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411 Wrestling Fact or Fiction: Was Crown Jewel the Best WWE PPV of the Year?

October 24, 2021 | Posted by Jake Chambers
Brock Lesnar Crown Jewel Image Credit: WWE

Welcome back to 411mania’s Wrestling Fact or Fiction. I’m your host Jake Chambers. This week we’re looking at the fallout from WWE’s latest Saudi Arabia show, Crown Jewel, and the conclusion of the always epic New Japan G1 Climax.

And who better to join me to discuss these tops than this week’s guest: IAN HAMILTON.

Ian is a match reviewer of the highest degree, painting pictures with his words to vividly describe the action in a way that puts you into the action, and sometimes even makes it sound better than it looked. His wit emerges throughout as well, placing you not just in a match technically but also shaping the experience critically. He held NJPW’s feet to the fire every night during the G1 tournament, and gave a fair assessment of the Crown Jewel PPV here.

But I’ve got some even bigger topics for him to ponder about those two shows, so let’s get to!

Statement #1: Crown Jewel was the best WWE PPV of 2021.

Jake Chambers: FACT – Just from my gut and memory, I think it was the best, but I don’t have my own show scores to compare the way a reviewer like Ian could. Personally, I’ve considered Wrestlemania Backlash to be the PPV of the year because they went full-on with a Cesaro title shot push and let him and Roman have a very Cesaro-y main event. I think Crown Jewel trumped Backlash by being a fast-paced, loaded card where most of the matches over-delivered for me, especially when all of these Saudi shows of the past looked good on paper but turned out so bad.

Ian Hamilton: FICTION – I’ve not paid too much attention to main roster WWE this year, but I find it tough to say that Crown Jewel would be the best show of the year, even without the general ill will around it. I’d give that tag to Wrestlemania, but sadly for the stuff they edited out of the network archive! 

Statement #2: It’s time to retire the Hell in a Cell gimmick.

Jake Chambers: FICTION – A day ago this would have been FACT, but the Edge/Rollins Hell in a Cell match was a refreshing return to the gimmick as an organic feud-ender rather than an arbitrary spot on the calendar feuds would have to match. That being said, I do wish they’d add some element to the gimmick since the threat of being thrown off the top has long been outdated. Maybe one of the sides of the cell is set to explode when touched? Could the cell get smaller as the match goes on? Or how about bringing back those Kennel from Hell dogs for another try?

Ian Hamilton: FICTION – There’s a difference between retire and change how you use something. WWE is horribly guilty of overusing stipulations because its that time of the year. Get rid of the Hell in a Cell pay per view (and Money in the Bank too while we’re at it), and only use the thing when they have storylines and matches that fit it. Sure it’ll mean more planning, but less is more! 

Statement #3: Brock Lesnar is in your Top 50 favourite wrestlers of all time.

Jake Chambers: FICTION – I put a list like this together earlier this year, and one of the toughest cuts was Lesnar. I still harbour a lot of animosity over his short-match, suplex-only, absentee championship reign, which I believe sparked the mid-2010s Mediocrity Era in the WWE. An argument for Brock to crack the 40s, at least, is the variety of characters he has transformed into over the years, whether it was the silent killer “next big thing” or the wacky bully that climaxed in that all-timer feud with Eddie Guerrero. And seeing him so effortlessly slip into the underdog babyface role at Crown Jewel did make me to re-evaluate how much I have enjoyed Brock. But am I really going to squeeze Hardcore Holly out of the #50 spot on my list for Lesnar though? Meh, unlikely.

Ian Hamilton: FACT – I’ve never really sat down and charted my favourite 50, but Brock would probably make it to that list, if only for his later era blitzes and squashes. His early WWE run was perhaps the most memorable debut pushes in WWE’s recent history, even that run ended acrimoniously. Memories of being in the Garden as everyone chanted “you sold out” at him remain vivid, but regardless of how and why, in hindsight that time away really worked out for him in the long run. 

¡SWITCH!

Statement #4: Bryan Danielson will enter and win the New Japan G1 Climax tournament next year.

