Crown Jewel (2018)
The 2018 Crown Jewel was a professional wrestling pay-per-view and livestreaming event produced by the American company WWE. It was the inaugural Crown Jewel and took place on November 2, 2018, at the King Saud University Stadium in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown brand divisions.
It was the second event WWE held in Saudi Arabia under a 10-year partnership in support of Saudi Vision 2030, after the Greatest Royal Rumble in April, and it hosted the first-ever WWE World Cup tournament. The event marked the final match of Shawn Michaels, who had retired from active in-ring competition at WrestleMania XXVI in 2010, though returned for a one-off match at this event, and the return of Hulk Hogan—who had not appeared on WWE programming since a 2015 scandal—who served as the event's host. The event also marked the final time that The Undertaker and Kane teamed together as The Brothers of Destruction.
Twelve matches were contested at the event, including one on the Kickoff pre-show. In the main event, D-Generation X defeated The Brothers of Destruction. In the penultimate match, Shane McMahon defeated Dolph Ziggler to win the WWE World Cup. In other prominent matches, The Bar retained the SmackDown Tag Team Championship against The New Day, AJ Styles defeated Samoa Joe to retain SmackDown's WWE Championship, and Brock Lesnar defeated Braun Strowman to win Raw's vacant Universal Championship.
Due to the [|controversy] surrounding the killing of Jamal Khashoggi as well as accusations against Saudi Arabia for severe human rights abuses, leading a war of attrition in Yemen and suppressing women's rights, WWE faced harsh criticism for producing the event and was asked to stop its business ventures in Saudi Arabia by multiple parties. The controversy also led to the company's top babyfaces at the time, John Cena and Daniel Bryan, pulling from the event. The event itself was met with overwhelmingly negative reviews, with the main event, Universal Championship match, and the World Cup final was singled out for criticism. This event did not get a home video release, but it is available to stream on Netflix under the WWE section.
Production
Background
In early 2018, the American professional wrestling promotion WWE began a 10-year strategic multiplatform partnership with the General Sports Authority in support of Saudi Vision 2030, Saudi Arabia's social and economic reform program. The first pay-per-view and WWE Network event under this partnership, the Greatest Royal Rumble, was held at the King Abdullah Sports City's King Abdullah International Stadium in Jeddah on April 27. On September 17, 2018, a follow-up titled Crown Jewel was announced to take place on November 2 and feature wrestlers from the Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. It was originally to take place at the King Fahd International Stadium in Riyadh, but was later changed to the King Saud University Stadium, also in Riyadh.In 2015, WWE terminated Hulk Hogan's contract due to a report by the National Enquirer and Radar Online of a partially racist rant made by Hogan on his controversial leaked sex tape; he was heard expressing disgust with the notion of his daughter dating black men, referenced by the repeated use of the racial slur "nigger". On July 15, 2018, after a three-year suspension, the company reinstated Hogan into the WWE Hall of Fame, and on October 31, it was announced that Hogan would be the host of Crown Jewel.
Storylines
The event comprised 12 matches, including one on the Kickoff pre-show, that resulted from scripted storylines. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on the Raw and SmackDown brands, while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television shows, Monday Night Raw and SmackDown Live.At SummerSlam, Brock Lesnar defended the Universal Championship against Roman Reigns. Before the match began, Braun Strowman came out and announced that he would be cashing in his Money in the Bank contract on the winner. During the match, however, Strowman was incapacitated by Lesnar, preventing him from cashing in. The distraction allowed Reigns to defeat Lesnar and win the championship, ending Lesnar's 504-day reign. The following night on Raw, Raw General Manager Kurt Angle told Lesnar's advocate Paul Heyman that although Lesnar had a contractual rematch, it would not occur for an indefinite period of time, as he preferred a fighting champion like Reigns. The following week, Strowman announced that he would be cashing in against Reigns at Hell in a Cell inside the namesake structure. At the event, Lesnar interfered in the match by kicking in the cell door and attacking both men, rendering them unable to continue, thus ruling the match a no contest and Reigns retained the championship. The following night on Raw, both Reigns and Strowman called out Lesnar, resulting in Acting Raw General Manager Baron Corbin scheduling a triple threat match between Reigns, Strowman, and Lesnar for the Universal Championship at Crown Jewel. On the October 22 episode of Raw, however, Reigns relinquished the title after announcing that his leukemia, which had been in remission since late 2008, had legitimately relapsed. This turned the scheduled triple threat match into a singles match between Lesnar and Strowman for the now vacant title. In February 2019, Fightful reported that prior to his leukemia diagnosis, Reigns had informed Vince McMahon and WWE officials that he would not be taking part in the Crown Jewel PPV due to the controversy surrounding the event.
