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WWE Crown Jewel 2019 is in the history books and, on the whole, it was an enjoyable show. A lot of the company's shows in Saudi Arabia have been a bit of a mess and this was easily their strongest outing in the country.
While some of the matches, namely the ones involving non-wrestlers, were far from great, the card moved along at a nice pace and the show was consistently entertaining throughout.
This was rounded off by an enjoyable main-event that gave fans the finish that they should have been given at last month's Hell in a Cell event.
Let's take a look back at all of the matches from WWE Crown Jewel 2019 and rank them from worst to best.
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8: Brock Lesnar vs Cain Velasquez
What was the point in all of this? The match itself was just the two men dancing around before Velasquez tapped out inside of a couple of minutes, and that was that.
Any hype Cain Velasquez had coming into this match - and let's face it, it wasn't much - was obliterated in a matter of minutes. It didn't help that the Saudi crowd was completely behind Brock Lesnar for this one.
Rey Mysterio did more damage to Lesnar post-match than Velasquez did during the encounter. The post-match sequence did imply that this isn't the last we are going to see of this feud but the WWE will need to do a serious rebuilding job for Cain Velasquez if he is going to face Lesnar for the WWE title again.
Brock Lesnar has once again been booked to look unstoppable in his last two title matches and it will be interesting to see who the WWE lines up for him after this. It's also worth remembering that Rey Mysterio is a Raw superstar, so there is a chance that the WWE will just move Velasquez over there with him and brush this whole thing under the rug until they have built Velasquez more.
7: Tyson Fury vs Braun Strowman
Well, what is there to say about this one, really? If we're being kind, this was nowhere near as bad as it could have been, and Tyson Fury clearly wanted to try hard to put on an entertaining encounter.
It's easy to be cynical about this feud but it has been a bit of light entertainment and Tyson Fury has been game for everything that the WWE has thrown his way. He took a few more bumps here than expected and the match went much longer than most people, myself included, had anticipated
Of course, it wasn't very good from a wrestling perspective but Tyson Fury's entrance was amusing and the guy has some serious charisma to spare. The ending of the match actually did a good job of saving Braun Strowman. Fury was never going to lose this match but having Strowman eat a pinfall would have seriously done him some damage.
Strowman getting back in the ring and laying out Fury kept him looking strong but Fury should have sold the powerslam much better than he did. This will hopefully be the last we see of these two men in the ring together but on the whole, this could have been much worse.
6: Natalya vs Lacey Evans
It's hard to remember a last-minute addition to a card having such a big impact on a show. The last-minute announcement that the WWE would be hosting their first-ever women's match - Natalya vs Lacey Evans - in Saudi Arabia was met with approval from all around the world and the Saudi crowd played their part in the encounter as well.
The WWE's involvement with Saudi Arabia has caused more than enough controversy over the last 18 months but this felt like their first truly memorable moment in the country. The crowd was red hot for this and the shots of the women in the crowd getting emotional were heart-warming, and a brilliant reminder of what makes wrestling so great.
The match itself was fine and the two women clearly wanted to put on a bit of a show for the live audience. The result didn't really matter and the two women embraced after the match and were clearly overwhelmed by the occasion.
It will be interesting to see what level of impact this will have on the WWE's shows in Saudi Arabia going forward. Hopefully, the matches will now become a permanent fixture of these shows. Well done to everyone involved.
5: AJ Styles vs Humberto Carrillo
Where has this random push for Humberto Carrillo come from? Since coming up to the main roster he has competed against Seth Rollins and now AJ Styles twice. While he is a great performer, it would have been nice to have seen someone like Buddy Murphy given the victory in the battle royal and put into this match.
Carrillo did make the most of his opportunity though, despite the crowd being largely dead for his entrance. Once they got into the match, they broke out into a 'this is awesome' chant, though, it is important not to read too much into that as the Saudi crowds tend to be more excitable than a North American audience.
