10 Most Disgusting Promotional Tactics For WWE In Saudi Arabia
6. ‘Prestigious’ Tuwaiq Mountain Trophy
If anyone wonders why many critics and fans have been rolling their eyes at the Crown Jewel Championship as a piss-poor gimmick, look no further than the Tuwaiq Mountain Trophy gauntlet match.
Billed by WWE announcers as a “prestigious” prize, the trophy was talked up repeatedly as a big deal, even noting that the mountain Tuwaiq has a symbolic connection to “the unbreakable strength of the Saudi people.”
In true WWE fashion, the “prestigious” tournament was a gauntlet match that saw R-Truth defeat Bobby Lashley, then-United States Champion Andrade and Erick Rowan (via DQ) before AJ Styles beat an injured Truth, all in the span of 16 minutes.
Oh, but it gets worse. WAY worse.
Rey Mysterio was the scheduled final participant in the gauntlet match, but the OC took out Rey, presumably giving Styles the win… which would have been a horrible way to end such a prestigious tournament. Instead, WWE went an even worse route: Undertaker attacked Gallows and Anderson, made his entrance, and then chokeslammed and pinned Styles to actually win the trophy, all without removing his jacket and hat. (This would be Taker’s penultimate match, and his last “traditional” wrestling match, as his farewell was the cinematic Boneyard match.)
To recap: Undertaker won a joke of a gauntlet match that was dominated by an injured R-Truth, despite the Deadman not even being in the match. But it was “prestigious” as hell.