The Crown Jewel event puts the WWE in a difficult position.
The WWE currently finds themselves mired in controversy, and for once it’s not necessarily of their own doing. Any and all dealings with the country of Saudi Arabia are currently being questioned after the death of a journalist (I don’t cover politics here, so you’ll have to go elsewhere for more details than that). This puts a lot of heat on WWE for the Crown Jewel event they are scheduled to broadcast from Saudi Arabia in just a few weeks.
The strategy this week was to continue promoting the show and its scheduled matches while not actually mentioning the location of the event. This would seem to indicate that they were at least exploring their options for broadcasting from a different location. One of my fellow Scrum writers even suggested that a UK location would make a nice cross promotional opportunity for the new weekly broadcast of the NXT UK brand. Realistically though, I’m not sure the logistics of such an event would even allow for such a change this close to the date.
Considering that this is only event number two in a long-term deal between the WWE and Saudi Arabia there’s much more at stake here than just this one event. Of course, the entire deal hasn’t exactly been praised from the beginning. The biggest issue being the simultaneous promotion of a “Women’s Revolution” while also doing business with a country where the rights of women are still stuck in biblical times. Some even view the existence of the Evolution PPV as nothing more than an attempt to appease critics of this Saudi relationship.
Thus far it appears that the Crown Jewel event will go forward as planned, but we’ll be here to keep you updated should that change.
Injury Report
While there’s still no official word on the reason for her time off, Sasha Banks made her return to television on Monday night. If the events of that show are any indication of the direction we’re heading it looks like Sasha will likely team with Bayley and Natalya to face the Riott Squad at Evolution. Also returning on Raw from an even lengthier absence was Tamina. She teamed with Dana Brooke against Nia Jax and Ember Moon, but it was clear by the end that this match was nothing more than a means of promoting a battle royal taking place at Evolution.
Bobby Fish made his long-awaited return from injury on this week’s NXT. He showed up at the end of the tag title match between his Undisputed Era partners and the War Raiders. Fish attacked War Raiders with a chair to prevent them from winning the titles.
Also returning to NXT this week was former NXT Champion Aleister Black. He appeared out of nowhere during the main event between Bianca Belair and Nikki Cross. Nikki seemingly whispered in his ear what she knows about who attacked Black outside the arena months ago, but we’ll see how the story continues to unfold in the coming weeks.
After undergoing double knee surgery, Kevin Owens is expected to be ready to return around February. Should this timeline hold true this would allow him not to miss KOmania season. Presumably he’ll have Bobby Lashley in his sights whenever he returns since they story being told by WWE is that the beat down he took from Lashley is the reason for the surgery.
As mentioned in my recap of the MYC quarterfinals, Tegan Nox was injured very early in her match against Rhea Ripley. Since the match was actually filmed 2 months ago, Nox has been able to share a full rundown of the damage that was done and it sounds brutal. She suffered a dislocated kneecap, torn MCL, torn LCL, torn ACL, both Meniscus torn, bone contusions, and a Segund Fracture on her left tibia. In her own words, basically my knee exploded and I made a huge mess!” The fact that she was able to try and continue the match for as long as she did is a tribute to how tough this young lady is and will continue to be as she fights her way through recovery.
Mixed Match Challenge
With Kevin Owens now off to have surgery, Bobby Roode has been announced as his replacement for the MMC. Roode had a good run with Charlotte in the 1st tournament. He’ll now team with Natalya for the current series.
NXT News
While much focus has been on new signees, NXT also quietly made a few releases this week. Tian Bing, Jason Cheng, and Gabriel Ealy were all let go this week. Ealy is unsurprising as his twin brother was already released months ago. Bing is a bit of a surprise though. There was a great deal of hype surrounding his signing and high expectations that he could be a star as the company attempted to break into new international territories. 2 years later and he made one of his few TV appearances this past week jobbing to Burch and Lorcan.
New Prospects
I saw a report this week questioning the status of Chelsea Green. It suggested that perhaps she was only hanging out at the PC to visit friends or that she had special permission to work there due to her romantic relationship with Zack Ryder. It would seem those reports were much ado about nothing as Green confirmed via social media that she has officially signed with WWE. She’ll make a phenomenal addition to the already solid roster of talented ladies currently training at the PC.
