WWE Crown Jewel main events ranked from worst to best
In 2018, WWE officials reached a deal to establish a 10-year partnership with the Saudi Ministry of Sports. The agreement would allow fans in Saudi Arabia to witness their favorite superstars live. The company hosts two premium live events every year as part of its current deal.
Crown Jewel has become an annual premium live event that has seen many top-tier matches, with implications that would carry over through the remainder of each year. With this year's event in the rearview, we can now look at the incredible memories that his PLE has provided.
This is our ranking of the Crown Jewel's main events:
#6. 2018: D-Generation X def. The Brothers of Destruction
The inaugural Crown Jewel event was stacked with plenty of star power. With a dozen matches on the card, WWE officials put it all out there for the first major Saudi Arabian-hosted show. The World Cup Tournament provided plenty of action to serve as appetizers before the main event.
D-Generation X and The Brothers of Destruction are two of WWE's greatest teams ever. However, this would be the first time they had faced each other in tag team action. Shawn Michaels came out of his retirement to compete in the Middle East. This was HBK's first match since retiring in 2010 at WrestleMania.
#5. 2024: Cody Rhodes def. Gunther for the Crown Jewel Championship
This year's event featured the Crown Jewel Championship bouts, where World Champions from both men's and women's divisions contested in a singles bout to crown the inaugural champion. Before the main event contest, Women's World Champion Liv Morgan topped WWE Women's Champion Nia Jax to become the inaugural Women's Crown Jewel Champion.
The main event of the PLE saw the World Heavyweight Champion Gunther face off against the Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. The match itself was entertaining, and despite losing, The Ring General still came out looking strong. Both stars put their skills to use in a fairly predictable bout, with Cody coming out on top in the end.
#4. 2023: Roman Reigns def. LA Knight for the Undisputed WWE Universal Title
Heading into the 2023 Crown Jewel event, The Bloodline saga owned the wrestling world's attention. Roman Reigns was at the height of his career and was in the middle of a historic title reign. On the other hand, another WWE Superstar was handling his own, as LA Knight was absolutely on fire.
LA Knight came into Crown Jewel with the WWE Universe in the palm of his hands. The Megastar was red hot as he finally earned a main event opportunity for the biggest prize in the industry. The match started with your typical back-and-forth exchanges, but in the end, The Bloodline provided too much opposition for Knight to overcome.
#3. 2021: "Big Time Becks" wins a Triple Threat match for the SmackDown Women's Championship
After a successful Crown Jewel in 2019, WWE could not hold the event in 2020 because of the COVID-19 crisis. However, the company returned to Saudi Arabia in 2021 for a tremendous show. The event featured two matches that could be considered main event-worthy, one of which was a women's Triple Threat bout for the SmackDown Women's Championship.
Becky Lynch returned to action at the 2021 SummerSlam after being out on maternity leave for about 15 months. "Big Time Becks" returned at The Biggest Party of The Summer, squashing Bianca Belair for the SmackDown Women's Title. She successfully defended her title at Crown Jewel despite having the odds against her, with Belair and Sasha Banks fighting for her title.
#2. 2022: Roman Reigns def. Logan Paul for the WWE Undisputed Championship
Logan Paul came to WWE as a Social Media sensation. Many fans were skeptical of his abilities, but Paul proved the world wrong and became an incredible superstar. In fact, his performances earned him a main event opportunity at the 2022 Crown Jewel event.
One of the things that made this main event match so great was the storytelling. In the weeks leading up to Crown Jewel, Roman and Logan went back and forth with trash-talking as the YouTuber played the role of the underdog.
Meanwhile, Roman appeared to take Logan lightly, which made for a fantastic match. In the end, Reigns planted Paul with a Superman Punch, followed by a spear for the win.
#1. 2019: 'The Fiend' Bray Wyatt def. Seth Rollins for the Universal Championship
In 2019, Bray Wyatt introduced The Fiend to the wrestling world. This was also when we started seeing weekly episodes of The Firefly Funhouse, which was arguably the most creative era of Bray's legendary career. The masked character was one of many alternate personas that Wyatt could pull off for the sake of fans' enjoyment.
After beating Braun Strowman at Clash of Champions, The Fiend attacked Seth Rollins, igniting a feud that would take them to the 2019 Crown Jewel. Seth lost his Universal Title to Wyatt in a brutal Falls Count Anywhere match. The Eater of Worlds carried the championship until the next trip to Saudi Arabia at the 2020 Super ShowDown, where he lost to Goldberg.