AJ Styles picked up the win after a solid encounter. The match did lack any real sense of drama though as it seemed incredibly unlikely that the WWE would put the belt on Humberto Carrillo this early in his run.
It's good to see the OC being booked to look strong though and hopefully, the WWE will actually carry through with making them a dominant stable for real this time. The group have been so incosistently booked that it is difficult to have faith.
4: Tag Turmoil Match
This one was a really fun encounter that was a great advert for the tag-team division in the WWE. Though, the decision to have The OC defeat The Viking Raiders was certainly an interesting one.
The opening stretch of the match between Ziggler and Roode and The Lucha House Party was one of the most enjoyable of the entire match and the former Raw champs got to look good as they defeated them and Ryder and Hawkins back to back.
Heavy Machinery took out Ziggler and Roode and had some fun with the crowd until The New Day went on a solid run in the middle stretch. Their match with Revival was effective and was a good way of building hype for them for tomorrow's match on SmackDown.
The OC was booked to look good in the closing stretches and their victory, in the end, was a surprise. It seems odd that the WWE wasted the Viking Raiders first ever defeat in such an inconsiquential match-up but most fans are accustomed to bizarre booking decisions at these Saudi Arabia shows by now.
It will also establish the OC as the chief challengers for the tag-team titles on Raw over the next month or so.
3: Cesaro vs Mansoor
In perhaps the least surprising moment of the night, Cesaro managed to make one of the night's most irrelevant matches into one of the best matches on the card.
Mansoor played his part well here and the crowd was red hot to see what he could bring to the table. The two men put on a great brilliant encounter that featured plenty of back and forths and plenty of near-falls.
If there was one thing that held this match back though, it was the fact that the ending was predictable and it removed any sense of drama from proceedings. Mansoor is always going to be booked to pick up the victory in Riyadh. He deserves a lot of credit here though and he matched Cesaro move for move, with the veteran selling for him expertly.
While it may not be great to see Cesaro losing all the time, his matches over the last few months have been excellent and he seems to be settling into his role as the veteran who gets other guys over. Mansoor should get some more exposure on NXT after impressing in this match though and we could see him compete in a bigger match next time the WWE heads to Saudi Arabia.
2: The Fiend vs Seth Rollins
Well, this was quite a pleasant surprise, wasn't it? The WWE saved the biggest moment of the night until right at the very end when they decided to have The Fiend Bray Wyatt pick up the victory over Seth Rollins and become the new Universal Champion.
The WWE did a good job of playing with the fans throughout the match and when Wyatt went flying off the stage at the end of the match, most fans, myself included, thought that that was going to be it.
As for the rest of the match, it was a much better encounter than their match at Hell in a Cell and featured some fun spots. Wyatt getting up from the Stomp has been overused a little and in the long run - all it will have done is damage the move. WWE need to go back to the drawing board with Rollins at this point anyway as his reign has been incredibly dull and he has lost the support of the fans in recent months.
The best thing about this result is that it genuinely throws things up in the air. No one has a clue what the WWE is going to do now that both of the main titles are on SmackDown and that can only be a good thing. The product has been incredibly predictable in recent months so this was an excellent way to inject some life back into proceedings.
1: Team Hogan vs Team Flair
This was easily the most enjoyable match on the card. My concerns as the match started was that the focus in the match was going to be on Rusev and Bobby Lashley but thankfully, they kept the two men apart for large portions of the match and allowed the other talent to do what they do best.
The action in this match was thick and fast and everybody got their few minutes to shine. The crowd were hot on the Randy Orton vs Roman Reigns showdowns and it was good to see Ricochet and Ali being given time to do their thing as well.
The match, like every match on the card, had a fairly predictable outcome but the closing stretch for the match was excellent. Roman Reigns picking up the big win for Team Hogan was always going to be the way that this one ended but it was still fun to watch it all unfold nonetheless.
If the Saudi shows are going to be about exhibition matches, then I much rather have to sit through something like this than the usual legends vs legends nonsense that we have had to endure at the other three Saudi Arabia shows.
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