Crown Jewel 2024: Cody Rhodes Wins the Belt, Solo Sikoa Wins the Night

The Bloodline six-man begins with an argument about hierarchy before anyone throws a punch. Roman Reigns and Jimmy Uso enter together, while Jey Uso gets his own entrance and receives the full audience participation that comes with it. Roman wants the first tag from Jey. Jey tags Jimmy instead. The match tells the audience within minutes that reuniting three relatives is easier than restoring trust.

Solo Sikoa's team has the opposite advantage. Tama Tonga is willing to absorb punishment, Jacob Fatu can change the pace instantly and Solo does not need anybody to negotiate his authority before acting. Fatu is the standout worker because every entrance changes when he enters. His moonsault and dives give the newer Bloodline the athletic menace that Roman's team cannot match through familiarity alone.

Roman eventually receives the tag and begins fighting Solo, but interference creates the decisive opening. The referee is knocked down, Tonga Loa becomes involved and Fatu interrupts Roman's momentum. Solo hits repeated Samoan Spikes and pins Roman cleanly enough for the result to matter even with chaos around it.

The post-match angle increases the value. Sami Zayn arrives, rejects Solo's invitation and attacks him, only to accidentally hit Roman with the Helluva Kick while Roman attempts a Superman Punch. Solo escapes laughing while Jimmy distrusts Sami and Jey defends him. The original group is closer to reunion without pretending years of damage have vanished.

B / 7.8 reflects good wrestling attached to excellent story advancement. Meltzer gives it 3.5 stars, and Pro Wrestling Dot Net voters place it second in the best-match poll. WrestleFile stops below B+ because the match itself is more functional than exceptional. The importance comes from the pin and the argument that follows it.

The women's tag title match tries to fit eight wrestlers, four teams and several different styles into twelve minutes. That creates impressive bursts and occasional traffic. IYO SKY and Kairi Sane bring the fastest transitions, Lash Legend and Jakara Jackson bring unfamiliar size-and-speed combinations, Green and Niven handle character comedy, and the champions provide the star power that keeps the match centered.

The best sequences arrive when the match stops worrying about orderly tags. Sky, Sane and Jackson all fly to the floor in different ways, Legend uses her strength to create launch points, and Niven can interrupt almost any sequence simply by becoming the largest person involved. The crowd reacts strongly to the accumulation of dives even when the timing around them is imperfect.

There are visible rough edges. Jackson and Sky come up short during one top-rope exchange, and several multi-person sequences require wrestlers to wait for positioning. Green backing away from a moonsault and jumping safely into Niven's arms is funny precisely because it acknowledges how absurd these arrangements can become.

The finish is clean enough. Niven accidentally crashes onto Green, leaving an opening for Belair and Cargill to hit their Doomsday Device and retain. B / 7.6 reflects a good spectacle with enough mistakes to keep it from the upper tier. Meltzer gives it 3.75 stars, which is warmer than WrestleFile because the athletic ambition is undeniable.

Belair and Cargill remain the division's center, but several challengers gain something. Legend and Jackson look physically credible on a major WWE show, while Sky and Sane continue demonstrating why they can elevate almost any multi-team match. The champions survive rather than overwhelm, which is the correct use of this format.

Seth Rollins and Bronson Reed understand that their match should not begin politely. Rollins attacks during Reed's entrance, Reed throws him into the timekeeper area and the official start feels like paperwork catching up to a fight already underway. That urgency immediately separates the match from the more ceremonial Crown Jewel material around it.

Reed's size is presented as a problem rather than an obstacle waiting to be solved. He hits a Tsunami almost immediately and makes the mistake of going for another before Rollins has been fully destroyed. Rollins escapes, lands a Stomp and discovers that one is nowhere near enough. Every additional attempt makes Reed look less like a wrestler taking moves and more like a building refusing demolition.

The steel-step sequence is especially effective. Reed carries part of the steps into position, Rollins uses the opening to Stomp him onto the metal and then follows with another Stomp in the ring. Reed still survives long enough that Rollins eventually needs a Super Stomp from the top rope to keep him down for three.

B+ / 8.4 reflects a very good match that protects the loser almost as much as the winner. Meltzer gives it four stars, and several contemporary reviews praise Reed for standing tall again almost immediately. WrestleFile agrees. The match does not need twenty minutes because the entire story is about how much damage twelve minutes can contain.

The final image is the point. Rollins looks back from the ramp and sees Reed already standing, bleeding and asking him to return. Seth gets the win. Reed gets the fear. Both men leave with something useful.

