With the exception of Seth Rollins holding onto his World Heavyweight Championship in the opener, this year’s WWE Crown Jewel wasn’t exactly a “send them home happy” type of show.
The two women’s champions, both heels (albeit popular ones), held onto their titles. Logan Paul, who is definitely a villain in WWE, took a championship from one of the most beloved wrestlers of all time.
To top it all off, WWE had the wrestler it promotes freely as “The Greatest of All Time,” John Cena, and the performer who’s built up the most organic buzz over the past year, LA Knight, on the card as well — and both of them lost.
Neither man is in danger of fans just giving up on them, but what WWE does next with each of them will be telling. Let’s take a look at what that might be.
Is John Cena headed for retirement?
If your impression of Cena is one of a star who keeps younger talent down, you had to be delighted with his match against Solo Sikoa. Not only did he put The Bloodline’s enforcer over, he did it in emphatic fashion, with Sikoa brutalizing him at the end of the match en route to a clean pin.
That Cena lost wasn’t all that surprising, though WWE certainly hinted toward a victory by playing up how long it’s been since he won a singles match. But the manner in which it occurred? Yeah, that raised an eyebrow or two.
Perhaps this is a way of managing expectations. The actors strike that is keeping Cena from what is now his day job is still going, so he’s able to stick around for now. The second the strike ends, however, you figure he’s out of here, so a victory in a big match could send the wrong signal to fans about that reality.
One thing that seems pretty certain is that his crushing Crown Jewel defeat won’t be the last time we see Cena in a WWE ring. After all he’s done for the company, he’s going to get a chance for at least one more victory, and almost certainly in front of fans in the U.S.
Besides, we’ve seen Cena beaten down badly before and bounce back. The guess here is that he’ll keep feuding with The Bloodline, who will smell blood in the water. He may be involved in some tag matches or maybe even WarGames, depending on WWE’s Survivor Series plans.
Eventually, he’ll get that win back, whether it’s over Jimmy Uso or even Sikoa in a rematch. But make no mistake about it: We’re closing in on the end for The GOAT.
How can LA Knight stay hot?
In contrast to Cena, no one really thought Knight had a chance to defeat Roman Reigns. It would have been a huge shock for him to end the Tribal Chief’s historic championship run, especially with WWE hinting that he’ll make a run at Hulk Hogan and other record title reigns.
The whole idea was to make sure Knight looked like he belonged in that spot, and WWE knows how to do that. It not only took serious assistance from The Bloodline for Reigns to retain, Knight managed to get the better of Jimmy Uso pretty easily and fought off everyone. It was legitimately only the numbers game that did him in.
There’s virtually no chance Knight will get a rematch, nor does it seem likely he’ll be positioned to face Reigns next year at WrestleMania barring some sort of serious injury to Cody Rhodes. So the question is really who to use in a program with Knight that makes the most sense.
That means looking at the championship landscape beyond Reigns. Rollins is also a fan favorite and it would be weird for Knight to go against him unless it’s at WrestleMania. We need something sooner than that.
Paul is now United States Champion, and the mic battles between him and Knight would be entertaining. It just feels too soon for Paul to drop his first ever WWE championship, and losing would set Knight back.
That leaves one champ left for Knight to chase, and while some wrestling purists might not like this, it’s the one that it would be logical for the Megastar to dethrone: Gunther. The Ring General has already had a record-setting run with the Intercontinental Championship, one that’s elevated both him and the title.
There’s honestly not much left for him to do with that belt, whereas winning it would help validate Knight even more. WWE can even move Gunther on to bigger and better things, like pursuing Rollins for the World Heavyweight Championship.
Any analysis of what to do with Knight also inevitably has to include some urgency: He’s 40, or a year older than Sami Zayn, the last WWE star to build up so much unexpected natural reaction with the fans. It’s not like the company can try to push plans out for Knight another couple of years.
Giving him a title run would be striking when the iron is hot, which is usually good business. We’ll see if WWE agrees.