Welcome to sports wellen reports live coverage of WWE Crown Jewel 2024.
Instead of getting matches for the top men’s and women’s titles, WWE has decided to pit the titleholders against each other to determine the first-ever Crown Jewel champions at the Mohammed Abdo Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Here is the full lineup for this year’s WWE Crown Jewel 2024:
1/ Gunther vs. Cody Rhodes (Men’s Crown Jewel Championship)
2/ Liv Morgan vs. Nia Jax (Women’s Crown Jewel Championship)
3/ LA Knight vs. Carmelo Hayes vs. Andrade (United States Championship)
4/ Jade Cargill and Bianca Belair vs. Piper Niven and Chelsea Green vs. Lash Legend and Jakara Jackson vs. Iyo Sky and Kairi Sane (WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship)
5/ Bronson Reed vs. Seth Rollins (Unsanctioned match)
6/ Randy Orton vs. Kevin Owens
7/ Roman Reigns and The Usos V/S. Solo Sikoa, Tama Tonga and Jacob Fatu
(Men’s Crown Jewel Championship) Gunther v/s Cody Rhodes:
The Winner Cody Rhodes
The main event of the night was the men’s Crown Jewel Championship match between Rhodes and Gunther.
They were slow to lock up and circled each other as the crowd chanted on and off. It made them pause for a moment to take it in before finally getting going with an exchange of wristlocks.
The Ring General ( Gunther) outwrestled The American Nightmare (Cody Rhodes) for a few minutes as they kept it simple and focused more on grappling than anything else. Once they upped the intensity, both men started to take more risks and go for bigger impacts. Rhodes tried everything to combat Gunther’s brutal style and seemed to come up short at every turn.
In many ways, this felt like a throwback. They weren’t doing many flashy moves or trying to cheat left and right. They were just two accomplished wrestlers fighting to see who was the best.
Grade- B
Liv Morgan vs. Nia Jax (Women’s Crown Jewel Championship)
The Winner Liv Morgan
This was booked as the usual underdog vs. monster match. Since both women were heels, the crowd didn’t seem to favor one or the other at first, but Morgan quickly gained favor by fighting from underneath.
Tiffany Stratton ran down with her Money in the Bank briefcase, and Jax tried to tell her it wasn’t the right time. Tiffy was told to leave but she had a change of heart. Raquel Rodriguez tried to stop her from cashing in and the distraction allowed Jax to take out both women and her opponent at ringside.
Dominik Mysterio tried to slide the briefcase in, and when the ref went to remove it, Rodriguez shoved Jax off the top rope. Morgan used the opportunity to hit her finisher for the pin and the win.
Triple H was there to present a tearful Morgan with the belt.
This was a decent match that was a little overbooked at the end, but Morgan winning was the right way to go. Stratton cashing in on Jax would have been a great way to end it, but giving Morgan her moment made sense.
Grade-C+
LA Knight vs. Carmelo Hayes vs. Andrade (United States Championship) The Winner of LA Knight
The United States Championship was on the line in a Triple Threat match as Knight defended his title against Hayes and Andrade.
This match came about after Knight prevented Melo and El Idolo from settling their feud with a seventh match, so SmackDown GM Nick Aldis booked him to put the belt on the line as punishment for preventing a proper finish to the series.
All three men started fighting as soon as the bell rang. The Megastar was superkicked out of the ring by both opponents, leaving Hayes and Andrade to duke it out.
This was a fantastic display of different wrestling styles from three talented competitors. From a pure in-ring perspective, this was the best match we had seen up to this point.
Triple Threats can often feel like glorified singles bouts in which one person is isolated while two fight for most of the time, but this was anything but that.
Other than a few short moments, all three men were involved in almost all of the action, which made for a much more exciting contest.
Knight retained his title by hitting his finisher to both men at the same time and pinning Hayes.
Other than one notable moment, everything they did worked perfectly.
Grade- A
Jade Cargill and Bianca Belair vs. Piper Niven and Chelsea Green vs. Lash Legend and Jakara Jackson vs. Iyo Sky and Kairi Sane (WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship) The Winner Belair and Cargill
The women’s tag titles were up for grabs in a Fatal 4-Way bout that featured teams from both NXT and the main roster.
Belair and Cargill came into this bout as the champions but had the odds stacked against them. The EST of WWE and The Genius of the Sky began, but anyone from any team could tag in at any time, so they were trying to avoid the corners that didn’t contain their own teammates.
Sky got a little too close and Green tagged herself in. From this point, the match was a series of quick tags and exchanges from all four teams.
We saw a few botched moves but most of what these performers did looked good. Cargill and Legend were especially stiff with some of their strikes and it made for a great sequence.
