Mike Reviews Shows Considered To Be Stinkers – WWE Crown Jewel 2018
By Michael Fitzgerald on 29th July 2023
Happy Stinky Saturday Everyone!
I decided to let CageMatch.net choose the Stinker Review this month, with this being one of the lowest scoring events on the whole website. I had a look and Crown Jewel 2018 is one of the WWE Saudi Arabia shows, which were often awful in the early going, although I’ve been led to believe that they aren’t quite as cack these days.
For those not acquainted, a Stinker Review is when I look at a show that has a bad reputation and see if that reputation is deserved or not. I looked at the card for Crown Jewel 2018 and one thing that instantly jumped out at me was a certain World Cup tournament, just because it jolted a memory as to who ended up winning it.
WWE got a lot of stick for even running Crown Jewel 2018 to begin with as it took place a month after Jamal Khashoggi had been murdered by the Saudi government, so giving the regime a wrestling show so soon after the crime took place was in spectacular poor taste even for WWE. However, as with many things, money talked and Crown Jewel 2018 took place regardless.
I wonder if the majority of negative reviews for Crown Jewel 2018 are because of the Khashoggi situation as opposed to the actual quality of the show? I guess we’ll only find that out by watching it, so let’s brace ourselves and see if Crown Jewel 2018 really is a Stinker.
You can view the card for the event by clicking below;
The event is emanating from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on the 2nd of November 2018
Calling the action are Corey Graves, Michael Cole and Renee Young
Hulk Hogan joins us to start things off, complete with a firework display. Hogan cuts the usual promo, looking more and more like when Shawn Michaels dressed up as him in 2005 with every day that passes. The crowd reaction was pretty mild all told, with the fireworks getting a bigger pop than Hogan himself, although the crowd was mostly polite throughout the promo.
Opening Match
World Cup Tournament To Decide THE BEST IN THE WORLD
Quarter Final
The Viper Randy Orton Vs Rey Mysterio Jr
Rey doesn’t really get much of a babyface shine here, as he tries a springboard move of some kind and Orton takes him out of the sky with a dropkick. I’m not sure if Orton is supposed to be the Heel here, but if he is then the crowd doesn’t seem to have gotten the memo, as they chant for him whilst he tries to unmask Rey and just generally behaves like the usual psychotically cruel character he plays most of the time when he’s a bad guy (and sometimes as a good guy now I think about it).
Rey sells well and then makes a comeback with some nice high flying, with Orton doing his usual good job of being a base for the smaller wrestler. Orton manages to block the 6-1-9 though and follows with the second rope DDT, as they are doing a much abbreviated version of their normal match here. It’s been fine, but short matches are not normally a good way of making a tournament seem important/prestigious, which is a lesson WCW learnt in 1999. Orton tries the RKO following that, but Rey counters to a backslide for three to advance.
WINNER: REY-REY
RATING: **
Thoughts: Too short to be any more, but the wrestling was fine
Shockingly, Orton is a poor sport following that and beats Rey up following the match. Oh that cad! Rey of course sells all of that well whilst Orton stalks around ringside in his usual manner, looking all villainous as he likes to do.
Byron Saxton is backstage with The Miz, who seems pretty happy that Rey got clobbered there seeing as he’ll face Rey if he’s able to win the next match.
Match Two
World Cup Tournament To Decide THE BEST IN THE WORLD
Quarter Final
Mike “The Miz” Mizanin Vs The Charismatic Enigma Jeff Hardy
This is another abbreviated match, with Jeff shining on Miz in the early going with all of his usual offence, until Miz is able to get his boots up to block a Jeff dropkick in the corner, leading to the Heel heat segment. Miz delivers some running dropkicks in the corner, which I think he was doing to mock Bryan Danielson but I honestly can’t remember if they were still feuding at this stage and I can’t be bothered to check.
Jeff fights back following that and makes the comeback, as sections of the crowd seem quite into him whilst the rest of the building is more muted. Miz tries to reply with the Figure Four, but Jeff counters that into a cradle for two before sending Miz out to the floor for his running barricade clothesline. Jeff actually seems reasonably coordinated during this match, which isn’t always something you can bank on with him. Miz tries winning with his feet on the ropes, but the ref catches him, although a Skull Crushing Finale ends it clean straight after anyway.