On September 17, WWE scheduled the WWE World Cup for Crown Jewel, an eight-man tournament to "determine the best in the world" with four wrestlers representing Raw and SmackDown each, all from the United States of America. On the October 8 episode of Raw, for his accomplishments in WWE, John Cena was announced as the first entrant to represent Raw, despite being a non-exclusive wrestler who could appear on Raw and SmackDown. That same episode, a 10-man battle royal commenced where the winner would be added to the tournament. Acting Raw General Manager Baron Corbin took part with nine local competitors, but was lastly eliminated by a returning Kurt Angle, disguised as The Conquistador, thus Angle won the battle royal to qualify for the tournament. Two more qualifiers were decided on the October 9 episode of SmackDown, where Jeff Hardy and Randy Orton qualified for the tournament by defeating Samoa Joe and Big Show, respectively. Raw's final two qualifiers were decided on the October 15 episode of Raw, where Seth Rollins and Dolph Ziggler qualified by defeating Drew McIntyre and Dean Ambrose, respectively. SmackDown's final two qualifiers were decided on the SmackDown 1000 special, where The Miz and Rey Mysterio, the latter making his full-time WWE return, qualified for the tournament by defeating Rusev and Shinsuke Nakamura, respectively. On the October 29 episode of Raw, Acting Raw General Manager Baron Corbin replaced Cena with Bobby Lashley after praising Lashley's post-match attack on Finn Bálor earlier that night. In storyline, Corbin replaced Cena as he did not technically qualify for the tournament. In reality, Cena legitimately refused to participate due to the controversy surrounding the event. On the October 30 episode of SmackDown, SmackDown Commissioner Shane McMahon gave his four participants an ultimatum: if their finalist were to lose, they would be fired from SmackDown.
At Super Show-Down, AJ Styles defeated Samoa Joe by submission in a no countout, no disqualification match to retain the WWE Championship, while Daniel Bryan defeated The Miz to earn a future WWE Championship match. Following Bryan's win, SmackDown General Manager Paige announced that he would receive his title match against Styles at Crown Jewel. However, after the two had a heated exchange on the October 30 episode of SmackDown, Commissioner Shane McMahon announced that their championship match would take place that night, where Styles successfully retained after submitting Bryan with the "Calf Crusher". Moments after the match concluded, Joe attacked both men, choking each out with the "Coquina Clutch". Enraged, Styles demanded to face Joe at Crown Jewel with the title on the line, and Paige reluctantly made it official. In reality, Bryan had also legitimately refused to work Crown Jewel due to the controversy surrounding the event, so WWE moved his championship match up to the October 30 episode of SmackDown.
At Super Show-Down, Triple H defeated The Undertaker in a no disqualification match. After the match, Triple H and Undertaker, along with Shawn Michaels and Kane, who were in the respective corners of Triple H and Undertaker, showed mutual respect for one another until Undertaker and Kane attacked Triple H and Michaels. On the following Raw, Triple H and Michaels formally rechristened themselves as D-Generation X, challenging The Brothers of Destruction to a tag team match at Crown Jewel, marking Michaels' first match since The Undertaker retired Michaels at WrestleMania XXVI in March 2010.
On the SmackDown 1000 special on October 16, The Bar defeated The New Day to win the SmackDown Tag Team Championship, with help from their new ally Big Show. The following week, a rematch for the titles was scheduled for Crown Jewel.
On November 1, it was announced that Shinsuke Nakamura would defend the United States Championship against Rusev on the event's Kickoff pre-show.