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The Crown Jewel event quickly became an embarrassment to WWE almost from the moment it was announced and the event sure didn't disappoint on that front. Long derided, the actual event lived up to the ill will that surrounded it for months. Crown Jewel was one of the worst shows WWE has put on in 2018, with terrible booking decisions that will do lasting damage to the main roster brands.
Did anyone actually manage to look better after this embarrassment of a show in Saudi Arabia? Let's take a look below.
Winners: The Bar
Thankfully, The Bar successfully defended their SmackDown tag team championship at this show. The alliance with the Big Show is burgeoning and there is much ground left to explore there. At least it's managed to make the most of the Big Show's return to Tuesday nights. The Bar's victory also opens up the possibility of a feud with the Usos, which will be fresh and potentially exciting, given that the two teams have only met once, which occurred during last year's Survivor Series.
Speaking of Survivor Series, this victory now puts The Bar square in the sights of an old nemesis - The Shield. However, the status of Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins as tag team champions for Raw is in limbo. It will be interesting to see how they work into the pressure cooker that's currently going on between the two ex-Shield brothers. What match will we ultimately wind up getting?
All in all, The Bar walked away with a lot after this match. It also means that the New Day will stay away from the SmackDown Tag Team Championship picture for the time being, which sits well with me. They're very stale and I have no real interest in seeing any more pancake champions.
Loser: Monday Night Raw
There's no other way to put this. Brock Lesnar winning the Universal Championship back is an unfettered disaster for Monday nights. Just as the show finally looked like it was emerging from its slumber, it decided to impose a dark age on itself.
It's a dark age because not only is the situation now set back to the way it was before SummerSlam, but it's actually worse because there's no obvious contender to take the championship away from Brock Lesnar since Roman Reigns is gone for the foreseeable future.
Raw now has no direction. Its top title is absent again with no indication of when it will come back. As a result, the top people on the brand now have a ceiling imposed on them that none of them has a big chance of breaking.
It might just be the worst decision made in a year full of horrible decisions.
Loser: SmackDown Live
When Shane McMahon returned to SmackDown on its 1000th episode, I was wary. When reports came out that he was sticking around, I was warier. I was wary because one of the best things about the blue brand in recent months has been his absence.
Sure enough, I was given ample reason for concern as soon as the 1000th episode was in the rearview mirror because Shane McMahon again was hogging up the spotlight. During the show's dark days early this year, his omnipresence was one of the key reasons for it being so bad and the consensus worst show the company had to offer. It isn't a coincidence that the show had an uptick in quality with him being gone and Paige being an appropriately placed authority figure.
Now, he's back, and this win looks set to make him a big part of the programming, while many of the more interesting talents on the show languish.
Winner: Shawn Michaels
Though this match isn't what you would call "good," Shawn Michaels at least looked good in it. He wasn't his old self, to be sure, but he looked like he could still do a lot. As far as returning to the ring for the first time in eight years, he performed admirably, and a lot of people wouldn't mind to see him back.
DX's win in this match suggests that the rivalry isn't over and that something at WrestleMania will be in the cards, but this need not necessarily be so.
At any rate, Shawn Michaels has proven that he'll give more than he takes away from the show, which was the most important thing about this performance.
It was the one thing he needed to prove here and he did so. We now wait to see what Shawn Michaels does next. It seems that more matches are in the cards for him.
