WWE Crown Jewel 2023 review: not quite precious but solid

In the words of Pascal Sauvage, “I can’t believe I done this!!” (bit of an obscure reference there). With this show catch up and wrap up, we are on target and ready to cover what went down this past Saturday at WWE’s final PLE of 2023, Survivor Series. Before that though, at the beginning of this month, WWE headed to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia for Crown Jewel.

A show that saw LA Knight make a good story with Roman Reigns as he heads to the main event scene where he belongs. So, lets see what went down at Crown Jewel 2023…

1. Sami Zayn vs. JD McDonagh (Kick-Off Show)

The kick-off show match is back! As Judgment Day member in training (at the time) JD McDonagh went toe to toe with Sami Zayn in a decent match that the crowd liked. Sami was over huge here and thankfully got the win over JD, who had a hell of a blood bruise on his gut that must have hurt a lot!

2. WWE World Heavyweight Championship Match 

Drew McIntyre vs. Seth “Freakin’” Rollins (c)

In a common trend with Seth Rollins’ current title run (not really through any fault of his own), this one arguably had the wrong winner, though unlike previous examples this result does benefit a developing story. That being Drew McIntyre’s current character transformation into a heel, though if you ask me, the guy has great points and I don’t see him as a villain…which sometimes makes for the best villains admittedly! McIntyre still holds it against Jey Uso for Clash at the Castle and his screwy loss to Roman (one of many missed opportunities throughout Roman’s run), and believes he shouldn’t “get over it”. It’s a good story because it’s true, as is his lack of a major title win with an audience and McIntyre is doing such fantastic character work. And this opening match between he and Rollins was probably the best match on this show objectively. A fast moving, unpredictable fight, with a mighty challenger having that title in his grasp and staying true to his word to not take Judgment Day up on their offer of interference. Though that may have been a bad call, because Seth got the win here after a pedigree and curb stomp, after looking beat many times. Fantastic match.

Post match Damian Priest came out ready to pick the bones of a beaten up Rollins, but Sami Zayn arrived and stole his briefcase meaning it couldn’t happen. Again, they should perhaps have pulled the trigger here and done it.

Backstage a broken looking Drew saw Rhea Ripley who pretty much motioned as if “told ya so”.

3. Fatal-Five-Way WWE Women’s World Championship Match 

Rhea Ripley (c) vs. Shayna Baszler vs. Zoey Stark vs. Nia Jax vs. Raquel Rodriguez

Drew/Seth may have been the best match of the night looking at things objectively but personally, this was my favourite match of the evening. Seriously. From Rhea Ripley’s special Saudi Arabian themed entrance to the action itself, I loved it, and wish they had given them more time than just over ten minutes. Going into the show this destruction derby of Raw’s badass women had my attention, I loved the brawl they had week’s prior and how legit every woman here was, and when the bell rang, every single woman was a credible threat to Ripley, which made this excellent. Of everyone here, perhaps the breakout star was Zoey Stark who looked incredible and shone, by establishing herself among the stacked line-up. This kept moving and moving, with multi-person melee and near falls aplenty but Ripley would not be denied, when she hit an avalanche Riptide on Stark onto both Raquel Rodriguez and Shayna Baszler and then pinned Baszler for the win. In an impressive title defence, I feared the returning Nia Jax (who has had a good comeback) may have been the choice for the sake of heat but Ripley was the right call, and she very much is one of the MVPs of WWE TV right now!

4. John Cena vs. Solo Sikoa

This match was built around the fact that John Cena has not won a singles PLE match since 2018, in Saudi Arabia against Triple H. So he was on a mission to prove he still had it, and boldly WWE opted to show that he may not in this decimation of Cena by Bloodline muscle Solo Sikoa. The match was nothing to write home about, as they worked a deliberate, slower, style but it made a point and then some. despite promising his atypical superman comeback, Solo would annihilate Cena with numerous Samoan spikes to get the dominant pinball win. Whether it was a good call or not depends on where Solo goes from here but no doubt about it, it made a statement. Cena should be applauded for his selflessness too, he has done nothing but assist and put people over of late. Fair play to him. Post-match he received an ovation, as they hinted at retirement, though I doubt right now that happens, though we may well be in the last in-ring days of one of WWE’s biggest stars.

