Csonka’s WWE Crown Jewel 2019 Preview

WELCOME back to column time with Larry! Today, I am going to discuss and preview the WWE Sweet Saudi Money IV: The Blood is Surprisingly Easy to Wash Out event. WWE and the Saudi General Sports Authority announced the event, which is the second as part of a 10-year strategic multi-platform partnership between WWE and the Saudi General Sports Entertainment Authority that will make WWE hundreds of millions no matter who they piss off. The show will feature WWE Champion Brock Lesnar vs. Cain Velasquez, Braun Strowman vs. Tyson Fury, and more. As always, I’ll be breaking the show down mach by match. . Feel free to make your picks in the comment section. Thanks for reading! It’s wrestling, we love it and will disagree. The only rules are “have a take, be respectful, and don’t be a dick.”

20-Man Battle Royal for a US Title Shot: Sunil Singh, Mojo Rawley, Erick Rowan, R-Truth, Sin Cara, The Brian Kendrick, Titus O’Neil, Tony Nese, Akira Tozawa, Shelton Benjamin, Apollo Crews, Buddy Murphy, Andrade, Drake Maverick, Eric Young, Luke Harper, Cedric Alexander, Heath Slater, Humberto Carrillo, & No Way Jose will be involved, and it will be every battle royal ever. WINNER: Humberto Carrillo

US Champion AJ Styles vs. Battle Royal Winner: Depending on who gets to face Styles, this could be a real mixed bag. Recent Styles matches have been far from bad, but at times a bit disappointing. He had some good outings with Ricochet & Cedric, but it really felt that they could have been more with better producing from the agents, as the matches never felt like they really played to the strengths of Styles or his opponents. I’m hoping for the best, and see Styles retaining against Carrillo as they drag that story along. WINNER: AJ Styles

Lacey Evans vs. Natalya: Well,, they finally did it, we finally got a women’s match on a Saudi money show. Of course it’s a rematch of a feud they ran into the ground and Natalya firmly won, but hey, we should thank Stephanie McMahon for creating all things women and giving us hope. But in all seriousness, this likely means the world to Natalya, who has been a good soldier for the company and reportedly puts in a lot of work helping the women behind the scenes. WINNER: Natalya

Mansoor vs. Cesaro: As we all know, Cesaro is tremendously talented, but a guy that WWE has no real plans with in terms of a push, he’s just around to have good matches and put people over. There’s obviously value in that, but I also feel that he’s a guy they could have done much more with. Mansoor won the horrible 600 man battle royal at the last blood money show and is their attempt to make a hero for the Saudi people. In all honesty, he’s a pretty good performer who they have largely mothballed in the performance center. Cesaro is great, Mansoor has potential and if he can follow along this could be good. Mansoor wins to please the prince. WINNER: Mansoor

The Biggest Tag Team Turmoil Match Ever: The Viking Raiders vs. The Revival vs. The New Day vs. Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode vs. Heavy Machinery vs. Lucha House Party vs. Zack Ryder & Curt Hawkins vs. The OC vs. The B Team: Every blood money show needs a biggest or best something ever, from Royal Rumble to battle royal to best in the world, and now we get the biggest tag team turmoil match in the history of man to crown the bestest ever tag team in the multi-verse. I have a feeling that this goes one of two ways, it either gets shorted on time and ends up not so good because they don’t get the time to work, or it goes way too long and becomes a slog and ends up being really bad and boring (like the yearly CHIKARA King of Trios gauntlet match). They have pushed The Viking Raiders as undefeated as well as former ROH, NXT, IWGP and now Raw tag team champions. They are awesome and in a perfect world should run through these geeks (ok I like the Revival & New Day) with ease and win. WINNERS: The Viking Raiders

Team Hogan (Rusev, Ricochet, Ali, Gable, & Reigns) vs. Team Flair (Orton, Corbin, Lashley, Nakamura, & McIntyre): According to all reports, the Saudi Prince/sports authority wanted Hogan & Flair for this show. Hogan & Flair were more than willing to wrestle, even if in a limited spot in a tag match, but WWE won’t even clear them to take bumps on TV for an angle, let alone wrestle because Hogan’s back, hips, & knees are thrashed, and well, we’re not that far removed from that time Ric Flair almost died. But they are getting them to appear as captains of their respective teams for this match, and they are likely getting paid a really nice appearance fee for it. If you look at the talent involved, the match certainly has a ton of potential, but at the same time, many of the matches on these shows have had potential and failed to deliver. They also picked a good lineup in terms of picking guys with already established issues, which also helps. Team Hogan are the faces, they have the big dog, and Hogan pretty much always beats Flair, so let me tell you something brothers, I’ll go with team Hogan, brother, dude, jack. WINNER: Team Hogan

