Crown Jewel’s boldest and most newsworthy moment came in its opening match followed by a mostly safe rest of the card that did have a few highlights in the ring.
Roman Reigns, in a rare opening match for him, was pinned for just the third time during his Tribal Chief era — this time by Solo Sikoa as Reigns’ Bloodline still has some things to work out.
Liv Morgan, with plenty of help, became the first Crown Jewel Women’s champion after yet another Tiffany Stratton cash-in tease.
Cody Rhodes, with a little quick thinking, survived Gunther to win the championship for the first time on the men’s side in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Saturday.
Both he and Morgan will get Super Bowl-like rings to commemorate their wins, but this was far from a championship effort from WWE.
Here are five takeaways from Crown Jewel.
Fractured Family
There was so much to love about the storytelling that played out in the Bloodline six-man tag match, and it should force Roman Reigns to take a hard look in the mirror.
Solo Sikoa pinned Reigns — joining Cody Rhodes and Jey Uso to do so during his Tribal Chief Era. Sikoa used three Samoan Spikes to get the job done. It gets the move over even more and gives Sikoa a legitimate claim to being head of the family. Being the one to lose the match, should force Reigns to leave his arrogance at the door — he’s mortal now.
Sikoa’s group began pummeling Reigns, Jimmy and Jey Uso, leading to Sami Zayn coming out. There was doubt on which side he was on after Zayn’s meeting with Sikoa earlier in the week, but he eventually suplexed the current Tribal Chief.
There wasn’t a happy ending, however.
Zayn and Reigns both charged at Sikoa in the middle of the ring — with the Usos in the other corners surrounding him. The once Honorary Uso clipped Reigns with a Helluva Kick as Sikoa ducked a Superman Punch. It prompted Jimmy to get in Zayn’s face and he had to be pulled away by Jey.
Reigns’ group is fractured and will need to get it together before Survivor Series.
Same Old Stories
The women’s Crown Jewel championship match between Liv Morgan and Nia Jax was sadly just a meshing of their stories on repeat. The match was as good as it could have been between heels and did at times show how far both have come as performers.
A sunset flip powerbomb from Morgan to Jax left both laying in the ring and brought Tiffany Stratton out to try to cash in her Money in the Bank contract — which never came close to happening. Jax chided her as usual and almost lost the match when she was distracted by Raquel Rodriguez before Morgan hit a good-looking Codebreaker from the top rope.
Jax kicking out brought Dominik Mysterio to the ring. After Jax clotheslined Stratton and Morgan on the outside, she got ready to deliver an Annihilator to the Women’s World Champion. But Mysterio distracted the ref after sliding the MITB briefcase in the ring while Rodriguez kicked Jax off the top rope. Morgan delivered Oblivion for the win.
The only thing this match accomplished was hopefully Jax is angry enough at Stratton for costing her the match that it finally bring up enough courage for her to cash in on the WWE women’s champion.
Golden Boy
Cody Rhodes remains untouchable in WWE and as much as I felt Gunther winning would have been more impactful, there is nothing wrong with keeping him unblemished since winning the Undisputed WWE championship at WrestleMania 40.
And the way they did so, protected Gunther as best you could in defeat as Rhodes went for a top rope Cody Cutter, but Gunther caught him in a sleeper. But before the Gunther could lock it in for a second time and put his opponent to sleep like he said he wanted to, Rhodes flipped back — ala Bret Hart — and pinned Gunther’s shoulders to the mat. The two shook hands afterward, though you could see Gunther’s frustration.
The match felt right out of the Brock Lesnar heel playbook with Gunther slowly grinding down Rhodes with strikes, suplexes, chops and submissions. Both men left looking strong as Rhodes kicked out of Gunther’s finishing power bomb and The Ring General got the shoulder up after a Cross Rhodes.
This feels like just the start of a feud for years to come.
Itching for a Fight
Kevin Owens made sure the bell never ran, attacking Orton with a chair from behind before the match, making good on Triple H’s warning that his a different version of the Prize Fighter.
Owens,who clearly wanted a fight over a match, hit a Stunner on the ref after he grabbed the chair and tried to get the match starter. Orton later RKO’d Raw general manager Adam Pierce after WWE officials came out and tried to bring some order.
Orton and Owens eventually worked the match into the crowd. Owens, who felt Orton and Rhodes had betrayed him got his opponent laid out on a table and delivered an elbow drop off the railing to end the carnage. Does Orton return to cost Owens a match with Rhdoes, there are a lot more questions than easier answers about where this goes next.
Triple Treat
L.A. Knight, Andrade Carmelo Hayes really brought it in one of the best matches of the night, taking full advantage of it being a triple-threat natural. There were a ton of sequences of fast-paced creative counters where you weren’t exactly sure who was going to land the finally piece of offense.
The included the final sequence where Hayes pulled Andrade from the top rope and went for his spinning front facelock off the ropes. But before he could complete it, Knight came in and hit both men with a BFT before pinning Hayes to get the win.
Knight could simply move on from both men here, but Hayes felt oh so close so many times that maybe he gets a more direct feud with the Mega Star.
Other matches
Seth Rollins over Bronson Reed
It took a Stomp, a Stomp onto the steel steps and finally a Super Stomp from the top rope to keep Reed down enough from Rollins to win the match. He didn’t stay down long as Rollins had a look of disbelief as he saw a bloody Reed — who had his best chance early in the match with a Tsunami but got greedy going for a second — standing in the ring as he made his way to the ramp. This match was fast-paced and explosive. It left both men looking good it was over. Does Rollins jump right back into the World Heavyweight title picture after this?
Jade Cargill and Bianca Belair over Chelsea Green and Piper Nevin, Iyo Sky and Kairi Sane, and Lash Legend and Jackson to retain the Women’s Tag Team championship.
The women’s tag team match wasn’t always perfect, but that was bound to happen with the pace they were keeping as they tried to jam as much as they could into the match. The best sequence happened when Chelsea Green worked herself down from the top rope to the apron afraid to try a moonsault before jumping right into parter Piper Nevins arms on the outside.
What followed was Kairi Sane delivering an In-Sane elbow to Green and Nevin, Iyo Sky flying the outside and Jakaa Jackson diving off Lash Legend’s shoulders onto all of them. The finish was Nevin splashing on Green by mistake. Cargill lifted Nevin on her shoulders for a cool-looking Doomsday Device to retain.
Right now the matches in the division have been solid, but there isn’t a team that feels like it really threatens Belair and Cargill.
Biggest Winner: Solo Sikoa
Biggest Losers: Carmelo Hayes and Andrade
Best match: Cody Rhodes vs. Gunther
Grade: B
