By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
WWE Crown Jewel Hits
Seth Rollins vs. Drew McIntyre for the World Heavyweight Championship: From a match quality standpoint, the show peaked with the opening match. Rollins and McIntyre worked the WWE big match style by going back and forth and kicking out of finishers before Rollins ultimately went over clean. The loss leaves McIntyre’s character in a very interesting place, as he came up short and has no one else to blame for it.
John Cena vs. Solo Sikoa: This was the best Cena match in some time. He worked hard and, more importantly, did the right thing by putting over Sikoa clean and decisively. This wasn’t a flukey win like the one that Austin Theory had over Cena at WrestleMania. Sikoa destroyed Cena with Samoan Spikes and then pinned him to pick up the biggest win of his career. It’s all the follow-up for Sikoa, but Cena deserves a lot of credit for giving a huge boost to a rising star.
Cody Rhodes vs. Damian Priest: The popularity of Cody woke up a live crowd that really faded during the two previous matches. This looked like a Raw main event on paper, but they came through with a good match and this was a case where having some outside interference actually enhanced the match. The fans were very receptive when the unadvertised Jey Uso ran off Dominik Mysterio, Finn Balor, and JD McDonagh.
Rhea Ripley vs. Nia Jax vs. Raquel Rodriguez vs. Shayna Baszler vs. Zoey Stark in a five-way for the Women’s World Championship: A soft Hit. The wrestlers (and producers) made the always awkward five-way match work pretty well. Ripley retaining was expected, but I did come away surprised that they didn’t do more to spotlight Jax to set her up with a singles showdown match with Ripley.
Sami Zayn vs. JD McDonagh: A solid pre-show match with the popular babyface going over. These two characters actually have a lot in common in that McDonagh is now in Sami’s old role of pledging for a heel faction that is resistant to adding him.
WWE Crown Jewel Misses
Roman Reigns vs. LA Knight for the WWE Universal Championship: Reigns and Knight came through with a match that was on the high end of what I expected from them. The problem is that they used the same old formula of having outside interference save Reigns. They needed to protect Knight, so it was actually a logical approach to take in this match, but the fact that they’ve done this so many times before made it feel predictable and ineffective. Knight didn’t come off as special for nearly beating Reigns before help arrived, because the vast majority of Roman’s challengers have lost to him in the same fashion. There was no reason why Jey Uso couldn’t have put up the fight of his life and simply lost clean to Reigns in a match designed to make him look strong in defeat, but they used the same outside interference finish for their match and too many others. The formula is tired. There’s no shame in wrestlers losing clean to a strong champion. So while I get why they took this approach with Knight, their past booking sins really came back to haunt them.
Rey Mysterio vs. Logan Paul for the U.S. Title: A soft Miss for the match falling below expectations. Paul set the bar high with his strong performances in previous matches, but he seemed to have an off night in that most of the big spots he attempted looked a little off. I thought Paul would be under consideration for winning the World Heavyweight Championship at some point, so I have no problem with him winning the U.S. Title. Having two part-time wrestlers holding the two men’s titles on Smackdown could be a problem if this is going to be a lengthy title reign, but the social media star holding the belt has already generated a good amount of publicity. Hopefully Paul and the company will get creative by having him shoot videos with the championship to air on Smackdown during the weeks when he’s not actually at the show in person. It will be interesting to see how Santos Escobar tries to explain why he left the brass knuckles on the ring apron.
Iyo Sky vs. Bianca Belair for the WWE Women’s Championship: A well worked match that simply failed to connect with the live crowd. The surprise return of Kairi Sane was fun. Bayley did a really nice job of showing off her uncertainty about what this new alliance means for her by expressing concern from ringside.
Miz TV vs. The Waller Effect: While the live crowd seemed to enjoy the segment, I don’t think this did much for the rest of the world.
Well said about Roman and the outside interference. Not only is it boring and predictable, it completely undermines the aura they have tried to build around Roman. He is supposed to be this untouchable final boss, but he can’t beat anybody on his own.
>>Having two part-time wrestlers holding the two men’s titles on Smackdown could be a problem<<
Nah, not to the sheep that watch the WWE. Hope ya'll all enjoyed the show paid for with blood money, while in the same breath being self-rigtheous virtue-signaling hypocrites about so much else.
Not surprised that MCINTYRE and KNIGHT lost. Of course as usual interference helped the way TOO long Boring ROMAN reign to continue. SOLO NEEDS to SEEK a new swamp and take Heyman, Reigns, the entire Bloodline and other low lifes like Logan Paul along. Guess we really need to acknowledge Reigns as the Tribal CHEAT! YEAH!