WWE Crown Jewel 2018: Preview and predictions

WWE World Cup

So exactly who is this WWE World Cup supposed to be insulting? CM Punk for walking out (and still getting chants) or Chris Jericho for running this cruise with all these indy guys this week? I mean, the winner will be crowned the “Best in the World”, right? Yeah, that doesn’t make sense to me one bit. So the WWE Universal Champion or the WWE Champion is what? Anyway, this eight-man tournament does have the chance to produce some good matches. There’s a Monday Night RAW side and a SmackDown Live side with the winner of each brand squaring off in the finals. Here’s a look at the first round. Bobby Lashley has replaced John Cena in the tourney with Cena not wanting to make the trip.

The match that stands out in the first round is Kurt Angle vs. Dolph Ziggler. These are two of the most accomplished amateur wrestlers WWE has ever seen, and while this match obviously would have been better five years ago, this is still intriguing.

Prediction: The biggest question of this whole tournament isn’t who the winner will be. It’s a question of exactly when does Dean Ambrose get involved to cost Seth Rollins a match. It’s not likely it happens early on because Rollins is actually one of the guys that could actually wrestle three good matches in a night and he’ll need to keep moving on to make this the best show it can be. So I’m picking him from the red brand. From the blue brand, it almost has to be Mysterio, doesn’t it? I think The Miz wins his opener against Jeff Hardy but then loses to Mysterio and takes out his frustrations during the WWE Championship Match. So we get Mysterio vs. Rollins in the finals. Ambrose comes out, costs Rollins the match and Mysterio takes it, which is good for him as SmackDown Live GM Shane McMahon says that if one of his guys loses to a RAW guy, that person is off the blue brand for good.