WINNER: THE MIZ
RATING: **
Thoughts: Another reasonable TV match here on this supposed big event. Too short to be rated any higher, but what we got was fine
Match Three
World Cup Tournament To Decide THE BEST IN THE WORLD
Quarter Final
The Almighty Bobby Lashley w/ Lio Rush Vs WWE Intercontinental Champ and Raw Tag Team Champ The Architect Seth Rollins
Oh bloody hell, what is it with Seth Rollins and terrible nicknames? Do the writers just come up with these in a deliberate attempt to wind him up or something? Judging from the commentary, Dean Ambrose had turned on Rollins by this stage. Man, looking at that classic IC Title just makes the current design they have look all the more lame. Rush does a Heel promo on the way to the ring, just so we know who the bad guy in this match is I guess. An excited fan in the front row doesn’t seem to get the memo on that one though and cheers wildly as Lashley enters the ring.
Rollins gets quick shine to start, as they continue to be running all of these tournament matches in fast forward here, until Lashley is able to cut Rollins off with a Spine Buster before working some heat. Rollins sells all of that well as Lashley looks good on offence. Rollins eventually counters a suplex with a knee to the head and sends Lashley to the floor before following with a TOPE SUICIDA, followed by another. Well, that’s sure a quick way to restore parity! They trade some moves back inside and Rollins eventually gets the Curb Stomp for three.
WINNER: SETH ROLLINS
RATING: **
Thoughts: Another match you’d be perfectly fine with seeing in the first hour of Raw, as there was nothing wrong with it, but the match was pretty short. They could have easily just done a nine match show and given these tournament bouts some more time to breathe, with maybe the Main Event and Raw Title match in addition to the seven tournament contests
Byron Saxton is backstage with Kurt Angle, who says he’s here to write the next chapter in his career and prove that he’s still the best in the world.
Match Four
World Cup Tournament To Decide THE BEST IN THE WORLD
Quarter Final
Dolph Ziggler w/ The Scottish Psychopath Drew McIntyre Vs The Olympic Hero Kurt Angle
Angle was basically Pedro Morales in the late 80’s at this stage in his career, as he’d previously been a big star and legitimate Main Eventer, but now he’s just a guy in the mid-card doing matches. They were probably right to retire him at the following Mania, although he deserved a better final opponent that Baron Corbin, who was basically given the gig because Vince McMahon knew it would disappoint the fans, which amused him greatly.
They do some mat work to start, with both of them having amateur backgrounds, and it’s actually quite interesting to watch, even though the crowd doesn’t seem to really care that much about it outside of a minority of them who try and get some chants going. Angle starts throwing some suplexes following that, with him building to trying and suplex Ziggler off the apron to the floor, but Ziggler blocks that and then sends Angle into the ring steps for the cut off.
Angle does a solid job selling for the heat, with Ziggler keeping it simple with chin locks and sleepers, clearly trying to target the neck area of Angle. There are some scattered claps and cheers for Angle as he tries to fight back, although the majority of the crowd isn’t really that invested. Angle eventually fights out of the Sleeper and goes back to some German Suplexes, which gives Angle a near fall. Ziggler gets a near fall of his own with a jumping DDT after slipping out of the Olympic Slam.
Angle gets the Slam on his second attempt, but Ziggler kicks out at two, which leads to Ziggler getting a Rocker Dropper for a two of his own. Angle is clearly going at about 25% of the speed he used to be able to do in his prime years, but his timing has been good and that’s helped out with making this one watchable. Angle looks to have it won with the Ankle Lock on Ziggler at one stage, but Ziggler manages to roll out of it and sends Angle into the corner before following with the Zig-Zag for the clean win.
