WWE Crown Jewel 2023: Match Card, Tickets, Venue, Date, Time

WWE Crown Jewel 2023 event is a WWE PLE which took place on November 4, 2023, at Mohammad Abdo Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Roman Reigns defended Undisputed WWE Universal Championship against LA Knight in the main event. Seth Rollins defended World Heavyweight Championship against Drew McIntyre.

MATCH CARD

• Pre-Show: Sami Zayn vs JD McDonagh
  • Winner: Sami Zayn
• Seth Rollins(c) vs Drew McIntyre – World Heavyweight Championship
  • Winner: Seth Rollins
• Rhea Ripley(c) vs Nia Jax vs Raquel Rodriguez vs Shayna Baszer vs Zoey Stark – Women’s World Championship
  • Winner: Rhea Ripley
• John Cena vs Solo Sikoa
  • Winner- Solo Sikoa
• Rey Mysterio(c) vs Logan Paul – WWE United States Championship
  • Winner: Logan Paul(title change)
• Iyo Sky(c) vs Bianca Belair – WWE Women’s Championship
  • Winner: Iyo Sky
• Cody Rhodes vs Damian Priest
  • Winner: Cody Rhodes
• Main Event: Roman Reigns(c) vs LA Knight – Undisputed WWE Universal Championship
  • Winner: Roman Reigns

NOTES & STORYLINES

WWE was returning to Saudi Arabia for its 11th event in the country on November 4, 2023. The event was announced by Riyadh Season 2023 while also advertising John Cena for the event. WWE officially announced the event on October 7 during Fastlane 2023 broadcast.

Seth Rollins(c) vs Drew McIntyre – World Heavyweight Championship

Seth Rollins was in the ring on RAW October 9 episode, celebrating his win over Nakamura and a successful title defense at Fastlane. Drew McIntyre came out to stand face-to-face with Rollins and asked for a title shot at Crown Jewel. Rollins, being the fighting champion, agreed promptly. Drew then stopped Damian Priest from cashing in MITB briefcase on Rollins.

Rhea Ripley(c) vs Nia Jax vs Raquel Rodriguez vs Shayna Baszer vs Zoey Stark – Women’s World Championship

Rhea Ripley defended Women’s World title against Raquel Rodriguez at Payback 2023 event. During their rematch on September 11 RAW episode, Nia Jax attacked Raquel and Rhea. Nia also attacked the likes of Zoey Stark and Shayna Baszler in the coming week. Rhea Ripley a couple of weeks later and wanted to get the division in order. She faced Shayna Baszler on October 16 RAW episode, but Nia Jax and Raquel Rodriguez got to brawling at ringside during the match. Zoey Stark then hit the ring to cause a disqualification. Rhea went to RAW General Manager to express his frustration on interruptions during her matches. Pearce told her that she would have to comply to her directives to get the chaos under control and defend her title in a fatal 5-way match at Crown Jewel.

Roman Reigns(c) vs LA Knight – Undisputed WWE Universal Championship

Roman Reigns returned to SmackDown for the first time in 2 months on October 13, 2023 episode. He interrupted John Cena’s opening segment. Cena then went on to introduce LA Knight as Roman’s next challenger. Jimmy Uso attacked Knight from behind but he was able to throw Jimmy out of the ring. Later, a match between Solo Sikoa and Knight was set up. Cena stopped Jimmy from interfering in the match and Knight got a win over Sikoa. Roman hit Knight with a spear after the match. WWE announced a match between Roman and Knight for Crown Jewel on October 20 via a press release.

Rey Mysterio(c) vs Logan Paul – WWE United States Championship

Logan Paul defeated Dillon Danis in a boxing match on October 14, 2023. In the post-match interview, he called out WWE United States Champion Rey Mysterio. Mysterio replied during an interview and asked Paul to meet him face-to-face at SmackDown. Paul and Mysterio faced off on Smackdown October 20 episode where they agreed to clash at Crown Jewel with Mysterio’s title on the line.

Cody Rhodes vs Damian Priest

Cody Rhodes helped Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn in their feud against Judgment Day. He previously defeated Damian Priest, Finn Balor and Dominik Mysterio in singles matches at various shows from June 2023 onwards. Cody and Jey Uso defeated Priest and Balor to win Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship at Payback 2023. 9 days later at RAW, Priest and Balor won the titles back from Cody and Jey after Priest hit Cody with a low blow outside and put him through the announce table, and Jimmy Uso hit Jey with a superkick. Cody interrupted Priest and Balor’s celebration the following week, particularly bringing up the low blow from Priest. They agreed to have a singles match at Crown Jewel which was followed by a brawl breaking out. During the brawl, Priest hit Cody with a chop block before hitting a chair shot on his ankle against the steel steps. Cody’s ankle was injured, but he still came out to make the save on Jey Uso later during the show after his match against Priest.

John Cena vs Solo Sikoa

John Cena returned to WWE on September 1 SmackDown episode. Jimmy Uso confronted him, leading to Cena taunting him that the wrong Uso left WWE(pointing to Jey Uso leaving the promotion). This started Cena’s rivalry with The Bloodline as Solo Sikoa also got involved. Cena teamed up with LA Knight for tag team match against Solo and Jimmy and came out on the winning side at Fastlane. On SmackDown October 20 episode, Cena pointed out how he did not have a singles win for over 2000 days in WWE. So, he called out an open challenge. Solo answered the call to start a brawl with Cena. The following week, Paul Heyman distracted Cena with some talk in the ring to allow Solo to attack him from behind. WWE later announced a singles match between Cena and Solo at Crown Jewel.

Iyo Sky(c) vs Bianca Belair – WWE Women’s Championship

Bianca Belair won a triple threat match at Summerslam 2023 to win back WWE Women’s Championship. Iyo Sky cashed in MITB breifcase against her immediately after the match and won the title. Bianca teamed up with Charlotte Flair on SmackDown August 18 episode to beat Damage CTRL’s Iyo and Bayley in a tag team match. They later attacked Bianca backstage, putting her on the shelf due to injury. Bianca returned on October 20 SmackDown episode to save Flair from an attack from Damage CTRL itself. The following week, she called for revenge for Damage CTRL’s attack on her and revealed that she would challenge Iyo at Crown Jewel.

Sami Zayn vs JD McDonagh

Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens had been feuding with Judgment Day since June 2023. JD McDonagh was trying to get a place in Judgment Day, but he faced resistance from Damian Priest. McDonagh played a major role when Damian Priest and Finn Balor defeated Sami and Owens for undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship. After Owens was traded to SmackDown in October, Sami once again told Judgment Day that he would continue to be the resistance against their dominance. WWE later announced that McDonagh would Sami on the pre-show of Crown Jewel.