Ian Hamilton: FACT (with a big asterisk) – IF Japan’s recovered from Covid to the point where the country are granting visas and allowing a free-r flow of travel than they are now, then absolutely. Assuming the G1 moves back to a summer slot in 2022, then Bryan should be able to do the G1 and make it back to the States for All Out 2022, and (injury and Covid aside), I’d almost call Danielson a lock. Barring some major faux-pas that puts AEW back in New Japan’s bad books, that is!

Jake Chambers: FICTION – While it’s gotta be a lock that Bryan will be in the G1 next year (assuming it’s physically possible, like Ian says), I don’t think he will actually win the whole thing. Maybe he makes the finals, but winning presumes Bryan will have to make a bigger commitment to the NJPW schedule. Does Bryan win the G1 but then lose the main event of WrestleKingdom? That feels wrong. Like Xavier Woods willing his King of the Ring victory into existence, I think all of Bryan’s interviews about competing in the G1 will make that a reality, but he’s only talking about being in it, not winning it.

Statement #5: If there is an injury during the Finals of the G1, like there was this year to Kota Ibushi, New Japan should be prepared with an alternative way to end the match / tournament.

Ian Hamilton: FICTION – There’s only so much you can plan for – New Japan historically has presented wrestling like a sport (let’s not discuss the House of Torture or later-day Bullet Club, but you know what I mean!), and if any other individual sporting event had an injury in it, we’d be in the same spot as we are now. Should New Japan (or any promotion, for that matter) have back-ups for storylines? Of course, but New Japan in 2021 has been utterly snakebit, so who’s to say they hadn’t planned Naito as the 1A, Ibushi the 1B and Okada the 1C choices?

Jake Chambers: FACT – I’m not sure how they’d do it, but c’mon, the way the G1 ended this year was so lame. As a fan, you invest a month watching and charting the progress of this grueling tournament and it MUST pay off with one of the best matches of the year. I don’t care how they do it, but it’s their job to make sure we get it regardless of any Acts of God. Like Ian said, New Japan is presented more like a sport, but the beauty of it being pro-wrestling is that unlike professional sports that often do end anticlimactically, New Japan can guarantee we get an epic match every championship final. I wish they’d brought out Cobb or Shingo or Zack Sabre Jr. to finish the match once Ibushi went out.

Statement #6: NXT UK is currently the best weekly episodic pro-wrestling TV show.

Ian Hamilton: FICTION – There was a spell earlier this year where I’d have said “fact,” but NXT UK in the second half of this year developed a lack of longer-term planning. Now they’ve built up (and delivered) WALTER/Ilja 2, there’s no long-term main event direction to hang your hats on. At best, stories (and wrestlers) pop up for one week  a month before disappearing again until the next round of tapings happen. Can they get back to their peak from earlier in the year? Yes, but there’s the wider question over just what NXT UK looks like in 2021/2022 when the very thing it was meant to copy (NXT) has been reformatted. 

Jake Chambers: FACT – NXT UK is the closest spiritual successor to Lucha Underground we’ve, which is a show I rank among the best TV ever let alone a pro-wrestling show. Some of the aspects of LU that make NXT UK so great are the variety of unique characters with new ones popping up all the time, the clear motivations of everyone on the show to pursue championships or settle grudges, and the fact that every week there can be a long, awesome match (hell, there was a random Mustache Mountain vs. Smith & Carter match a couple of weeks ago that I’d put in my Top 30 for the year). Having the secondary Heritage Cup division has been a revelation to me for how to pace matches and tell stories in a narratively logical way. And best of all, they did it all in just one hour! More popular choices like Dynamite or Smackdown are just so full of stuff I don’t want: long entrances, droning on speeches, commercial breaks, finisher spamming in matches. NXT UK is tight, thrilling, creative and logical. But Ian brings up my worst fear, now that NXT 2.0 has changed, will WWE do the same to their secret little side promotion?

Thanks again to the great Ian Hamilton for joining me this week. Be sure to follow his reviews when they pop up, especially his tough but fair weekly NXT UK columns. The man actually lives in the UK so he’s the expert! And to prove it, he’s got a great collection of photos from indie shows across the territory that you should definitely take some time to peruse: https://www.flickr.com/photos/backbodydrop/

Also, please follow Ian on Twitter @IanWrestling

See you next week!

article topics :

WWE, WWE Crown Jewel, Jake Chambers