WWE Crown Jewel 2018 Review (Part 2)

WWE Crown Jewel 2018
November 2, 2018
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

One of the biggest nights of the calendar year for WWE sees Shawn Michaels returning to action as he teams with Triple H to represent D-Generation X and go into battle against The Brothers of Destruction. Also, the vacant Universal Championship is up for grabs in a bout between Brock Lesnar and Braun Strowman while the WWE World Cup Tournament decides who is the best in the world.

Match 6: WWE World Cup Semifinal - The Miz vs. Rey Mysterio
At this point, the crowd is beginning to become deflated from what has already been a pretty long night. Either way, the show must go on as the first semifinal match of the night sees The Miz go against an injured Rey Mysterio. Mysterio is nursing his injured ribs throughout the match and Miz is doing is best to exploit that injury. This made for some fun action and probably the best match of the night with Mysterio gutting through the contest and even kicking out of a Skull Crushing Finale. However, Mysterio hit a 619 and followed it up with a dive from the top that resulted in Miz putting his knees up into Mysterio's injured ribs. Miz quickly pinned Mysterio to close the match and advance.
Winner: The Miz
Rating: ***

Match 7: WWE World Cup Semifinal - Seth Rollins vs. Dolph Ziggler
When you run out of ideas, what do you do? That's right, put Seth Rollins and Dolph Ziggler together in a singles match. Some may argue that these two had the feud of the year in 2018 as they do battle in Saudi Arabia. Per usual, the two had a great match as their chemistry together has completely been raised to a different level after all their bouts. However, this match just wasn't as exciting as their other encounters with such a dead crowd to work with. They built much of the match around Drew McIntyre being ringside and possibly interfering until Rollins was able to later take both him and Ziggler out with a single dive out of the ring. However, McIntyre would later insert himself in the match by tossing Rollins off the top rope which led to Ziggler hitting a Superkick for the win. Solid match between the two but like I said, not their best one but still a great match for what has been a fairly dull night.
Winner: Dolph Ziggler
Rating: ***1/4

Match 8: WWE Championship - AJ Styles (c) vs. Samoa Joe
AJ Styles and Samoa Joe meet once again in a singles match here for the WWE Championship. More than two hours deep into the show and the crowd is already super tired, tough task for the two veterans here. Despite the crowd being completely out of the action and having their own fun in the stands, the two in the ring were still able to put on a solid match as you would expect from the two. However, that isn't to say the match didn't feel a tad bit underwhelming. For a feud that has gotten so personal, I would have preferred to see the two beat the daylights out of each other opposed to a regular singles match that we were presented with here. Styles is able to hit a Phenomenal Forearm to seal Joe's fate as Styles is able to go home with the title in his hands. What's the count for failed title challenges for Joe at this point? Poor guy.
Winner: AJ Styles
Rating: ***

Match 9: WWE Universal Championship - Brock Lesnar vs. Braun Strowman
With Roman Reigns having to surrender his Universal Championship, it was left vacant as Brock Lesnar and Braun Strowman having a match here to determine a new champion. Before the bell even rings, GM Baron Corbin whacks Strowman over the head with the Universal Championship belt. Lesnar is able to land a few F5s to Strowman who is able to still kick out of them. Lesnar then tried to win the match by tossing Strowman out of the ring with an F5 until Strowman was able to beat the referee's count by sliding back into the ring. However, this would lead Strowman to walk right back into another F5 for Lesnar to score the assisted win. Hate him or love him, Lesnar is definitely the top guy of the company and it's no surprise why they put the belt back on him. Every time his music hits, people stop to watch. For Strowman, his momentum was basically derailed at this point and by the end of 2019 now, he's still trying to find his footing.
Winner: Brock Lesnar
Rating: 3/4*

Match 10: WWE World Cup Final - Shane McMahon vs. Dolph Ziggler
Welp, The Miz was unable to compete due to injury so Shane McMahon decided it would be best to sub himself in and take on Dolph Ziggler. Much to the chagrin of Baron Corbin and the Raw commentators, the bell rings and it's a fresh McMahon against a worn down Ziggler in the final. As you could imagine, a very quick match here with Shane being able to hit his Coast-to-Coast finisher and scoring the big win as he went on to celebrate as if he went through the rigorous tournament himself. Strange finish and really puts a stinker on could have been a cool thing to do yearly at this Saudi events. I guess this was their way of setting up the brand warfare for Survivor Series.
Winner: Shane McMahon
Rating: 1/2*

Match 11: D-Generation X vs. The Brothers of Destruction
We finally got it, the one match everyone was looking forward to happening in 2018... D-Generation X against The Brothers of Destruction. It is insane to think how long these guys have been doing this for. As much as everyone was hating on this match before it even happened, just about everyone was still interested in seeing Shawn Michaels make his return to the ring for the first time since retiring in 2010. That included me, as much as I would prefer to see these guys step away from the ring at times, there was still no denying the interest I had in seeing Michaels back. Funny thing, he was probably the one who looked the best in the ring despite having over 8 years off. Everything else in this match looked so sluggish and slow with both teams fighting in a match that went way longer than it had any right to. The nostalgia feelings wore off early on and watching these guys wrestle just felt a bit disheartening. A couple Sweet Chin Musics to The Undertaker and Kane led to Triple H landing a Pedigree on Kane to score the win as the match and show mercifully come to an end.
Winners: D-Generation X
Rating: **1/2

Overall Show Thoughts and Rating:
This was a long ass show and I felt like I should have been compensated with pay once I finished. Seriously, having shows this long feels like such a chore to finish and the action certainly becomes repetitive at times with the crowd being basically dead near the half-way mark. There were a couple good spots during the show but the main events were pretty bad and definitely not worth investing your time into.
Rating: 4.25/10