WINNER: DOLPH ZIGGLER
RATING: **
Thoughts: Wow, I thought they would have at least had Drew get involved there so that Angle didn’t have to do a totally clean job like that. Angle was certainly no longer any kind of a special attraction anymore by this stage, which is a shame as they could have rationed his performances and made them feel more important, but here he was just a guy on the undercard doing a job for someone. The match itself was like all of the other tournament matches, in that it was basically fine but they didn’t have a chance to do any more than that due to the time constraints.
Match Five
Smackdown Tag Titles
Champs: The Bar (The Celtic Warrior Sheamus O’Shaunessy and Antonio Cesaro) w/ The Big Show Vs The New Day (Big E. Langston and Kofi Kingston) w/ Xavier Woods
I have zero memory of Big Show being aligned with The Bar and have no idea how long that lasted for. Interestingly they are doing their best to avoid mentioning where the show is tonight, with Big E just saying “Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh Crown Jewel” instead of naming the town during the intro. The New Day actually enter on a flying carpet whilst throwing pancakes at people. Well, it’s different, I’ll give you that!
Ah, the pre-match video shows that Big Show turned Heel for seemingly no adequate reason to set himself up as an ally for the Champs. The Big Show doing a nonsensical Heel turn completely out of nowhere? How unforeseen! There’s decent action to start, although the atmosphere is once again pretty lacking. The New Day shine on the Champs to start, but eventually Kingston gets cut off and worked over in the Heel corner. Kingston sells that well and The Bar look good on offence, although the crowd continues to mostly sit on their hands.
Wow, the crowd is so quiet during this match at this points that I can hear by laptop hum over it, although the hot tag does at least get a little bit of a reaction, especially when Big E runs wild and looks good doing so. The New Day tries some kind of Powerbomb/Double Stomp double team at one stage, but it doesn’t really look that good as Kingston kind of misses on the stomp. Big E almost pins Sheamus with a roll-up, but Big Show gets a punch in to Big E whilst the ref is distracted and that leads to a Brogue Kick for the three count.
WINNERS AND STILL CHAMPIONS: THE BAR
RATING: **1/2
Thoughts: This was good wrestling for the most part, but the lack of crowd reactions really hurt it and limited the amount of enjoyment I could glean from it
Byron Saxton is backstage with The Miz, who says he got kicked in the throat against Jeff Hardy, but he’s still going to defeat the wounded Rey-Rey in the next match. Either he’s doing a great acting job there or Miz legitimately has a bad throat based on his croaky voice.
Speaking of Rey, he’s next up with Byron, and says there’ll be no excuses tonight in the tournament and that Miz’s plans and machinations will only make a Rey victory feel all the better.
Match Six
World Cup Tournament To Decide THE BEST IN THE WORLD
Semi-Final
Mike “The Miz” Mizanin Vs Rey Mysterio Jr
Apparently Shane McMahon is going to fire one of these guys if they make it to the Final and then lose, because they’ll have embarrassed Smackdown. Surely the people who should be fired are the guys who went out in the Quarter Finals instead of the guy who was at least good enough to make the Final first? What’s the incentive to even make it to the Final if you know that your job is on the line? Just get yourself DQ’ed in the opener so that you don’t have to risk your job.
Rey gets a splash outside the ring early on, but he comes up selling his mid-section as a result of Orton’s attack earlier, which leads to Miz getting a Powerbomb type move back inside the ring for the cut off. The crowd continues to not really care, as I wonder why they even bothered to turn up in the first place if they weren’t going to make any noise? There are some dedicated fans who actually seem to like wrestling and are trying to generate some atmosphere, but for the most part the wrestling has been met with silence thus far tonight.
Miz works over Rey’s mid-section following the cut off, including the old full body scissors at one stage, with Rey selling it all well, whilst Miz does his usual solid job of being an unlikable bad guy. I have to say, thus far I’m not getting “worst show ever” vibes from this one. Don’t get me wrong, it’s hardly been a great show or anything, but at worst it’s just been “there” so far, with the actual wrestling being fine and the real downside being that the crowd doesn’t seem arsed about it.
