6 Ups & 5 Downs From WWE Bad Blood (Results & Review)

1. Another Worthless Saudi Belt

WWE’s partnership with Saudi Arabia is questionable enough for those who oppose it on the basis of human rights, geopolitical issues, or even just corporate greed. But all wrestling fans should be able to agree that Triple H’s “history-making” announcement at Bad Blood was a cheap ploy.

Billed as a “new era for WWE,” Triple H revealed that a new annual tradition would be taking place at Crown Jewel, with both the men’s and women’s WWE and World Heavyweight Champions facing each other at that Saudi show.

Neither title will be on the line, but the “definitive winner” will be awarded the Crown Jewel Championship, which was unveiled to be a gaudy, jewel-bespeckled belt. The announcement was met with a decent amount of boos, and rightfully so.

This is little more than a sportswashing ploy to juice the Saudi crowd by presenting the winner with a meaningless title that most likely will never be seen or mentioned on WWE programming again. (Go ask Braun Strowman where his Greatest Royal Rumble title belt is.) Further, the idea of pitting each brand’s world champ against each other harkens back to the Survivor Series PLEs of the 2010s, which played out to mixed results.

It also means none of the top four singles titles will ever be on the line at Crown Jewel – if this annual tradition holds. That could have an impact on card makeup going forward. The fact that all of this is happening at a Saudi show and was announced in the same segment where a Goldberg/Gunther match was teased just made this a huge dud.