THIS WEEK IN WRESTLING

November 7, 2018

Crown Jewel, already under fire for political events in Saudi Arabia, and the return of Hulk Hogan as host, managed to alienate even more fans before the night was through.  Baron Corbin cost Braun Strowman any chance of winning the Universal Championship after attacking him moments before his match against Brock Lesnar.  It took five F5s, but Lesnar is once again the Universal Champion, meaning the belt will return to a part time status.

AJ Styles kept his World Title by defeating Samoa Joe.  Shinsuke Nakamura retained his United States Championship with a win over Rusev on the pre-show, while Sheamus and Cesaro defeated the New Day to keep their tag team titles.

The World Cup tournament was supposed to represent the best the WWE had to offer.  Dolph Ziggler advanced to the final with tough wins over top names Kurt Angle and Seth Rollins.  On the Smackdown side of the draw, The Miz defeated Jeff Hardy and Rey Mysterio to qualify for the final, but suffered an injury before the match.  His place was taken by Smackdown Commissioner Shane McMahon, who defeated Dolph Ziggler to lay claim to being the best in the world – truly a ridiculous assumption, considering Shane is a part-timer at best, and better known for his highly entertaining big spots in matches against Kevin Owens, Kane, Kurt Angle, and The Undertaker.  Shane himself put to bed any notion of him being the best in the world when he addressed the crowd on Smackdown.

The main event of Crown Jewel saw the return of Shawn Michaels.  He teamed with Triple H to clash with Kane and The Undertaker.  Triple H suffered a pectoral injury during the match, which forced Michaels to carry more of the match than initially intended.  Michaels set up the victory for DX, delivering Sweet Chin Music to Kane, before Triple H hit the pedigree and made the cover.

Raw seemed to be dominated by Braun Strowman trying to get his hands of Baron Corbin to deliver payback for costing him a chance at the Universal Championship.  Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose were forced to defend their Tag Titles against the Authors of Pain.  With the champions estranged, Rollins was forced to defend the belts on his own, and came up short.  After the match, Ambrose attacked Rollins.  In the main event, Drew McIntyre defeated Kurt Angle via submission, denying Angle a chance to be team captain of Raw at Survivor Series.

On Smackdown, Shane McMahon named the Miz and Daniel Bryan as co-captains of team Smackdown.  Both agreed that Shane should be a part of their team for their match against Team Raw.  By the end of the night, Samoa Joe and Rey Mysterio had earned their places on the team, with wins over Andrade Almas and Jeff Hardy respectively.  Randy Orton attacked Mysterio after his win, while Samoa Joe and Daniel Bryan continued their rivalry at the end of the show.

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