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On a new Wrestling Weekly, Les Thatcher and I preview Saturday’s WWE Crown Jewel from Saudi Arabia.
Who will become the inaugural Crown Jewel champions? Can Roman Reigns and Jey Uso get on the same page? Will Kevin Owens make Randy Orton pay for demanding a match with him?
Thanks for listening and have a great weekend~!
Paul Fontaine is back as my guest host on the Halloween-themed edition of The Fight Game Podcast. We went live on the F4W YouTube channel and you can watch the video version below.
We kicked off with our Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down winners and losers of the week before going through our Top Five topics which included:
Click Here to Listen (sub needed)
Image: TNA
Subscribers can now read this week’s issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter by our Dave Meltzer.
The lead story focuses on the serious injury TNA star Chris Bey suffered last Sunday during a tag team match with The Hardys, Bey’s progress, and the current situation.
This weekend’s WWE Crown Jewel from Saudi Arabia is also previewed — an event that will debut two new ceremonial championships made for these shows.
Dave also gives an early look at this month’s AEW Full Gear card, provides injury updates on Vikingo and Rhea Ripley, the latest on the “Ring Boys Scandal” lawsuit, and plenty more.
Click here to read or get instant access with your own subscription.
Roman Reigns will return to action for just the second time since WrestleMania at Saturday’s WWE Crown Jewel PLE.
In a bout that was hinted at during last Friday’s SmackDown taping, Reigns will team with Jimmy Uso and Jey Uso to face three members of Solo Sikoa’s Bloodline at Crown Jewel in a six-man tag.
All four members of The Bloodline (Sikoa, Jacob Fatu, Tama Tonga, Tonga Loa) Are featured in the WWE-produced match graphic indicating that The Bloodline will operate under Freebird rules for the bout.
Jimmy and Jey reunited on last Friday’s SmackDown after more than a year of storyline strife as they interfered on behalf of Motor City Machine Guns in their Tag Team title bout against The Bloodline.
Seven matches are now set for Saturday’s PLE in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The pre-show will begin at 11 a.m. Eastern time with the main card beginning at 1 p.m. Eastern time on Saturday, November 2.
The updated PPV lineup:
Randy Orton vs. Kevin Owens, plus Women’s Tag Team and United States title matches have been added to WWE Crown Jewel.
Orton opened Friday’s WWE SmackDown by calling out Paul “Triple H” Levesque and demanding a match with Owens at Crown Jewel set for next Saturday, November 2.
Triple H declined Orton’s offer noting that this version of Owens is different and more dangerous than any Orton has faced before. Orton insisted, and Triple H relented, making the match for the PLE official.
The United States Championship will also be on the line at Crown Jewel in a triple threat match.
US Champion LA Knight was the guest referee for the finale of the best-of-seven series between Andrade and Carmelo Hayes on Friday’s SmackDown, with the match ending in a no contest after Knight hit both competitors with his BFT finisher. SmackDown GM Nick Aldis made the triple threat official later in the show.
Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill will also defend their Women’s Tag Team titles at Crown Jewel in a four-way.
Aldis, Raw GM Adam Pearce, and NXT GM Ava announced a fatal four-way title match for Crown Jewel in a backstage segment on Friday’s SmackDown, with Belair and Cargill defending against NXT’s Lash Legend and Jakara Jackson, IYO SKY and Kairi Sane, and Chelsea Green and Piper Niven.
The updated Crown Jewel lineup:
WWE Crown Jewel, Saturday, November 2, 1 p.m. Eastern time on Peacock —
Seth Rollins and Bronson Reed will go one-on-one at WWE Crown Jewel.
After they brawled throughout the arena to kick off Monday’s WWE Raw, it was announced that Rollins and Reed will square off at the Crown Jewel PLE set for Saturday, November 2.
Reed attacked Rollins on Raw in August to put him out of action for several weeks. Rollins then returned on the September 30 Raw and cost Reed his Last Monster Standing match against Braun Strowman.
A face-to-face between the two was advertised for Monday’s Raw, then Raw GM Adam Pearce made the match for Crown Jewel official after the arena brawl.