Rey eventually makes the comeback, with Miz being a good base for Rey’s high flying offence. Rey actually manages to get some of the better reactions for a while here, as he preps for the 6-1-9 and does his best to conduct the crowd into making some noise. Miz manages to dodge the move though and follows up with the Skull Crushing Finale, although Rey kicks out at two in a decent near fall. Rey manages to get the 6-1-9 soon after that, and heads up for a Frog Splash, but Miz gets his knees up and counters to a pinning hold for three.
WINNER: THE MIZ
RATING: **3/4
Thoughts: This was decent and they managed to get the crowd a little bit invested towards the end, possibly because they were given 10 minutes and actually had some time to tell a proper story in the match. The ending made sense as well, as it played into Rey having the injured mid-section due to the knees hurting an already damaged part of the body
Byron Saxton is backstage with Seth Rollins, who says he does his best work when his back is against the wall.
Match Seven
World Cup Tournament To Decide THE BEST IN THE WORLD
Semi-Final
Dolph Ziggler w/ Drew McIntyre Vs Seth Rollins
These two worked each other numerous times in 2018, so they work well together here as a result and the match features some solid wrestling. Rollins gets the better of things in the early going, getting some chops outside the ring until Drew provides a distraction so that Ziggler can pounce with a DDT for the cut off. Ziggler works the chin lock following that, with Rollins selling it well and some of the crowd clapping in an effort to get Rollins back into the match. The reactions still aren’t what you’d like them to be, but they’re improved over some of the other matches we’ve had tonight thus far.
Hearing the announce team talk about how Ziggler had the record for pins at his high school in amateur wrestling reminds me of a time someone I was watching one of the pay per views with misheard them and thought they said “pens”, leading to us musing that Ziggler had an incredible pen collection at school that he liked to show to people. Honestly, I can totally picture the Dolph Ziggler character being that cocky that he would genuinely collect a bunch of fancy pens so that he could show them off to people during lunch break. “Yeah, this one is a fountain pen, but it’s too fancy to actually write with so I’ve never taken it out of the box”.
Anyway, Rollins eventually fights back and the two trade pinning hold attempts, with Rollins capping all of that off with a knee strike for two, which actually gets a reaction from the crowd. Rollins manages to thwart Drew’s attempt at interference and sends Ziggler to the floor for a TOPE SUICIDA, only to take a Rocker Dropper back inside from Ziggler for two. The timing on all of the big moves and counters has really been on point in this one, which is likely something that tends to happen when you’re so used to wrestling someone. I bet they could have this match in their sleep by this stage.
Ziggler counters a Falcon Arrow attempt into the Zig-Zag, but Rollins gets to kick out, which indirectly places him at a higher level than Kurt Angle as Angle wasn’t capable of doing that. Rollins kicks Ziggler down and heads up, but Drew shoves him off the top rope whilst the ref isn’t looking and Ziggler follows with a kick of his own for the three count.
WINNER: DOLPH ZIGGLER
RATING: ***
Thoughts: Good match, as their timing was on point and the near falls were well executed. The crowd responded better than some of the other matches so far as well
Byron Saxton tries to interview Ziggler on the ramp, saying that Ziggler’s win was an upset, which leads to Ziggler complaining and actually drawing some boos.
From purely an in-ring perspective we aren’t even close to this show being a Stinker yet, although some of the latter matches could still drag it down yet and the tepid crowd hasn’t exactly been helping with things.
Match Eight
Smackdown World Title
Champ: The Phenomenal AJ Styles Vs The Samoan Submission Machine Samoa Joe
Joe was making threats towards Styles’ family in the build to this one, and then attacked both Styles and Daniel Bryan on an edition of Smackdown. That’s what I could glean from the pre-match video package anyway. Seems like a reasonable excuse for two wrestlers to try and clobber one another. Styles is all fired up to start, but Joe eventually manages to give Styles a Stun Gun onto the ringside barricades to get himself back into it, as Styles gets some scattered chants from the crowd. There’s a very dedicated group of fans in this building who are trying their utmost to generate some atmosphere, but they’re fighting a losing battle thus far.
