs Bronson Reed and the aftermath at Crown Jewel

Bronson Reed picked up the biggest win of his career as he became the just the second person in almost six years to pin Roman Reigns in one-on-one competition. The only other person to have ever pinned The Tribal Chief? Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania 40. The result was bold, but it was the right one, and it must be followed up on. Even the post-match angle advanced The Bloodline Saga with the usual drama, with the dynamic and contentious personalities leaving us on a cliffhanger.

The problem was the match itself. It was a decent match, the crowd was hot, and .there was some good action. But with Roman Reigns wrestling fewer matches with every passing year, one has the right to expect something special each time he straps on a pair of boots, especially if it is against someone who likes to steal them. Reigns clearly sees something in Reed, and so do WWE higher-ups, but when Roman Reigns is the level of star he is and has the schedule he does, these performances do not suffice.

Perhaps, the ramifications of all of Reigns' matches being structured with Reigns dominating, the babyface fighting back, interference, shenanigans, and Reigns winning in the end, etc. during his 1316 days are finally manifesting: whether Reigns is genuinely much better at working those kind of matches, or it is a matter of fans' perception due to habit is debatable, but something must change.

Whether this issue was Roman Reigns, Bronson Reed, or the booking, the match itself at Crown Jewel was underwhelming, especially being the seconf one of the feud. In contrast, Clash in Paris was different, perhaps due to Reigns overcoming Reed and the explosive aftermath.