Liv Morgan and Nia Jax have a difficult champion-versus-champion assignment before the interference even starts. Their styles can work together when the story is Liv surviving a larger opponent, but the new Crown Jewel Championship asks the match to feel like a definitive comparison between two world champions. Eight minutes is barely enough time to establish that premise.

Nia controls through size, including the middle-rope Samoan Drop and several heavy nearfalls. Liv responds with speed and counters, but the match never settles because Tiffany Stratton arrives with the Money in the Bank briefcase. The possibility of a cash-in immediately becomes more important than the competition already happening.

Then Raquel Rodriguez and Dominik Mysterio arrive as well. Tiffany tries to commit, gets stopped, returns, becomes trapped in the ringside confusion and never actually cashes in. Dominik distracts the referee with the briefcase, Raquel kicks Nia from the ropes and Liv hits Oblivion for the pin.

D+ / 5.2 reflects a weak match carrying too much story equipment. Meltzer gives it 1.5 stars, by far his lowest rating on the card. Sporting News is more generous because the surrounding story is active, but WrestleFile grades the wrestling and finish as a competition rather than counting every extra person as added value.

Liv becoming the first Women's Crown Jewel Champion is historically notable. The path to that milestone is not. WWE wants Liv protected, Nia protected, Tiffany teased, Raquel involved and Dominik useful in the same final minutes. The result is movement without clarity.

LA Knight, Andrade and Carmelo Hayes enter with an advantage: all three already understand why they dislike each other. Andrade and Hayes have spent months trading wins, while Knight inserted himself into their rivalry and turned their deciding match into a reason for both men to challenge him. The triple threat therefore needs very little exposition.

Knight briefly lets the challengers hit each other before joining the fight, which fits his character and gives Andrade and Hayes room to continue their own contest. From there the match becomes a sequence of quick counters. Andrade supplies the heaviest aerial offense, Hayes works fastest through transitions and Knight keeps searching for the moment where one opponent can be used against the other.

The nine-minute length helps rather than hurts. Nobody spends long periods outside waiting for the required two-man exchange, and most major sequences involve all three wrestlers. The finish is especially efficient: Hayes tries to capitalize on Andrade, Knight interrupts and catches Hayes with the BFT before pinning him.

B+ / 8.1 reflects an excellent sprint that never becomes a major-match epic. Meltzer gives it 3.75 stars, and Pro Wrestling Dot Net voters place it a close third in the best-match poll behind Cody-Gunther and the Bloodline six-man. WrestleFile agrees with that general position.

Knight retains without ending the Andrade-Hayes rivalry through a decisive singles result. Hayes takes the pin, Andrade has another complaint and the champion remains opportunistic rather than dominant. For a nine-minute triple threat, that is an efficient amount of work.

Cody Rhodes and Gunther are asked to make a new championship feel important through wrestling rather than decoration, and they mostly succeed. The first several minutes are patient enough to resemble a genuine champion-versus-champion contest. They trade holds, test position and make each clean escape matter before Gunther decides the wrestling will become less cooperative.

Gunther's lower-back attack gives the match its center. He catches Cody's dive, uses the apron, blocks the bodyslam when Cody's back gives out and repeatedly returns to positions where the sleeper becomes possible. Cody responds through counters rather than suddenly ignoring the damage, which keeps the injury meaningful without forcing the match into one-note limb work.

The second half becomes excellent once Cody starts finding ways through Gunther's control. Cross Rhodes produces a major nearfall, Gunther's powerbomb does the same, and the sleeper repeatedly appears as the move most likely to settle the match. The crowd occasionally distracts itself with chants and a wave, but the wrestling eventually reclaims its attention.

The finish is smart. Cody attempts the Super Cody Cutter, Gunther catches him in the sleeper and appears to have finally reached the position he has been hunting. Cody flips backward over Gunther, traps the shoulders and gets three. The move protects Gunther because he is beaten by awareness and leverage rather than exhaustion.

A- / 8.8 makes this WrestleFile's Match of the Night. Meltzer gives it 4.25 stars, TJR and Jeremy Thomas each give it four, and Pro Wrestling Dot Net voters select it as the night's best match by a comfortable margin. WrestleFile stops below A because the match never reaches the emotional intensity of the year's elite WWE main events.

The handshake afterward is useful too. Gunther respects the result without pretending to enjoy it, while Cody receives the inaugural championship presentation. The belt may be ceremonial. The match does enough to make the win feel earned anyway.