Braun Strowman vs. Tyson Fury: Tyson Fury is making 12 to 15 MILLION DOLLARS for this match. His involvement in the match was at the request of the Saudi Prince/sports authority as part of their synergy in putting on the Ruiz vs. Joshua fight. I have absolutely no idea what to expect here, but I must know I Braun’s big Saudi belt is on the line here. Fury is obviously an athlete, but pro wrestling is so much different than anything else. There have been “celebrity/guest athlete” success stories, but also disasters. I am hoping for the best here, but Fury’s limited stuff so far hasn’t exactly looked good (he’s obviously not used to pulling punches/protecting people), and on top of that, Strowman isn’t the kind of performer I am confident can carry a match no mater how much they lay it out and practice it. Obviously this needs to be kept short and try to be more spectacle than grappling contest. The winner is a real coin flip, but if Braun loses here, following his big title match failures, he’s basically pigeonholed into Big Show territory, which I am sure is fine in terms of sticking around and making money, but he’s only getting older and it feels that they have really missed the boat on a Strowman title run. I hope it doesn’t suck, but that potential is certainly there for it to. WINNER: Braun Strowman

Falls Count Anywhere Universal Tile Match: Champion Seth Rollins vs. The Fiend: This is our rematch from the atrocious HIAC main event. I have absolutely no idea why you’d revisit this match, as I’d want to get as far away from helping kill the HIAC match as I could. Also, they are on different brands now, that was their out and they refused to take it.

They showed no regard or respect for their fan base with the HIAC finish, so I’ll return the favor here. WINNER: They’ll somehow work a fuck finish here. Why???

AND THE MATCH WILL GO ON FOREVER SINCE THE MATCH CANNOT BE STOPPED FOR ANY REASON

Champion Brock Lesnar vs. Cain Velasquez: While Cain has done a couple of AAA dates, showed some promise and loves wrestling, this could also go badly like Braun Strowman vs. Tyson Fury. Cain doesn’t want to do “MMA styled Wrestling,” my man wants to be a luchadore, but I highly doubt that WWE will allow him to do that. This will likely be a short, explosive, throw everything at the wall Heyman laid out match that may emulate the Cain vs. Brock MMA fight from a decade ago. That’s part of the strength to the story, the background.. That and Brock killing Rey & Dominic. At first glance, you’d think no title change, since we haven’t had one at a Saudi show. BUT I think there’s a chance here. First, I think there’s a because there hasn’t been a title change, and the Saudis aren’t paying top dollar for these blood money shows not to get anything important out of it. The other reason is because we all know Heyman has a ton of input/influence on Brock’s matches. I also feel that he knows, no matter how much they try to protect Cain, that if he comes in and loses. It could damage him to a fan base that doesn’t really know him. I could see Heyman wanting to emulate the Goldberg program here, have Cain come in and surprise Brock and win the title, stretch it out, work a non-finish in the middle and build to a final culmination in a third match where Brock wins the title back. We see what happens, likely nothing all that good, but we do know that Kofi’s a geek that got his ass kicked in seconds, came back, threw pancakes, didn’t demand a rematch or show anything resembling emotion and they got pinned in a tag match after it being announced he’s be challenging for the tag titles… so who the fuck knows with this company. WINNER: Cain Velasquez

JOIN 411 FOR LIVE COVERAGE OF THE SHOW TODAY AT NOON ET.

The 411 on Wrestling Podcast returns to the 411 Podcasting Network for episode 63. On the show, 411’s Larry Csonka & Jeremy Lambert break down week five of the Wednesday Night Wars between NXT & AEW, and preview MLW Superfight. The show is approximately 96-minutes long.

* Intro
* AEW Dynamite (10.30.19) Review: 2:45
* NXT (10.30.19) Review: 34:45
* The Comparison/Who Won Week Five: 54:45
* MLW Superfight PPV Preview: 1:02:45

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– End scene.

– Thanks for reading.