Three matches have been announced for Crown Jewel. The lineup so far:
WWE Crown Jewel, Saturday, November 2, 1 p.m. Eastern time on Peacock —
John LaRocca and I are back to talk about the major topics in the world of wrestling on this week’s Fight Game Podcast.
We kicked off with our Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down winners and losers of the week before going through our Top Five topics which included:
Click Here to Listen (sub needed) or watch below for free on our YouTube channel.
The first two matches are set for the Saturday, November 2 WWE Crown Jewel event in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
As first revealed during Saturday’s Bad Blood PLE, two champion versus champion matches between the top men’s and women’s singles title holders in WWE are set for Crown Jewel. The winners of the matches will be crowned the first-ever WWE Crown Jewel Champions.
It was officially announced during Monday’s Raw that those bouts will feature Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes vs. World Heavyweight Champion Gunther, and Women’s World Champion Liv Morgan vs. WWE Women’s Champion Nia Jax.
Morgan and Jax retained their titles with wins at Bad Blood last Saturday to cement their matchup. Gunther retained his World Heavyweight title on Monday’s Raw in the main event with a victory over Sami Zayn to make the Gunther vs. Rhodes bout official. Rhodes and Gunther then had a brief staredown to close Raw.
The lineup to this point for WWE Crown Jewel streaming live on Peacock/WWE Network on Saturday, November 2:
The top matches for WWE Crown Jewel 2024 are already being advertised.
WWE makes its return to Saudi Arabia with Crown Jewel being held in Riyadh on Saturday, November 2. On social media today, Saudi official Turki Alalshikh shared the PLE poster — which is promoting that Cody Rhodes vs. Gunther and Nia Jax vs. Liv Morgan will take place.
These matches will determine WWE’s first-ever Crown Jewel Champions. At Bad Blood over the weekend, Paul “Triple H” Levesque unveiled the Crown Jewel title belt and announced that, in a new annual tradition, the WWE Champion and World Champion in the men’s and women’s divisions will face off in singles matches at Crown Jewel. Though their belts will not be on the line, the winners will be recognized as the Crown Jewel Champions for that year.
Before Crown Jewel, Gunther has a World Heavyweight Championship defense against Sami Zayn on Raw tonight (October 7).
WWE Women’s Champion Jax and Women’s World Champion Morgan retained their titles at Bad Blood with respective victories over Bayley and Rhea Ripley.
Rhodes did not defend his Undisputed WWE Championship at Bad Blood. Instead, he teamed with Roman Reigns to defeat Solo Sikoa & Jacob Fatu. The Rock then made his return to WWE at the end of the show.
At Bad Blood on Saturday night, Paul “Triple H” Levesque made an appearance for what WWE said would be a historic announcement.
Levesque revealed that — at Crown Jewel in Saudi Arabia next month — the first-ever Crown Jewel Champions will be determined. There will be singles matches pitting the WWE Champion against the World Champion in both the men’s and women’s division. While none of their championships will be on the line, the winners will be awarded the Crown Jewel titles for 2024.
Levesque said this will become the annual theme of Crown Jewel with the top champions of the men’s and women’s divisions facing off to determine that year’s Crown Jewel champs.
“50 carats of diamonds that will signify the winner as the best of the best,” Levesque said after unveiling the Crown Jewel title belt.
Crown Jewel 2024 is being held in Riyadh on Saturday, November 2. If there are no title changes before then, these Crown Jewel Championship matches would be Cody Rhodes vs. Gunther and Nia Jax vs. Liv Morgan.
WWE has already confirmed when its next show in Saudi Arabia will be taking place.
On Saturday, WWE King & Queen of the Ring was held in Jeddah. It was announced during the broadcast that Crown Jewel 2024 will take place from Riyadh on Saturday, November 2. The event is set to stream live on Peacock/WWE Network.
Aside from 2020 (due to the COVID-19 pandemic), Crown Jewel has taken place every year since 2018. WWE entered into a long-term deal with the Saudi government that year, receiving an estimated $50 million for every show it holds in the country. WWE currently holds two shows per year in Saudi Arabia.