Joe gets a TOPE SUICIDA and then works over Styles back inside the ring, with Styles selling that well and Joe showing some trademark intensity. They start trading strikes at one stage, which leads to Styles getting his backflip DDT at one stage for two. Joe responds with his snap Powerslam for a two of his own, as things are picking up now and the vocal minority in the crowd keep doggedly trying to make some noise whilst all of the VIP’s surrounding the ringside area seem nonplussed and somewhat amused by it.
They are working hard here and I’ve enjoyed the wrestling, with the lack of atmosphere really being all that’s dragging this one down. Joe manages to catch Styles in the Rear Naked Choke, but Styles targets Joe’s previously injured left knee in order to free himself. The finish comes pretty soon after there, with it kind of feeling quite abrupt as Styles successfully gets The Phenomenal Forearm for the three count. It felt like they could have gone for a bit further there with some bigger near falls, especially as this felt like it was the end of their issue.
WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: AJ STYLES
RATING: ***1/4
Thoughts: Some good wrestling in that one, even though the atmosphere felt pretty flat at points and the ending felt like it kind of came out of nowhere. Still, despite those gripes, this is the match of the night for thus far
Jeremy Baron Corbin, the acting Raw General Manager at the time (Oh man, I wasn’t watching the show at the time but I believe he was deeply unpopular in a “bad heat” kind of way). He’s here to present the Raw belt to the winner of the next match.
Match Nine
Raw World Title
Title Vacant
Viking Space God Bork Laser w/ Paul E. Dangerously Vs Braunie The Strawman
Roman Reigns had to vacate the belt due to leukaemia, so these two are going to fight for the vacant belt. The match itself is borderline offensive for a supposed “major” event like this, as Corbin hits Strowman with the belt before the opening bell and that leaves Strowman easy pickings for Brock, who delivers multiple F-5’s for the win.
WINNER AND NEW CHAMPION: BROCK LESNAR
RATING: DUD
Thoughts: What was even the point of flying these guys in for that? You could have easily saved that match for Raw and devoted a bit more time to some of the tournament matches. It’s not like the match would have been a classic or anything, but two big lads trading big moves might have been exciting at least, but instead we just got Brock doing his finisher multiple times until Strowman eventually stayed down, which was really a waste
Survivor Series rundown, which saw Raw sweeping Smackdown I believe, which was then never really followed up on and Smackdown never got their revenge. Because WWE.
Shane McMahon, the Smackdown owner, is here tonight to rep for his brand because Paige was the GM at the time and she’s not allowed to be here. Baron Corbin is still out there as well. As previously mentioned, if Miz doesn’t win here then he loses his job, even though he at least won two matches to get here. Drew McIntyre is sent to the back before the match starts, meaning that Mr. Ziggles is going to have win this one on his own. Whilst Ziggler is arguing this, Miz attacks him, but twists his knee or ankle in the process whilst following Ziggler to the floor, which means he won’t be able to compete in the match. Thus someone needs to defend Smackdown’s honour here, and who better to do that than the owner himself, Shane O Mac. No, I’m not kidding.
Semi-Main
World Cup Tournament To Decide THE BEST IN THE WORLD
Final
Dolph Ziggler Vs The Boy Wonder Shane McMahon
Oh yes, this is happening!
Amazingly there are people in the crowd who are actually excited about this, whilst Shane destroys Ziggler with his usual array of terrible punches, although he does get an okay looking jumping back elbow at one point. Ziggler is finally allowed to fight back briefly, although Shane soon puts a stop to that with some more trademark punches before getting a catapult into the corner and then following up with the Van Daminator for the three count.
WINNER AND THE BEST IN THE WORLD: SHANE MCMAHON
RATING: DUD
Thoughts: So yeah, not only did someone who wasn’t already in the tournament get entered into it at the last minute, but that person was a non-wrestler who then beat the absolute crap out of a an actual wrestler to win, not only making that particular wrestler look bad but also all of the guys he beat along the way look bad as well, as a businessman who rarely wrestles ate Ziggler’s lunch whilst all of his opponents failed to get the job done. Absolutely wretched
Shane McMahon does the big celebration, and I should point out that he’s already absolutely knackered despite doing a grand total of three moves in that match. Had Shane done a couple of more moves in that contest then he would be celebrating in an iron lung right now.