As always, Green and Niven stood out because of their hilarious antics, but it’s safe to say all four teams came away from this looking good. The crowd was certainly into it and that’s usually a good barometer to follow.
The final sequence had a few hiccups, but Belair and Cargill were able to retain the titles by taking out Niven with their finisher. This was fun but not without its problems.
Grade- B-
Bronson Reed vs. Seth Rollins (Unsanctioned match): The Match Winner Seth Rollins
Reed and Rollins fought in an unsanctioned match. The wording is supposed to indicate WWE does not approve of this bout and is not responsible for anything that happens.
Rollins was his usual jovial self during his entrance, and Reed had his usual look of disdain as he walked to the ring, but he didn’t even make it halfway before The Visionary met him on the ramp to begin fighting.
Rollins used his speed to keep the big man on defense, but he gave Reed too much time to recover and ended up being thrown over the barricade into an office chair in the timekeeper’s area. They finally got into the ring, and the bell rang to make it official. Welts began to form on The Visionary’s back as the former North American champion decimated him. He kept finding ways to come back, but Reed appeared to have just as much energy and resistance.
This was WWE giving Reed a big opportunity. A singles match at a big event against a multi-time world champion is the chance he has been waiting for to display his ability.
Reed looked like a monster as he shrugged off some of Rollins’ biggest moves, and the crowd was eating up every second of it. At some points, it felt like the Riyadh crowd favored him over The Visionary.
Even with Rollins having a lot more experience, they did a good job of making him feel like the underdog against a near-unstoppable powerhouse. Rollins had to hit several Stomps, including one from the top rope, to finally put Reed away and get the win. This was a lot of fun and made the Australian look like a viable main event star.
Grade- B+
Randy Orton vs. Kevin Owens ; Result – No Contest
Owens seems to be allergic to keeping friends, so after several months of co-existing with Orton and often working together, he ended up turning on The Viper to set up this match.
The Prizefighter’s original issue was with Rhodes, and Orton became a secondary rival after KO perceived him as choosing The American Nightmare over him. During the leadup to this, Owens was banned from most episodes of SmackDown, so they have only gotten physical a couple of times.
As Orton posed on the middle turnbuckle during his entrance, Owens attacked him from behind with a steel chair to the knee. The Viper fought back before he could be power bombed onto the announce table and dropped KO onto it instead.
The ref took the chair from Owens and ended up taking a Stunner for his trouble. Orton fought back with the chair as officials ran down to try to stop them.
Commentator Michael Cole said officials waved off the match as they continued to fight and attack anyone who tried to stop them. The Viper delivered an RKO to Raw GM Adam Pearce before they fought into the crowd. Owens put Orton through some tables with a flying elbow drop to finally end the scuffle.
This was a fun fight and a good way to keep the feud going without one of them needing to take a loss. WWE doesn’t do this kind of thing at PLEs often, so it feels like it was done at the right time for the right feud.
Grade- B
Bloodline ( SOLO) V/S Bloodline (ROMAN) ; The Winner Bloodline (SOLO)
The match WWE chose to open Crown Jewel was the Bloodline Civil War with Reigns’ and Sikoa’s respective versions of The Bloodline fighting in a six-man tag team match. Tanga Loa was not part of the bout but was still present.
The crowd in Riyadh went wild for The Original Tribal Chief and The Usos. The show’s intro and the entrances took a combined 20 minutes, so it took a while for the match to get underway.
Jey and Tama started for their teams and took their time taunting each other between moves. Jimmy got the first tag of the match and the first tag between The Usos in almost 18 months, but he only scored a two-count.
When Reigns asked for a tag, Jey tagged his brother instead. The signs of friction were beginning to show as Sikoa tagged in.
This contest was in line with most of what we have seen from The Bloodline since its inception. This wasn’t a work-rate match with the best chain wrestling or the most dangerous moves.
This was about the story they were telling. It’s the definition of sports-entertainment.
However, we don’t want to take anything away from the six competitors in the ring. Everyone put forth a great effort to make this fun, but it would be a lie to say it was the most action-packed and competitive bout from the PLE.
All that being said, this played out exactly the way it needed to. The new Bloodline was a cohesive unit while the OG Bloodline dealt with communication and trust issues.
The OTC and The Street Champ tagged in at the same time and began trading punches. Both men survived each other’s best shots, but it was Sikoa who emerged as the victor after taking out Reigns with three Samoan Spikes.
Sikoa and his crew continued to assault Reigns and The Usos after the match was over. Sami Zayn’s music hit and he marched his way to the ring. Sikoa held out his arms for a hug and wanted Zayn to join him, but the babyface unleashed an exploder suplex instead.
Zayn ended up accidentally kicking Reigns when Sikoa avoided the hit. Jey, Jimmy and Zayn argued while Reigns tried to recover.
Grade-B+
