WWE Crown Jewel 2024 11/2/2024

WWE Crown Jewel 2024 11/2/2024

We are in Riyadh, Saudia Arabia.

We see various wrestlers arrive.  

Roman Reigns and The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso) vs. The Bloodline (Solo Sikoa, Jacob Fatu, and Tama Tonga)

Jey got a bigger pop coming out than Roman did. The crowd chanted we want Roman after the match had gone on for a while but Jey tagged in Jimmy instead. Jimmy and Roman had an issue with this. Roman got hot tagged in later in the match and immediately squared off with Solo. They totally botch a pinfall attempt here with an Uso not breaking up a Solo pin on Roman but the ref making it seem like he did anyway.  Roman threw Tama in the ring and Tama landed on the ref. Solo then ended up getting the pin on Roman after Fatu hit some attacks.

Thoughts: The match really wasn't that great. There weren't any big spots, there wasn't any weapons usage and there weren't even a ton of near falls or anything. They didn't play up the possible issues between the faces at all even when they could have to excuse the finish. This was disappointing.

Solo puts the necklace on over top Roman. Roman tries to get some shots in then Roman and Jimmy get beaten up by Bloodline. Jey tries to help out and gets beaten up. Solo puts a chair around Jey's neck. Sami Zayn's music then hits and he comes out. Solo tries to get Sami to work with them. The crowd chants, "Sami Uso". Sami goes to hug Solo and exploders him. Sami then gets a group beating and The Uso's and roman save him. Sami and Roman try to hit Solo together but Solo slides out and they nail each other. Jimmy argues with Sami about it and Jey tries to play peacemaker.

We get clips of a Gunther interview. He says Cody has a lot of support from the fans and the company. He says he beat Orton last time in Saudi Arabia and will choke out Cody. He says Cody will realize he's the secondary champ.

We then get clips of a Cody interview. Cody says nobody looks better than Gunther, but both skirmishes with him went his (Cody's) way. Cody says Gunther is good at getting under Cody's skin. Cody said if he loses, the winner of The Rumble might try him as they may see him as the weaker champ and he doesn't want that. 

WWE Women's Tag Titles - Jade Cargill and Bianca Belair (c) vs. Damage CTRL (Kairi Sane and Iyo Sky) vs. Meta-Four (Lash Legend and Jakara Jackson) vs. Chelsea Green and Piper Niven
 
All the girls wore full body outfits here. Iyo missed a pop up spot here and uppercutted one of the girls right in the mouth in a funny moment. They built some to a Jade vs Lash fight in this one. Green teased doing a moonsault off the post but thought better of it and just jumped off the apron where she got caught by Piper. Jakara got on Lash's shoulders and dove out onto various girls. Jade and Bianca ended up winning here after hitting a doomsday device on Piper.

Thoughts: They put out a pretty good effort for this one with a lot of dives and girls doing things they don't normally do to try and get this over. They had a rough moment or two but it was entertaining and they far surpassed expectations for a match like this where there's a lot of limitations to work with.

Seth Rollins vs Bronson Reed

They start off fighting on the ramp as Seth hit Reed during his entrance. Seth put Reed's jacket over his head and hit him then Reed rolled Seth down the ramp. Seth then hit a tope on Reed. Seth runs at Reed outside, gets caught and is slammed over the rail onto a desk chair and the floor.

Seth is sent into the steps. Reed lariats Seth then hits a top rope splash. Reed misses a top rope splash. Seth hits a curbstomp for 2. 

Seth hits some shots and ends up taking a butt drop. Seth is sent into the corner chest first. Seth goes for the slam but Reed falls on him. They trade chops. Reed goes for a powerbomb and takes a ddt.

Seth hits lariats and is stopped up top. Seth hits a top rope splash for 1. Reed bobdyblocks him and sitout powerbombs him. Reed hits a death valley driver for 2. Reed top rope superplexes him for 2. Sth hits slaps and is lariated over. Seth tells him he should have finished him while he had the chance.

Reed wants to hit a splash but Seth keeps moving out of the way. Reed bangs Seth's head off the commentary table and Seth ends up curb stomping him on the steps. Reed gets in and takes another curb stomp. Seth then hits a curb stomp off the buckles and wins.

Thoughts: It started off hot and really slowed down as the match went on. It just didn't really get to the next level but what they did made sense and the match was fine with Reed being the bigger guy and Seth working as the underdog. Reed got busted open from the curbstomp onto the steps. 

Reed gets up after and they stare down.

WWE Women's Crown Jewel Title Match - Nia Jax vs. Liv Morgan

Nia shoves Liv over and drops her with a headbutt. Nia elbow drops her and hits a corner splash. Nia misses a splash and Liv clips her. Liv step up knees her in the corner and pulls the leg around the ropes. Liv ddt's her for 2.

Nia pop-up samoan drops her for 2. Nia corner hip attacks her then misses a corner spear. Liv stands on Nia's back but Nia catches her and does a 2nd rope samoan drop. Nia bangs Liv's head off the mat. Liv sunset bombs her off the 2nd rope.

Tiffany Stratton then comes out teasing a cash-in. Nia confronts her as she tries to do it. Tiff says she was trying to cash in on Liv. They argue and Liv baseball slides Nia. Liv goes for a tope and Nia forearms her. Nia tells Tiff to get out of here. Liv crucifix bombs her off a pop-up samoan drop though it really looked more like Liv took the samoan drop. Nia uranages Liv for 2.

