WWE Crown Jewel 2019

[Kam 243]

Well...I have to admit, I thought that was pretty good.

 

I loved the staging from last year, so I was happy they used it again. The crowd being more vocal made a HUGE difference! I couldn't see the sofa area for the Royal Family, I guess there were more fans ringside this time.

 

It was a surprise to see Lesnar/Velasquez open the show and more of a surprise to see Brock win via submission. I thought they might try to drag this feud out some more. I wasn't expecting much from it. I liked Rey going crazy with the chair shots at the end.

 

Tag team turmoil was good, some nice moments there. I wasn't expecting Otis to get such a great reaction :)

 

I thought Cesaro was going to be in the 5-man match, I obviously haven't been paying attention. I thought both did great, I enjoyed the match. I wasn't sure who would win, it could have gone either way. Full credit to Mansoor, did much better than I was expecting, he's obviously still got lots to learn, but he's done so well considering he's still a newbie.

 

I knew Fury had to win, so at least it being by count-out saves a little face for Braun.

 

Carillo lost again!

 

Natalya and Evans both got a great reaction, crowd seemed into the match, both ladies seemed to be quite emotional - thought it was a nice moment.

 

Loved the 5-man match (not sure about Ricochet's outfit though!). - lots of great spots, fans totally ate it up.

 

I HATE the red lighting for The Fiend! It was alright, the right man won. When Seth went curb stomp crazy...I was thinking not again! Then we got the pyro spot and I thought Fiend was going to lose so I was pleasantly surprised for him to take the win.

 

Overall, easily the best Saudi show to date.

[Zack T 171]

Decent show, probably the best Saudi show so far, but that's not really saying much.

 

Not surprised Humberto won the battle royal to face AJ later. I figured it'd either be him, Apollo Crews, or Cedric Alexander, they're the only guys in the match that made the most sense.

 

Brock and Cain being first was fine, though the match was not very good. It wasn't terrible, but Cain was clearly out of his depth and the surprisingly fast tap out really doesn't do him any favors moving forward. That makes me think that Cain will eventually be booked to be dominant, but not like Brock-dominant. Also, Rey hit a chairshot to the face on Brock but he just shrugged it off :P Wonder if anyone will mention it.

 

Screw the tag team turmoil resulting in the OC beating The Viking Raiders, that's their first loss in WWE and THAT'S how you do it? I could've swallowed that better if the Viking Raiders had started turmoil and ran through everyone until the end, at least then they'd be exhausted. But that's absolutely stupid. I thought they'd save that first L for the AoP vs Viking Raiders, but since when does WWE book smartly? Not very often.

 

Mansoor is funny. He basically only exists when we go to Saudi Arabia and is paraded out to be the hometown hero and be the unlikely underdog who somehow wins the big match he's in, and then disappears and we see him again 6 months later at Saudi Arabia again. He's had maybe 1 NXT appearance where he lost, and that's about it. Anyway, it was obvious Cesaro was gonna eat the loss here. Gotta make the crowd happy.

 

I did enjoy the 24/7 shenanigans backstage. R-Truth running into a door was LOL.

 

First women's match in Saudi Arabia was...fine, I guess. I don't understand why they'd use Lacey and Natalya? Just a bad pairing to throw out there. Natalya is deserving but she could've had a better opponent. Oh well. At least they did it, that's cool.

 

AJ and Humberto was fine. Humberto loses yet again, predictably. He needs to start winning soon or else he's not gonna go anywhere.

 

I honestly expected Team Flair to win, I felt they had the stronger team. But whatever.

 

Bray and Seth was essentially Hell In A Cell part 2, but this time they did the right ending. Shocked that they did, honestly expected some nonsense of Seth pinning Bray under a forklift or just match stoppage even though they said it wouldn't be stopped. When Bray got sent into the exploding electrical equipment, I figured that was it. I admit, they did great work at the very end there with Seth pretending to be blinded by that last spark from the equipment and Bray rising from the ashes and taking him down, that was well done. I guess Bray gets traded back to Raw in exchange for Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross since that "BLOCKBUSTER TRADE" was done a couple weeks ago and Raw never got anyone in return for it. Though if that's how this plays out, you gotta think that makes Fox look stupid as hell for trading the new universal champion and the hottest thing in WWE today for...Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross.