With WWE Crown Jewel 2019 concluded, it’s time to look back on what happened and assess the damage, praise the positives and talk about what went down.
Per usual, at the end of this post, you’ll see my regular Smack Talk Pay-Per-Viewpoint post-show podcast, which reviews the event in more detail, but for those who want a more condensed version of my thoughts, I present to you my “quicker than a hiccup” reaction to the different parts of the evening:
20-Man Battle Royal:
I like battle royals, so this match was fine. Admittedly, it could have done a lot more to be good as there weren’t any real takeaways. Also, I wasn’t fond of Humberto Carrillo winning, as it was predictable, I didn’t want to see a rematch and I’m not a big fan of him in general. But this was fine for what it was.
WWE Championship Match: Brock Lesnar (c) vs. Cain Velasquez:
As much as I don’t like Brock Lesnar holding the championship, nor am I ever fond of these super quick matches, they made the right call. Giving the belt to Velasquez would have been an even bigger mistake. Between the two options, I’m happy with this, even though I’d much rather them have the title on someone else.
World Cup Tag Team Turmoil Match:
This was quite a bit of fun. It ate up a big chunk of the event, but it didn’t get tiresome. I was really surprised that The Viking Raiders lost and The O.C. won. That was definitely one of the most shocking things of the night. The good thing about that is that The O.C. just got a much-needed boost to their credibility and should have a rightful tag title match sometime soon that this can come out of.
Mansoor vs. Cesaro:
Best match of the night. Cesaro helped guide Mansoor along into a great performance that showed that he can actually do more than what WWE lets him do. I’d love to see him get some actual screen time beyond just the Saudi Arabia shows. Put him on NXT and 205 Live. Make him someone. He proved himself here, so give him more stock.
Braun Strowman vs. Tyson Fury:
Boy was this a dud. It wasn’t the worst match ever, but there was nothing at all awesome about it. They completely bypassed tapping into its potential.
I’m glad Strowman didn’t lose by pinfall or knockout. The count-out was a cop-out, sure, but it was the best way to protect Strowman while still keeping Fury undefeated. Having Strowman hit a powerslam right after, just for Fury to get right up, though…
United States Championship Match: AJ Styles (c) vs. Humberto Carrillo:
I already saw it on Raw. Carrillo had no shot at winning. I’m not even big on Carrillo’s work enough to “just enjoy it for what it was” or anything like that. Pass.
Lacey Evans vs. Natalya:
We’ve seen this match like a dozen times this year, so the in-ring action did absolutely nothing for me. It was also really, really strange for Natalya, in particular, to have such reserved lack of energy in her entrance. It was as if she was nervous she would smile too much and cause an international incident, which is absurd, but you never know with these sort of things.
But as much as every element of this was blah, the fact that it happened was the real takeaway. That’s the only thing that truly matters. Kudos for finally being able to take that step forward, even if its so, so many years behind the ball.
Team Hogan vs. Team Flair:
For the most part, this was all that it had to be to pull it off, and I don’t really have any complaints. In particular, I enjoyed the RKO near-fall.
Universal Championship Falls Count Anywhere Match: Seth Rollins (c) vs. Bray Wyatt:
The red light filter is lame. The pyro spot was lame. The action in the match was subpar, for the most part. WWE never should have gotten themselves into a position where this feud would be a double-turn, of sorts. Now, both champions are on SmackDown, and I feel like there’s no way in hell WWE is able to pull that off well. They’ll either have Wyatt or Lesnar drop the title in some stupid fashion before Survivor Series or they’ll screw that card up because they can’t do SmackDown WWE Champion vs. SmackDown Universal Champion vs. NXT Champion.
I’ll probably rant about this quite a bit, but I feel like everyone who is saying “yay” that Wyatt won the title is blissfully ignorant to how the match was blah and there are lots of problems that will come out of this, too. This didn’t solve anything. It’s just a mercy response to a prior bad booking decision that is going to lead to more bad booking.
For more opinions on the show as a whole, check out the latest edition of the Smark Out Moment wrestling podcast SMACK TALK as the panel reviews Hell in a Cell with our immediate reactions following the event before the dust has fully settled.
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