Tiff goes to cash in again. Raquel Rodriguez fights Tiff for the briefcase. Nia's throat is pulled over the 2nd rope and Liv 2nd rope codebreakers her. Dominik Mysterio then appears and Raquel backs down Tiff. Liv joins in and Nia bodyblocks all 3 against the rails.

Nia splashes Liv on the ropes then legdrops her. Dom gets on the apron then Raquel kicks Nia off the buckles. Liv hits oblivion and wins.

Thoughts: It was short, filled with shenanigans nothing too special. The girls did what they were supposed to do with the big girl vs little girl style of match but there was not a lot of wrestling here once you took out the shenanigans.

Triple H gives Liv the Crown Jewel title after. I think the title is bigger than Liv is.

Randy Orton vs Kevin Owens

KO is wearing a Cowboy Bob Orton shirt. This is after he wore a Dusty Rhodes shirt either this week or last week. KO hits Orton as he poses on the ropes and chairs him. KO hits shots on Orton outside and Orton fights back. 2 refs are there trying to stop this. Orton eye pokes him and backdrops him on the commentary table.

KO's head is banged off the steps. KO chairs him in the ring. The ref takes the chair. KO then stunners the ref. Various officials come out. Orton chairs KO. Orton backdrops KO on the commentary table. Daivari takes the chair from Orton and is sent into the post. Orton hits a draping ddt. Aldis and Pearce then come out to stop Orton. Orton RKO's Pearce. KO sends Orton into the post.and Orton sends KO over the rail. They fight in the crowd. KO hits him with a box lid and puts him on a table. KO then jumps off a rail and elbow drops Orton through a table. And that's it.

Thoughts: The match never officially got started and was a total brawl. This feud wasn't really explained well but they did what they could with it.

WWE United States Title Triple Threat Match - LA Knight (c) vs. Andrade vs. Carmelo Hayes

Andrade and Melo trade shots as LA watches. LA hits punches on both then LA takes a double superkick. Melo 2nd rope twisting lariats him. LA pulls Melo out and bangs his head off the commentary table. LA slingshot shoulderblocks Andrade then slingshots Melo onto him. LA ddt's Melo for 2.

Andrade 2nd rope flipping russian legsweeps Melo. Andrade flying forearms him. LA is back body dropped out. Andrade top rope moonsaults outside. Melo tope con hilos Andrade. Melo blocks a BFT with a handstand. Andrade spinning back elbows Melo. Melo hits a codebreaker + senton and does his suplex cutter on Andrade for 2.

Andrade canadian destroyers Melo. Andrade hits a top rope moonsault into a standing moonsault on LA. Andrade hits a top rope moonsault slam on Melo. LA does a double jump double elbow drop on both opponents. 

LA misses his jump up to the top like usual and crotches himself. He top rope germans Andrade. Melo hits a top rope nothing but net on LA for 2. Melo goes for a la mistica facebuster but LA hits a BFT on him and wins.

Thoughts: It was a 3-way and ended at the right time as it was wearing out its welcome. It worked better than you would expect but it had the usual issues with 3-ways with it being hard to build stories and being spotty. They also did too much here. I have no idea where this leaves Melo and Andrade booking wise but I wasn't exactly high on them beating LA anyway.

They had a nice video package with past champions for the main.

WWE Crown Jewel Title Match - Cody Rhodes vs. Gunther

They get off to a slow start. Gunther blocks a takedown and Cody hammerlocks him. Gunther snapmares him and Cody armdrags and armlocks him. Cody rolls through an armdrag and hits his own. Gunther shoulders him over and side headlock takeovers him. They stand off after getting out of sleepers.

Cody hits punches and Gunther chops him over. Cody hits lariats and sends Gunther out. Gunther goes for a sleeper but is sent out. Cody topes him, gets caught and is thrown into the apron edge. Cody goes for a slam but his back gives up. Gunther butt drops Cody's back.

Gunther sleepers him. Gunther hits chops then Cody slams him. Cody gordbusters him then Gunther slams him. Cody powerslams Gunther then hits punches and an elbow. Cody hits a cody cutter for 2.

Cody goes for a disaster kick but Gunther catches it and crabs him. Gunther then sleepers him. Gunther germans him and sleepers him again. Cody hits jawbreakers then hits cross rhodes. Gunther shotgun dropkicks him and powerbombs him.

Gunther piefaces him around and hits chops. Cody tells him to hit him and Cody fires up with shots. Cody backdrops Gunther. Gunther lariats Cody then Cody hits a cross rhodes on Gunther. Cody runs up the buckles but is caught with a sleeper. Cody then pins Gunther.

Thoughts: Man was this disappointing. One would expect Gunther to chop the crap out of Cody until Cody makes his comeback and either wins or loses. That didn't happen here. They did nothing special in this one. There were no huge spots or bigger stories in this. It was worked like any other match between them would be and with both of them not being super charismatic, it was not that interesting. This should have been an epic and was nothing close to it.

Cody, Liv, some officials and Triple H then come in the ring after.

Overall thoughts: It was the usual disappointing Crown Jewel show. WWE does not let its wrestlers go all out for these shows and does not try to produce epic matches for these shows. I have no idea why since they are getting paid big money for it, since it's a PLE and since the wrestlers and fans want it, but they do it. They basically mailed in the main event. Nia vs Liv was nothing. The Bloodline match was by the numbers and even the men's 3-way was on the shorter end of things. There was nothing must see here and it's a shame since this should have been a classic. WWE has put out better Raw matches than what they did here. I give this a 2 out of 10 just for the sheer lack of care WWE had with this one and for them handicapping everything on purpose for unknown reasons. I'm mad I wasted my time watching this and this was so bad that I'm tempted to not watch another one of these again.