During an earnings call earlier this month, TKO executive Mark Shapiro said WWE still has a “very, very strong relationship” with Saudi Arabia despite Vince McMahon no longer being involved with the company. Shapiro credited WWE President Nick Khan for maintaining the relationship.
Saudi Arabia is hoping to host either WrestleMania or the Royal Rumble in 2026 or 2027.
Here’s an updated look at WWE’s PLE schedule for the remainder of 2024. The full schedule has not been announced yet.
On a new Josh Nason’s Punch-Out, the run toward the end of my pro wrestling year in review series continues with a stop in November.
Joining me for the first time is special guest Scott Edwards of Fightful, Voices of Wrestling and a slew of other outlets.
We lead off with the surprise return of CM Punk to WWE at the end of Survivor Series, giving our thoughts on his first month back and our hopes & hesitations for the future. Of course, Survivor Series also saw the return of Randy Orton. We look back at the highlights for both that PLE and Crown Jewel from Saudi Arabia.
The company also scored a nice financial win with a new TV rights deal for NXT and The CW.
AEW continued their post-Punk run with Full Gear from Los Angeles, a show that saw the announcement of Will Ospreay signing a Khantract and a controversial show-long storyline between MJF, Adam Cole and Jay White.
There was also the announcement of the Continental Classic and the madman known as Bryan Danielson as the first entrant despite being fresh off orbital bone surgery.
Scott and I also talk about the month in Impact, Japan, and the rest of the wrestling world.
I promise this is unlike any other year-end series you’ll hear or read, so catch up on the rest of the series in the archive and my MMA year in review series as well.
On his Impaulsive podcast, Logan Paul addressed a viral spot from his Crown Jewel match against Rey Mysterio.
Fans credited Paul for “saving Mysterio’s life” in the match. There was a spot where Mysterio almost came up short on a springboard moonsault attempt. Though the move almost went wrong, Paul was still able to catch Mysterio and stop him from landing on his head.
Paul said on Impaulsive that, after watching the clip back, he thinks he and Mysterio both made a mistake during the move. Paul was positioned too far back and Mysterio didn’t clear enough ground on the moonsault attempt.
“Look, I’m going to come clean because I’ve seen all these positive headlines. ‘Logan saves Rey Mysterio.’ The Mexican community is going crazy. They’re praising me, saying I’m some sort of [hero],” Paul said. “And so I’m like, ‘Dang, I’m being recognized for doing something cool? I’ll take it.’ But then I looked at the clip. And upon assessing my performance, while I think I did save Rey Mysterio — I think I also almost killed Rey Mysterio.
“I think I was too far back for the move, and I think he didn’t clear enough ground for the move. That’s what happened. Like, I was too far back and he didn’t clear enough ground. We both, I think, made a mistake. I had to catch him, I had to catch him. And I wasn’t going to not catch him. So like, truthfully, while I like the headlines and I like being gassed up like this, I was just doing my job. But I’ll take it. I’ll take the praise.”
Logan Paul SAVED Rey Mysterio from landing DIRECTLY on his head. ‼️
pic.twitter.com/Uy3dKq87rK— DramaAlert (@DramaAlert) November 4, 2023
Paul defeated Mysterio in the match to win the United States Championship. It’s the first title that Paul has held in professional wrestling.
Crown Jewel was Paul’s first match since defeating Ricochet at SummerSlam. Paul vs. Mysterio was set up for Crown Jewel by a callout that Paul issued after his boxing match against Dillon Danis last month.
On last Friday’s SmackDown, there was an angle where Santos Escobar turned against Mysterio. Mysterio revealed today that he’s undergone a successful knee surgery.
Wrestling Observer Live with Bryan Alvarez and Mike Sempervive is back with tons to talk about including RAW, NXT and Dynamite previews for this week, New Japan this past weekend and the Tokyo Dome line-up, Crown Jewel and Collision and so much more. A fun show as always so check it out~!
The Bryan & Vinny & Craig Show is back with a DOUBLE-HEADER TODAY as we’ve got both the WWE Crown Jewel PPV with Roman Reigns vs. LA Knight to cover, and also AEW Collision from Saturday night with the big push of RUSH in the main event. A fun show as always so check it out~!
