Crown Jewel (2022)

The 2022 Crown Jewel was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by the American company WWE. It was the fourth annual Crown Jewel and took place on Saturday, November 5, 2022, at Mrsool Park in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia as part of Riyadh Season, held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. This was the second Crown Jewel to be held at this venue after the inaugural 2018 event, which was held there when it was previously referred to as King Saud University Stadium (renamed in 2020). It was also the eighth event that WWE held in Saudi Arabia under a 10-year partnership in support of Saudi Vision 2030.

Eight matches were contested at the event. In the main event, Roman Reigns defeated Logan Paul to retain the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship, which also saw an appearance by Logan's brother Jake Paul. In other prominent matches, Braun Strowman defeated Omos, Damage CTRL (Dakota Kai and Iyo Sky) defeated Alexa Bliss and Asuka to win the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship, Bianca Belair defeated Bayley in a Last Woman Standing match to retain the Raw Women's Championship, and in the opening bout, Brock Lesnar defeated Bobby Lashley.

The event received overwhelming acclaim, with fans and critics praising the main event for Logan Paul's wrestling skills and his efforts to wrestle after suffering an injury halfway through the match, the Last Woman Standing match, the latter for its creativity, the Women's Tag Team Championship match, and the Steel Cage match.

Production

Background

In early 2018, the American professional wrestling promotion WWE began a 10-year strategic multiplatform partnership with the Ministry of Sport (formerly General Sports Authority) in support of Saudi Vision 2030, Saudi Arabia's social and economic reform program. Crown Jewel was then established later that same year, subsequently becoming the main recurring event in this partnership, held in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, in late October–early November as part of Riyadh Season that launched in 2019. The fourth Crown Jewel, and eighth overall event in the Saudi Arabian partnership, was announced on May 23, 2022, and was scheduled to take place on Saturday, November 5, 2022, at Mrsool Park—this marked the second Crown Jewel to take place at this venue after the inaugural 2018 event, which was held there when it was previously referred to as King Saud University Stadium (renamed in 2020). The event aired on pay-per-view worldwide and was available to livestream on Peacock in the United States and the WWE Network in international markets. The event featured wrestlers from the Raw and SmackDown brand divisions.

Iranian attack concerns

On November 1, 2022, The Wall Street Journal reported that Saudi Arabia may be subject to a targeted attack by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps amid the Mahsa Amini protests simultaneously taking place. The article stated that the attacks were planned for "targets in the kingdom". This brought concern regarding Crown Jewel that upcoming weekend. PWInsider reported that WWE would be going forward with the event and that the company had security protocols and emergency contingencies in place if something were to happen, but were hopeful that there would be no issues. On November 2, Iran denied that they were planning any attack.

Storylines

The event included eight matches that resulted from scripted storylines. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on the Raw and SmackDown brands, while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television shows, Monday Night Raw and Friday Night SmackDown.

Main event match

After Roman Reigns appeared on Logan Paul's podcast Impaulsive, the social media influencer then trash-talked Reigns after the latter left the set. This led to a social media exchange, resulting in Paul appearing on the September 16 episode of SmackDown where he confronted The Bloodline to invite Reigns to a press conference in Las Vegas the following day. At the conference, WWE executive Triple H announced that Reigns would defend the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship against Paul in the main event of Crown Jewel, marking only Paul's third match in WWE. During the Crown Jewel press conference the day before the event, it was confirmed that while Reigns would have The Bloodline in his corner (except Sami Zayn), Paul would be backed by his brother Jake Paul.

Undercard matches

On the October 10 episode of Raw, The Judgment Day (Finn Bálor, Damian Priest, Dominik Mysterio, and Rhea Ripley) called out AJ Styles to join their stable, as Styles and Bálor used to be teammates in the Bullet Club in New Japan Pro-Wrestling. Styles came out to seemingly accept the offer, however, he rejected the offer and introduced the returning Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson as backup, making their return to WWE after both were released in April 2020, thus reforming The O.C. A brawl then ensued between the two teams. The following week, The Judgment Day confronted The O.C. and challenged them to a six-man tag team match at Crown Jewel, which the latter accepted.

On the October 10 episode of Raw, Bobby Lashley listed off the names of previous wrestlers he had defeated, which included Brock Lesnar, who he faced only once and defeated at the Royal Rumble in January. Lesnar, in his first appearance since SummerSlam in July, then made a surprise return and attacked Lashley. This ultimately cost Lashley his United States Championship in a title defense that occurred right after the confrontation. Later backstage, Lashley challenged Lesnar to face him on the following week's episode. There, the two brawled which ended after Lashley put Lesnar through the commentators table. Later that night, a match between the two was announced for Crown Jewel.

At Extreme Rules, Karrion Kross defeated Drew McIntyre in a strap match after Kross' wife, Scarlett, incapacitated McIntyre with pepper spray. On the following episode of SmackDown, Kross was scheduled to compete in a fatal four-way match to determine the number one contender for the Intercontinental Championship. However, before SmackDown went on air, Kross was involved in a car accident (kayfabe) and was attacked by McIntyre while receiving help, rendering him unable to compete. The following week, McIntyre announced that he would be facing Kross in a Steel Cage match at Crown Jewel.

During Braun Strowman's match on the October 14 episode of SmackDown, Omos and his manager MVP of the Raw brand appeared in the crowd. After Strowman won the match, MVP explained that they took issue with Strowman's claim of calling himself the "Monster of all Monsters" and claimed that Strowman would look normal sized if he stood next to Omos. The following week, Strowman called out Omos to confront him. MVP came out instead and Strowman stated that he wanted to challenge Omos at Crown Jewel; MVP then accepted on his behalf, however, Omos then came out and towered over Strowman before shoving him out of the ring. The match was officially confirmed on the October 24 episode of Raw.

At Extreme Rules, Bianca Belair defeated Bayley in a Ladder match to retain the Raw Women's Championship. On the October 24 episode of Raw, Bayley defeated Belair in a non-title match after interference from Nikki Cross, who ditched the Nikki A.S.H. persona. Due to this, Bayley earned another title match against Belair, which was scheduled for Crown Jewel and stipulated as a Last Woman Standing match.

On the October 14 episode of SmackDown, Sheamus and Solo Sikoa competed in a fatal four-way match to earn an opportunity at the Intercontinental Championship. During the match, Bloodline members Sami Zayn and Jey Uso interfered on Sikoa's behalf. The Brawling Brutes (Ridge Holland and Butch) then came out to defend their stablemate, Sheamus, and a brawl broke out between the two teams. The following week, The Bloodline attacked and injured Sheamus. After defeating Zayn and Sikoa on the October 28 episode, Holland and Butch earned a match against The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso) for the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship at Crown Jewel.

After being absent for a few weeks due to an attack by Damage CTRL (Bayley, Dakota Kai, and Iyo Sky), Alexa Bliss and Asuka made their return on the October 31 episode of Raw. That night, they challenged Sky and Kai to a match for the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship and defeated them to win the titles. The next day, a championship rematch was scheduled for Crown Jewel.

During the October 31 episode of Raw, it was announced that Bray Wyatt would be making an appearance at Crown Jewel. Wyatt had been released from WWE in July 2021 and made his return to the company at Extreme Rules. Since his return, he had made cryptic promos about his future, while also being haunted by a figure from his past named Uncle Howdy, who first appeared on the October 28 episode of SmackDown.