By the grace of God within the desert right here, and the desert far-off, WWE Crown Jewel has come and gone with no hitch. Regardless of safety issues, venue modifications, and 15-minute delays, new Crown Jewel Champions have been topped, MITB briefcases have been cashed in, and you’ll learn all about it within the WWE Crown Jewel 2026 Stay Weblog. The employees has additionally settled what they liked, and what they hated within the Crown Jewel 2026 Hateds and Loveds.
Now, it is time to get into the winners and the losers. Often this stuff are fairly minimize and dry in wrestling, winners are winners, and losers are losers, however what this column often supposes is “What in the event that they weren’t?”
Clearly generally its minimize and dry, like Roman Reigns as soon as once more popping out on prime of the boys’s division, and different occasions it is somewhat extra sophisticated, like how Chelsea Inexperienced ought to maintain her head up excessive, regardless of dropping the WWE Ladies’s Title to Cash In The Financial institution holder Tiffany Stratton.
Sufficient introductions, lets get into the nitty-gritty.
Winner: Chelsea Inexperienced
I do not care that, moments after the above photograph was taken, Chelsea Inexperienced misplaced her Ladies’s Title to a Cash In The Financial institution cash-in. Inexperienced initially received the title as a joke about interim champions, till damage led to her being the official WWE Ladies’s Champion.
Since profitable the title, there was an air of unworthiness being fanned in Inexperienced’s course. She was simply an “interim” champion who acquired fortunate. However on Saturday, she beat Liv Morgan, who by all intents and functions is the Roman Reigns of the WWE Ladies’s Division, and put to relaxation any argument that she was unworthy of being the opposite half of WWE’s championship coin.
Inexperienced may already be a former champion, however she ends her reign as professional, or not less than as professional as a predetermined battle cleaning soap opera could be. Inexperienced is extra than simply secret service jokes. She is greater than Matt Cardona’s aggrieved podcast spouse. She is, to make use of a really cliched little bit of company jargon, a celebrity.
Loser: Cody Rhodes
Man, folks don’t like Cody Rhodes proper now. Rhodes triumphed in his quest to defeat his longtime mentor Randy Orton in a Final Man Standing Match, and the gang was not having it.
Crowds in Saudi Arabia aren’t fairly a sycophantic as has turn into their popularity, however they’re nonetheless an viewers that often tows the corporate line fairly steadily. As an viewers, they’ll swallow so much, however even they might not swallow what Cody was feeding them on Saturday. Boos, and shouts of “Overrated!” have been lobbed at Rhodes following his win. It is turn into regular for guys as huge as Cody Rhodes to begin to bristle in opposition to American followers, however worldwide audiences have been nonetheless fairly gung-ho for his schtick. It appears to be fading for him, and whereas that is dangerous information for Cody, it is excellent news for humanity.
Name me sentimental, however there’s something good about the truth that wrestling followers are the identical throughout cultures. It doesn’t matter the place you might be from, we’re all, somewhat tired of Cody’s entire deal, and that’s stunning.
Winner: Roman Reigns
Roman Reigns has much more of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in him than we give him credit score. He has inherited, or not less than discovered, Johnson’s means to learn a room, a second, a pulse, no matter you wish to name it. Johnson is aware of when to cede the excessive floor, popularity-wise. Reigns knew, if ever there was a crowd that needed to see Sami Zayn revered, it is in Riyadh.
In truth, I would be so daring as to say Reigns merely didn’t want the win on Saturday. I feel Zayn beating Reigns in Riyadh, even when it is for a momentary prize just like the Crown Jewel Title, would’ve been an unimaginable second, and Reigns snuffing that out was somewhat deflating.
Fortunately, the gang in Riyadh didn’t appear to share my sentiment. In stark distinction to Cody’s response, Reigns’s inevitable win was met with a cheer, fingers acknowledging him from the gang, and an total buoyant vitality within the enviornment. It was tentative nonetheless, and I feel that by acknowledging Zayn, Reigns made certain that the second was one which in the end left an excellent style in everyone’s mouth. The match was nice, however these two have been by no means unsure of getting a stinker. They wanted to stay the touchdown, and I feel they did.
It is clear that Reigns isn’t going wherever quickly, but when his dominance of the WWE product is to proceed, it’s most likely going to take humble, human moments just like the one after his match with Zayn to maintain it going.
Loser: Liv Morgan
I do not assume Liv Morgan did a “dangerous” job on Saturday. I feel she performed her half admirably, but it surely does not change the truth that she was a shocking afterthought, regardless of her omnipresence on “WWE Uncooked.”
Morgan is in all places, she’s in her fourth World Title reign, and he or she’s someway nonetheless maintaining the Dominik Mysterio relationship. On a week-to-week foundation, she is dominant, however on Saturday she acquired rolled up by Chelsea Inexperienced and was saved from Tiffany Stratton by her stablemates. It simply felt like Morgan was a facet character as soon as the bell rang. Like I stated earlier, I used to be completely happy for Inexperienced, however I do marvel if the Crown Jewel idea has painted WWE right into a nook, the place now I’m pressured to observe a match between two world champions and assume ‘Nicely, that is only a chapter in a bigger story.’ I do know that’s the central conceit of televised wrestling, however disguising that reality is the entire trick, and I felt like I noticed plenty of seams and wires on the Morgan facet of issues Saturday.