There’s roughly 45 minutes left on the show and only one match left, which kind of terrifies me actually.
Main Event
The Match That Time Forgot
D-Generation X (The Heartbreak Kid Shawn Michaels and The Game Triple H) Vs The Brothers Of Destruction (The Big Red Machine Kane and The Undertaker)
Shawn was tempted out of retirement by the Saudi’s giving him enough money to make even Mr. Burns raise his eyebrows. This match has a reputation for being absolutely terrible, but let’s see if that’s fair or not. The early exchanges where DX work over Kane seem watchable enough, with neither Shawn nor Tri attempting anything they can’t and Kane being able to competently bump and feed for it all. We of course get the Shawn Vs Taker showdown, and that’s fine for what it is as well considering the fact Shawn hadn’t wrestled in over 8 years prior to this and Undertaker should have been long retired prior to this.
What seems to happen is that Triple H takes a nasty spill to the floor at one stage and it leads to his right arm/shoulder getting injured, meaning he’s basically only got the use of his left arm for the remainder of the match, which no doubt screws with any plans the four wrestlers already had. The B.O.D takes control of things following Triple H’s injury, with them cutting off the ring and working over both DX members. I have to say, for a one armed man, Tri is doing as good a job as he can here. He does do some silly things though, like trying to help Shawn with a suplex onto Kane that he clearly can’t do properly and it ends up looking pretty ugly.
This match has some of the best crowd reactions all night as well, as the crowd seems to see this match as important and thus more of them are reacting to it, which helps with making it a watchable spectacle. Things soon breakdown into a four way brawl, with everyone fighting outside the ring, and now things are starting to get a little bit rougher, as Triple H can barely do anything and it means Taker and Kane are basically having to wrestle themselves whenever they interact with him, although he does manage to successfully take a Choke Slam through one of the announce tables at one stage.
The B.O.D spends some time working over Shawn following that, with Shawn selling it well enough but you can tell that he’s getting tired. Shawn tries to do a Moonsault out to the floor onto both of The B.O.D, although they don’t do the best of jobs catching him. At some stage Kane takes his mask off, although he does put it back on following the Moonsault. Shawn makes the hot tag to Triple H following that, leading to Tri doing the one armed comeback. I admire Triple H for having the intestinal fortitude to finish a match despite being seriously injured, but you can tell that he’s a righty because he can barely do anything with just his left arm.
Taker looks to have it won with the Hell’s Gate on Triple H, but Shawn catches Kane with some Chin Music and Kane falls onto Taker to break the hold in a neat spot. The Brothers sit up following that though and look to end things with stereo Tombstones, but Shawn goes to the eyes to blind Kane and that leads to DX rallying to get the three count following a Super Kick/Pedigree combo onto Kane.
WINNERS: DX
RATING: *1/2
Thoughts: Triple H’s injury pretty much ruined this one, as prior to that it was “perfectly cromulent” as Scott Keith would say. Once Tri became a one armed man though then the match fell apart a bit, with Shawn having to do more than was probably planned, leading to him getting tired. The match still had some of the best atmosphere of any match on the card though, so it had that going for it if nothing else.
DX celebrates whilst the hard cam side of the building empties quicker than a speed runner taking out Piston Hurricane
Is It Really A Stinker?
I’d say no if I’m honest. Don’t get me wrong, the show isn’t very good and suffers from a few issues. The last three matches are not a strong way to end things, and the early tournament matches are fine but could have used some more time. The crowd reactions throughout the night were pretty disappointing, as there were some fans in there who were clearly into the show and wanted to try and whip up a bit of atmosphere, but they were outnumbered by those that didn’t care and the show suffered as a result.
There’s enough watchable wrestling here that it’s not a full blown Stinker, but it’s still in that territory due to the issues with the crowd and the bad matches near the end.
Plus, you know, WWE shouldn’t have done the show in the first place following the murdering of a journalist, but Vince gonna Vince.
Final Rating – Stinky
(Scores are done on a scale of Stinker/Stinky/Odourless/Pleasant/Fragrant)