5 Ups And 6 Downs From WWE Crown Jewel 2022

Downs...

6. Just A Reminder

Real talk: Titus O’Neil did a nice job during the hype video to open Crown Jewel, firing up even the most cynical fan for a show paid for with blood money.

But Titus also did some serious damage to his credibility as a personality this summer when he came out on television shortly after the stories broke about Vince McMahon’s alleged actions and delivered a rah-rah “Stand up for WWE” speech that could only be described as a cross between propaganda and gaslighting.

To be clear, this isn’t a total knock on O’Neil, who is one of the true good guys and humanitarians in the industry. Rather, it’s an indictment on WWE for putting him in that position and being so obtuse as to damage someone’s reputation in the name of defending the indefensible.

Hopefully, that era is behind us completely, but considering that was literally this writer’s first reaction to seeing Titus, it’s a reminder that this was just a few short months ago. Time heals all, so this should be the last vestiges of that period, at least for Titus.

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Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.