WWE heads back to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, this Saturday for Crown Jewel (1 PM Eastern on Peacock/WWE Network) with Roman Reigns once again set to defend his undisputed Universal title against a top babyface who has been surging in popularity.
Having LA Knight challenge Reigns so quickly during his rise in popularity is an interesting choice. Assuming he’s not winning the title at Crown Jewel, WWE will want to keep him as strong as possible in losing. He would then join a long and growing list of wrestlers who would have beaten Reigns if it weren’t for outside interference or otherwise underhanded bad-guy tactics. It’s possible WWE fans have just seen this finish too many times now.
Still, if WWE can find a unique and creative way to screw Knight out of winning the title, I’m not expecting his momentum to be halted much. Whatever damage is done can likely be rectified with a strong promo on the following SmackDown. Fans are into Knight because he’s entertaining, not because he’s being portrayed as Goldberg-level unstoppable. It’ll be fine.
Crown Jewel is also the first WWE PLE since it was reported that Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque is once again in full control of the company’s creative. Although, it feels as though WWE Fastlane was pretty much a full Levesque show too. Still, barring any unexpected power play by Vince McMahon, it looks like we are finally going to see what Triple H’s long-term plans are for this company.
Another thing to look out for on Saturday is any storyline developments that could lead into Survivor Series later this month. All signs point to WarGames returning at the event this year, so some battle lines could be drawn at Crown Jewel.
Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns (-5000 favorite) defends against LA Knight
If you’re a big fan of watching someone almost beat Reigns only to have the win snatched away from them due to outside interference, boy do I have the match for you!
In the months leading up to WrestleMania, there were numerous title matches where it seemed as though Reigns could actually lose. Many fans felt Drew McIntyre had a chance to win at Clash at the Castle last year. Some fans in Montreal believed Sami Zayn had a chance to beat Reigns at Elimination Chamber. Most fans thought Cody Rhodes would beat him at WrestleMania.
It doesn’t feel like that anymore. Now, fans believe nobody is going to beat Reigns until WrestleMania. The betting world concurs as the champion is the biggest favorite of the night.
That Knight is being booked in this match at all is interesting. It seems a little early during his rise in popularity to be putting him in a high-profile match where he’s most likely going to lose.
It’s pretty tough to be a top babyface in WWE right now when all roads lead to Reigns who nobody beats. Zayn is not as popular now as he was before he lost in Montreal, although you could argue he was never going to maintain the hot streak he was on. On the other hand, Rhodes seems to have come out from his loss to Reigns relatively unscathed. Time will tell what impact Saturday's result will have on Knight’s trajectory.
Prediction: Reigns retains
WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins (-400 favorite) defends against Drew McIntyre
I’m surprised Rollins isn’t a bigger favorite. I absolutely do not recommend gambling on wrestling past something friendly with friends but if I were to, I’d put some money on the champion.
Eventually, Damian Priest is going to cash in his Money in the Bank briefcase and take the title off Rollins so it seems likely that Rollins will hold the belt until then.
McIntyre will lose here, but he will do so in a way where his character feels cheated. Then, the bitterness will start to eat at him just like it eats at his character that his big WrestleMania moment occurred in front of no fans. He’ll then move further into the bad guy who feels justified role similar to Bret Hart in 1997 which Dave Meltzer wrote is the inspiration for McIntyre’s current story.
Prediction: Rollins retains
WWE Women's World Champion Rhea Ripley (-2500 favorite) defends against Nia Jax (+800), Raquel Rodriguez (+500), Shayna Baszler (+1200) and Zoey Stark (+1200) in a fatal five-way
It doesn’t feel like the right time to take the title off Ripley. I’m not sure if that time will come anytime soon either as she’s been the MVP of Raw as of late.
What this match will likely do is build up the next real challenger. Someone other than Ripley will have the match won, but the champion will do something dastardly to steal the victory out from under them. She’ll then defend the title against that wrestler at Survivor Series.
Prediction: Ripley retains
WWE Women's Champion IYO SKY (-300 favorite) defends against Bianca Belair
I wouldn’t be surprised to see Belair win the title, but it seems a little fast for her to regain it.
It’s been a weird ride for Damage CTRL. They debuted at SummerSlam last year as Levesque took the creative reins. Then as he lost said reins, we started to get a storyline that seemed to be leading to the breakup of the group. Now that Levesque is back in charge, those breakup teases don’t happen anymore. The sudden cohesion of this group was what first signified to some that Vince McMahon was no longer in charge. However, that doesn’t mean IYO isn’t dropping the belt to Belair on Saturday.
I’m expecting this to go similar to the Charlotte Flair vs. SKY match from a few weeks back on SmackDown. Bayley will help the champion secure the underhanded victory. Eventually, this title is going back on Flair. It’s just not clear when that will be.
Prediction: SKY retains
WWE United States Champion Rey Mysterio defends against Logan Paul (-600 favorite)
I’m surprised Paul isn’t a bigger favorite. Having him bring the United States Championship to all the media appearances he makes, having it on display during his YouTube show, and whatever else Paul does will be great marketing for the company.
Paul will cheat to beat Mysterio and then he’ll taunt the LWO with the belt on social media which could lead to a rematch at Survivor Series.
Prediction: Paul wins the title
Cody Rhodes (-700 favorite) vs. Damian Priest
Rhodes is a heavy favorite and will very likely win, but these are two guys WWE wants to keep strong. I wouldn’t rule out some type of non-finish here.
Rhodes is being kept strong for another big match against Reigns, possibly in the main event of WrestleMania. He’s 8-1 in singles matches on WWE programming since WrestleMania 39 with his only loss being a referee stoppage to Brock Lesnar at Night of Champions. However, Rhodes avenged that loss and won the trilogy 2-1 after beating Lesnar at SummerSlam.
Priest is being kept strong too, though quite possibly because he’ll soon take the World Heavyweight title off Rollins. He hasn’t lost a singles match on WWE programming since June. Priest seems like he’s been getting pushed since his match against Bad Bunny at Backlash in May. WWE likely decided they had something with him around that time.
This match is two guys being built up for big matches that are not against each other so it’ll be interesting to see what the finish is.
Prediction: Rhodes
John Cena (-120 favorite) vs. Solo Sikoa
While Cena’s role at this stage in his career is to put over young stars, I’m not certain that is what he will be doing in Riyadh on Saturday.
Normally, this would be a good opportunity for Cena to make Sikoa look like an unstoppable monster. Complicating this, however, is the storyline about how Cena hasn’t won a singles match on WWE programming since 2018. Granted, Cena has only wrestled three singles matches on WWE programming in that time (he’s won several singles matches on house shows and TV dark matches), but still, the storyline they are telling could lead one to believe that Cena has to win.
Sikoa could still win, though, causing Cena to further question if he still has it anymore, perhaps promising to retire if he doesn’t win his next big match or something similar.
I imagine we could see some callbacks and homages to Cena’s rivalry with Sikoa’s uncle Umaga during this match which includes one of the best matches in both Cena and Umaga’s careers: their Last Man Standing war at the 2007 Royal Rumble.
Prediction: Cena
Kickoff Show: Sami Zayn vs. JD McDonagh
There are no betting odds available for this match, but if there were, I imagine Zayn would be the biggest favorite of the night. This will be a fun match by two very good wrestlers and will give fans a chance to cheer Zayn on.
Prediction: Zayn
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