The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly of WWE Crown Jewel

THE GOOD: Battle Royal – As is usually the case, I did not really pay attention to the Kickoff Show. I was checking up with AEW Dynamite and NXT from Wednesday night. That being said, you can not go wrong with Humberto Carrillo winning a shot at the United States Championship. Admittedly, I was holding out for a surprise entrant (John Morrison) or somebody chocking to get the victory. Just a standard Raw guy vs. Raw guy works. Nothing fancy or special. Just another nice showcase for Humberto. Oh, and we got some more silly 24/7 Title nonsense. Can’t complain about that.

THE GOOD: WWE Championship – Look, Cain Velasquez is still banged up and is competing in his first ever WWE match. Seriously. I would NOT have placed him against Brock Lesnar for the top title so soon. If you listened to the 411 Foresight Wrestling Podcast over the past month, I was against this happening at Crown Jewel. I would have built it up, got fans behind Cain, and just had Brock Lesnar demolish Kofi Kingston again at Crown Jewel. Tie up that loose end and then hype up Cain A LOT more! Based on his Shelton Benjamin take downs and lukewarm crown reactions, he could use more time. I may know his background and who he is…but I don’t know how many wrestling fan do. Or actually care about his legitimate star power. All that aside, I expected a BS finish and surprise! We had an actual clean finish. I give WWE credit for that. Consider me impressed. WWE, AEW< and NXT have been having at too many BS finishes as of late if you ask me. Brock Lesnar retaining was obvious, and it was short, sweet and to the point. Predictable is fine. They did the MMA thing, Cain got his spots and but got caught. Rey Mysterio pummels him with a chair after for an ounce of revenge. They are on the separate brands, but Survivor Series I next, so who knows?

THE GOOD: NXT/Survivor Series – Wow. Well, talk about a shocking turn of events. NXT will be involved in the Survivor Series fun. Okay, that opens up a ton of doors. After War Games and what is planned for that event, I have no idea how this will work. I am intrigued though. As noted above, Brock and Rey are teasing something, so I assume the brand battles will be the theme. Again.

THE GOOD: World Cup Tag Team Turmoil – Maybe the low point of the show but still entertaining enough to get a positive score. I applaud this bout for four reasons. First, Shane McMahon did not win. Secondly, it got a bunch of folks a hefty payday. You can never fault that…or at least I can’t. Third is Kofi lost again. Fourth, we had a surprising victory for The OC. It certainly shocked me. I expected The Hardyz to reunite or something. Legends and all being the backstory to this entire event even happening. Nope, it was The OC who actually feel like somewhat or a major deal heading into Survivor Series. Again, I am guessing some sort of NXT/Smackdown/RAW clash here. Who would they face?

THE GOOD: Mansoor VS Cesaro – Nothing wrong with a feel good moment for a youngster in front of his friends and family. We all know Cesaro is super talent, so singing his praises every single week feels a little redundant. I thought the star of this match was Mansoor, as it was laid out to be. He is a guy not even on NXT television. The dude stepped up big time to deliver. I was impressed and whether that is due to Cesaro making him look like a million bucks or himself doing the heavy lifting, I don’t care. Mansoor needs to keep this momentum going. I don’t think promoting him twice a year, every few months, is enough. Give him a run. If anything, 205 Live? Does that show still exist? In any event, cool moment for Mansoor, quality win and powerful post-match speech. Well done.

THE GOOD: Tyson Fury VS Braun Strowman – Despite being ‘called out’ on Twitter that I would claim to love this match, that is false. I did not love this match. I didn’t love it, but Tyson Fury did okay. Braun Strowman clearly looked frustrated at some points and wasn’t sure what to do out there with the one off celebrity. There were obvious mishaps or stalling done. So what? Tyson Fury, like Cain in the opener, is a newcomer who is having his first WWE match. Do we cut the guy some slack or just rip on him? Not everybody can be a Floyd Mayweather or Ronda Rousey. Those two are special athletes for a reason. Tyson Fury is a fan, reportedly put his all into training and has said nothing but great things about professional wrestling. Goofy entrance, silly grinning, hard nose promos – that is Tyson Fury. Like Cain, I just assume those that are bashing him have not seen his prior work. Too bad. He did fine and a count out victory keeps both guys strong. Kinda. It’s over with now; best to simply move on.

THE GOOD: US Title Match – AJ Styles is still United States Champion. Humberto put up a good fight but fell victim to the Phenomenal Forearm. Solid match. The OC looking good. CALIFORNIA!!!

THE GOOD: Natalya VS Lacey Evans – For everybody who claimed and adamantly stated WWE would NEVER have a women’s match in Saudi Arabia, you can all apologize now. You can also cross that off your never ending list of things to complain about. Now that there has been a women’s match, what is next? Go ahead, I am sure there is now something to complain about. There is always something, so go ahead and run to the comment section to tell me. I thought this was awesome. WWE (or anybody) is not going to change the world sitting on the couch. You have to go out and DO SOMETHING! Not even two years into this deal, here is something that was claimed to NEVER EVER HAPPEN! Well, here it is. Emotional moment for the women, for the fans in Saudi, for WWE, for us fans, for all the people in the world who understand this revolution. Nattie defeating Lacey Evans is not even relevant here. We all won today.

THE GOOD: Team Hogan VS Team Flair – Hulk Hogan besting Ric Flair once more. I was waiting for those two to start throwing fists. In all the build up, they teased *some* kind of fight. I know it would have been ugly and fairly bad, but again, these are glorified legends shows anyways. Would have probably received the loudest ovation of the entire pay-per-view. This as paint by the numbers but fun. Team Hogan winning with Roman Reigns at the lead was always the end. I was just wondering who would take the loss. King Corbin was my pick. Instead, it seem Randy Orton took the finisher feast with a spear being the decider. Pretty good. This may set the stage for the five on five Survivor Series matches next month in Chicago, Illinois. Doubt Hogan/Flair continues. For one off stuff, this is okay. We have 38,948 hours of wrestling per week. Is a three hour PPV like this twice a year really a big deal worth crying about? No.

THE GOOD: Universal Championship – Halloween, very fitting. Smackdownnow claims both the Universal and WWE Title. Shocking. The Fiend Bray Wyatt is once again holding s top title. Hindsight says if you were going to make the switch, do it inside the cell. I’m sure Raw (Seth Rollins) will still grab the belt back by the conclusion of Survivor Series. We can cross that bridge next month. For now, The Fiend truly does come off as unstoppable. Big time momemt. A far cry from fans laughing at The FireFly Funhouse episodes debuting…who is laughing now?

SUMMARY: Will we remember half of this crap in a month? Probably not. Will it be relevant to the Survivor Series hype? Probably not? Is this an all-time great show? Probably not. Still, it was a little over three hours and was a pretty good card, top to bottom. Plus, The Fiend is officially Universal Champion! There, one less thing to complain about. I can’t come up with anything that was downright embarrassing or horrible. My review score is about a 7 out of 10, good show.