I didn’t like when WWE introduced the concept of the Crown Jewel championships where the top title holders on both brands go up against one another to compete for it at the premium live event, and this year, I dislike it even more. While it’s being held in Perth, Australia this year instead of Saudi Arabia, the timing of the event, almost immediately following Wrestlepalooza, seems like it’s really going to mess with the booking of the shows. That was evident tonight on “Raw.”

Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes kicked off this episode of “Raw,” and before he could even speak, he was interrupted by his Crown Jewel opponent, World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins. They started to talk about their feud, which has been ongoing since Rhodes’ return to WWE back in April 2022, and Rollins even brought up the Rolex that Rhodes gifted him after Rollins helped him out all throughout WrestleMania 40 weekend. That’s all well and good, and even has an interesting angle with the ‘Mania story, but Rollins barely mentioned his loss, alongside wife Becky Lynch, to AJ Lee and CM Punk at Wrestlepalooza. The crowd chanted for Punk at one point and Rollins kind of brushed it off, saying everyone knows how Punk feels about him. Punk and Lee weren’t even on this show to follow up on their feud, which I assumed was going to continue, albeit mostly on the women’s end for the Intercontinental Championship.

On top of that, as Rhodes mentioned in this promo, Rollins is 0-3 against him, including in their Hell in a Cell match where Rhodes’ pec was quite literally about hanging off of his chest. I may be wrong, and hopefully I am, but I don’t see Rollins winning at Crown Jewel, so he’s going to look even sillier at 0-4, unless he gets a lot of help from The Vision at ringside. Though, honestly, 1-3 doesn’t look so great either.

I also really don’t like that now that Stephanie Vaquer has the Women’s World Championship, she’s not immediately entering a big feud or having a match for her own title that means anything. She’s going directly into the Women’s Crown Jewel Championship match. And, unlike Rhodes, she doesn’t yet know who she’s facing. That will be determined this week on “WWE SmackDown,” presumably in the main event, and Vaquer said she’d be present, so we’re likely just getting a stare down between her and either Tiffany Stratton, Jade Cargill, or Nia Jax to end the show. They’ll only have two weeks of build after that to attempt to make anything interesting out of that match, and it’s highly possible that Jax gets the title to go up against a babyface Vaquer.

It may seem like a widely general dislike, but WWE holding two big events like Wrestlepalooza and Crown Jewel close together is messing with the weekly booking. It’s making me a lot less excited for these shows, and there are lot more of those than PLEs.

Written by Daisy Ruth