In addition to Green, WWE’s latest announcement of new signees included 6 other individuals. We’ve already mentioned Mia Yim in this post and Matt Riddle in a previous update. The remaining members of the new PC class are Humberto Carrillo, Luis Martinez, Daniel Vidot, and 7’3” Nigerian basketball player Jordan Omogbehin.
Mae Young Classic 2
Here are your Quarter Final results:
Match 1: Relative newcomer Lacey Lane put in a respectable showing, however it wasn’t enough to overcome Japanese legend Meiko Satomura.
Match 2: A solid match between two of NXT’s newest stars ended when Io Shirai hit her signature moonsault to pin Deonna Purrazzo.
Match 3: Rhea Ripley was awarded the victory early due to referee stoppage. This was a difficult match to watch as Ripley’s opponent clearly injured her knee very early but insisted she was OK to continue. Sadly it didn’t take long for Tegan Nox and everyone else to realize that she was actually not ok to continue. The situation is particularly sad given that Nox missed last year’s MYC due to a knee injury that she’s spent most of the past year recovering from and now she has to go through that all over again with the other knee. She’s a promising young talent, so hopefully she’ll overcome this set back as well.
Match 4: The final quarter final match saw returning MYC favorite and NXT UK competitor Toni Storm win a hard fought battle against NXT’s newest signee Mia Yim. Speaking of Yim, now that this match has been broadcast, WWE has also released a sweet post match video from outside of the arena. In the video Triple H tells Mia that they would like to offer her a contract. Check it out if you’d like to see a veteran performer experience the joy of being rewarded for her years of hard work.
Interestingly, both semifinal matches feature a rising Australian star vs a highly regarded veteran from Japan. Toni Storm will face Meiko Satomura and Rhea Ripley will take on Io Shirai. The winners of these matches will face each other for the trophy at Evolution next weekend.
Assorted News and Notes
There could be some NXT call ups on the way following Survivor Series. One big name potentially on that list is Velveteen Dream.
PPV Event Plans
The WWE has a busy schedule of events this fall, and I’ll do my best to keep you updated on their cards.
Oct 28: Evolution-All women’s PPV
As expected, they’ve added a battle royal to the card in order to pack as many women onto the card as they possibly can. This match will allow current performers without storylines to get in on the action as well as providing a spot on the card for appearances by performers from the past. Looking at the list of announced competitors I think it’s safe to say that the Womens Tag Division is NOT being introduced at this show. Many of the women who would be considered favorites for tag titles are instead appearing in this battle royal. *See below for the advertised list of competitors.
Alundra Blayze (Madusa), Ivory, and Molly Holly have all been announced to have some sort of involvement at the Evolution show. No word yet on whether any of them will participate in the battle royal or simply appear in some other capacity.
Announced:
Alexa Bliss & Mickie James vs Trish Stratus & Lita
NXT Womens Title: Kairi Sane© vs Shayna Baszler
Raw Women’s Title: Ronda Rousey© vs Nikki Bella
Smackdown Women’s Title: Last Woman Standing: Becky Lynch© vs Charlotte Flair
*Battle Royal: Tamina, Billie Kay, Peyton Royce, Ember Moon, Alicia Fox, Nia Jax, Dana Brooke, Asuka, Mandy Rose, Sonya Deville, Carmella, Lana, Naomi, Torrie Wilson, and more…
Expected:
NXT UK Womens title match, Final match of MYC2
Nov 2: WWE Crown Jewel from Saudi Arabia
Reth Rollins and Dolph Ziggler each won their respective qualifying matches on Monday to earn spots in the World Cup. On Tuesday, The Miz and Rey Mysterio won their matches to complete the field for the World Cup.
Announced:
Universal Title Triple Threat: Roman Reigns© vs Braun Strowman vs Brock Lesnar
Tag Match: DX (HHH & HBK) vs The Brothers of Destruction (Taker & Kane)
World Cup Tournament: John Cena, Kurt Angle, Jeff Hardy, Randy Orton, Seth Rollins, Dolph Ziggler, Miz, & Rey Mysterio
WWE Title: AJ Styles© vs Daniel Brian
Nov 17/18: NXT Takeover and Survivor Series
The first of many rumors to come for Survivor Series suggest the possibility of a Team Corbin vs Team Angle match with control of Monday Night Raw on the line.
