Crown Jewel (2018)
The 2018 Crown Jewel was the inaugural Crown Jewel professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by the American company WWE. It was held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. The event took place on November 2, 2018, at the King Saud University Stadium in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It did not get a DVD release, but it is available on the WWE Network.
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Promotional poster featuring The Brothers of Destruction (Kane and The Undertaker) and D-Generation X (Triple H and Shawn Michaels) | |||
| Promotion | WWE | ||
| Brand(s) | Raw SmackDown | ||
| Date | November 2, 2018 | ||
| City | Riyadh, Saudi Arabia | ||
| Venue | King Saud University Stadium | ||
| Attendance | 16,000 | ||
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It was the second event WWE held in Saudi Arabia under a 10-year partnership in support of Saudi Vision 2030, after the Greatest Royal Rumble in April, and it hosted the first-ever WWE World Cup tournament. The event marked the final match of Shawn Michaels, who had retired from active in-ring competition at WrestleMania XXVI in 2010, though returned for this match, the return of Hulk Hogan—who had not appeared on WWE programming since a 2015 scandal—who served as the event's host. The event also marked the final time The Brothers of Destruction (The Undertaker and Kane) would team as a tag team.
Twelve matches were contested at the event, including one on the Kickoff pre-show. In the main event, D-Generation X (Triple H and Shawn Michaels) defeated The Brothers of Destruction (The Undertaker and Kane). In the penultimate match, Shane McMahon defeated Dolph Ziggler to win the WWE World Cup. In other prominent matches, The Bar (Cesaro and Sheamus) retained the SmackDown Tag Team Championship against The New Day (represented by Big E and Kofi Kingston), AJ Styles defeated Samoa Joe to retain SmackDown's WWE Championship, and Brock Lesnar defeated Braun Strowman to win Raw's vacant Universal Championship.
Due to the controversy surrounding the killing of Jamal Khashoggi as well as accusations against Saudi Arabia for severe human rights abuses, leading a war of attrition in Yemen and suppressing women's rights, WWE faced harsh criticism for producing the event and was asked to stop its business ventures in Saudi Arabia by multiple parties. The controversy also led to the company's top babyfaces at the time, John Cena and Daniel Bryan, boycotting the show. The event itself was met with generally negative reviews, especially the main event, the Universal Championship match, and the World Cup final.