WWE Crown Jewel 2018: Preview and predictions

Here’s a preview and prediction for every match on the card at the inaugural edition of WWE Crown Jewel.

Like it or not (nope, not getting into any of that debate here), WWE Crown Jewel is all set for this Friday, Nov. 2 from King Saud University Stadium in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. As I’m sure most of you know by now, there has been a load of controversy surrounding this particular pay-per-view event following the slaying of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, but this second event in the 10-year deal with the Saudi General Sports Authority is happening as scheduled so now it’s just time to focus in on what we’ll be getting on the WWE Network at noon Eastern/9:00 a.m. Pacific on Friday.

Shawn Michaels will be making his in-ring return after more than eight years as he and Triple H have once again reformed DX and will take on The Undertaker and Kane. The “Best in the World” will be crowned in Riyadh as an eight-man (not including John Cena, who refused to travel to Saudi Arabia), seven-match WWE World Cup Tournament will take place throughout the evening, with some very intriguing matches possible.

Numerous title matches will take place, including Braun Strowman vs. Brock Lesnar for the WWE Universal Championship that was vacated following Roman Reigns’ shocking announcement last week that he’s battling leukemia. The WWE Championship Match has also been recently changed after Daniel Bryan also refused to make the trip and has been replaced by Samoa Joe, who will once again battle AJ Styles for the game’s biggest prize. There’s been talk of adding a Cruiserweight Championship Match featuring Buddy Murphy and Mustafa Ali, but that has not been confirmed at the time of this writing.

Also on the docket is a SmackDown Tag Team Championship Match with The Bar defending their newly-won titles against The New Day. We’ll start there and go on down the line with predictions for each match at WWE Crown Jewel.

Enjoy.

SmackDown Tag Team Championship Match

The Bar (c) vs. The New Day

The New Day has had some epic battles with Sheamus and Cesaro in the past and there’s a strong chance we get another one here. The odds are now even with Big Show’s timely 1000th heel turn on the 1000th episode of SmackDown a couple of weeks back so that will certainly come into play.

Prediction: I’d like to see The Bar retain here, mainly due to the fact that I’d like to see Big E get back into singles action. However, The New Day still sells a ton of merchandise so that’s not likely to happen. But I’ll still go with Sheamus and Cesaro here with Big Show making sure they pick up the win.