The OTC AND BloodLine LOSE? Crown Jewel Recap
Bloodline vs. New Bloodline, via WWE.com, Crown Jewel PLE
It was time for the yearly Saudi Arabia PLE, "Crown Jewel." This year, the event hosted matches between both brands' champions. The Smackdown WWE Champion, Cody Rhodes, would face the Raw World Heavyweight Champion, Gunther, would face off in a match for the "Crown Jewel Championship." The Smackdown WWE Women's Champion, Nia Jax, would face the Raw Women's World Champion, Liv Morgan, who would also face off in a match for the "Crown Jewel Women's Championship." It was a gimmick match to add hype to the event, a little special bragging rights-ish match for the Saudi Arabia event. This event was good but could have been better because only one match would really add to the main storylines WWE has going on.
The Bloodline would face the New Bloodline in a trios match. The OTC, Roman Reigns, would team back up with his cousins Jimmy and Jey Uso after a few weeks of reconciliation to attempt to take down the new Tribal Chief Solo Sikoa and his new Bloodline, Tama Tonga and Tonga Loa with the "Samoan Werewolf" Jacob Fatu in the corner. The New Bloodline would defeat the OTC and the Usos shockingly, with Solo pinning the former WWE champion, Roman Reigns. After the match ended, Sami Zayn would come down to back up the Bloodline, but it would end with Sami accidentally kicking Roman in the face. Solo and his family would exit laughing. It was a shocking scene. Could Sami return and help the Bloodline in a WarGames Survivor Series match? It looks like that's where we're headed.
Following would be the multi-team tag match for the Women's Tag Team Championships, where Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill would retain their titles and defeat Damage Ctrl, NXT's Lash Legend and Jakara Jackson, and Chelsea Green and Piper Niven. The match would end in a team blunder between Chelsea Green and Piper Niven, allowing Bianca and Jade to capitalize for the win.
Seth "Freakin" Rollins and "Big" Bronson Reed would finally face off after months of storytelling and feuding. Including Bronson Reed writing off Seth Rollins by injuring him; however, Rollins would get his revenge by defeating him in Saudi Arabia.
Women's World Champion Liv Morgan defeated WWE Women's Champion Nia Jax for the inaugural "Crown Jewel Championship." It was an interesting angle as Tiffany Stratton attempted to cash in on Liv Morgan, but it didn't happen. This led to attacks from both sides and ultimately, Liv would walk away with the first-ever "Crown Jewel Championship."
Next, the feud between Randy Orton and Kevin Owens would finally be shown in the match, or so we thought. Kevin Owens wore a Cowboy Bob Orton shirt, Randy's father's shirt, and the match never really happened. It became a brawl with crazy spots in the crowd, and the feud continued to boil.
In a triple-threat match, LA Knight retained his United States Championship against Carmelo Hayes and Andrade. Although it was a decent match, this LA Knight reign isn't as great as many thought it would be.
Lastly, WWE Champion Cody Rhodes defeated the World Heavyweight Champion, Gunther, for the inaugural "Crown Jewel Championship". It was a good match, but hearing that Gunther lost this match was shocking. It feeds the "World Championship is second-fiddle to the WWE Championship" narrative. However, I understand the move because they needed somebody with charisma to interact with the crowd, and Gunther isn't necessarily that character.
All in all, this was a cool event, but this Bloodline feud continues to build wonderfully. Could it lead to a War Games Survivor Series match? Will the Rock soon get involved?