The Miz hosted a “Miz TV” segment with special guest, Saudi Arabian actor and comedian Ibrahim Al Hajjaj. They were interrupted by Grayson Waller, who tried to turn it into The Grayson Waller Effect. Miz and Waller got into it leading to a Skull Crushing Finale on Waller, followed by Hajjaj performing the People’s Elbow on him. Crowd loved it. But this was just time wasting really.

5. WWE United States Championship

Rey Mysterio (c) vs. Logan Paul

Nice to see the US Championship actually get a spotlight. Logan Paul made a desert buggy drive in entrance for this showdown with Rey Mysterio for the gold and while the match was not as superb as some of Logan’s prior matches, this was great fun on par with the Ricochet SummerSlam match. It even came with a similar finish as Logan used the brass knuckles, initially stopped by Rey’s LWO teammate Santos Escobar but when he left them ringside, Logan grabbed ‘em and nailed Rey for the cheap win and his first championship. Love that William Regal finish! Logan is a natural at this and the heel game, but is developing a real awareness too (at one point here even saving Rey from potential injury in the match). It was good match between two great workers, one a legend, one shockingly a social media star who should really do WWE full time!

6. WWE Women’s Championship Match

Iyo Sky (c) vs. Bianca Belair

The story of this match for me was Kairi Sane’s welcome comeback to WWE, as she returned to cost Bianca Belair this match, who had it won with the Kiss Of Death, until Sane delivered the Uraken to Belair. Iyo Sky then capitalised with the Moonsault to Belair and pinned her to retain her title. This match was a good showing, and despite the thinness of the Smackdown women’s championship scene and division, at least there was some kind of story here with Belair seeking vengeance on Damage Ctrl. Afterwards Sane and Sky beatdown Belair, as a shocked Bayley looked on, due to her being the one who kicked Sane out of the WWE back in 2020.

7. Damian Priest vs. Cody Rhodes

Two professionals delivered to nobody’s surprise. I enjoyed this well enough, even if this whole Judgment Day clash with Cody Rhodes and co. has been well played out by this point, as we clearly await the War Games payoff (at the time). Still, this was entertaining stuff and the strength of both guys in the ring helped out a lot obviously. Ready for War Games now though. Cody got the win here over a game Damian.

8. Undisputed WWE Universal Championship Match

Roman Reigns (c) w/ Paul Heyman vs. LA Knight 

This one was a lot better than Roman’s last few single matches because it did not go as long, and did not have the overshadowing weight of expectation because we all knew Knight was not winning. Although the story was that he was here and looked every inch the megastar in this match, even getting the victory…well, were it not for ‘ol sneakers Jimmy Uso and Solo Sikoa running interference. The whole Roman match booking has long since become cliche and we could have written the ending for this one week’s ago. Fact is, Knight had a cracking showing against the WWE’s never-ending and drawing champion, and it gave him hopefully something to work off going forward, needing a spear through the barricade and another in the ring to keep him down for the 3-count. Roman is inevitable we know but Knight deserves that main event spot. Hope he benefits rather than being derailed by this because it has been a bit of a toss up which way they go after a Roman title loss.  

Overall, Crown Jewel offers little in way of surprises (save for Kairi’s return) but was a show with many things to like: Drew/Seth and the women’s 5 way more than anything else. It was a diverting detour on the road to Survivor Series.

And with that, we did it!!! We got there, all up to date, so next up, let’s see what went down at Survivor Series: War Games! Who came back? Who didn’t and who survived – does best William Regal impression – “WAR GAMES!!!”.