WWE Crown Jewel takes place on October 31st in the middle of the afternoon for viewers in North America. The show is another Saudi Arabia sponsored event and features some big money matches at the top in Cain Velasquez vs. Brock Lesnar and lineal boxing champion Tyson Fury taking on Braun Strowman. The show will also feature Seth Rollins vs. The Fiend in a match where there must be a winner and the first WWE women’s match in Saudi Arabia as Lacey Evans faces Natalya. Talk about putting your best foot forward.
The show features some really weird odds with Mansoor being a -1500 favorite over Cesaro. Who is Mansoor? He’s the guy who won the big battle royale on the last Saudi Arabian show and was never seen again. Also, he’s from Saudi Arabia. Team Hogan and Tyson Fury are also huge favorites. Let’s take a look at the matches and see if we can find some betting value.
| WWE Championship – Brock Lesnar vs. Cain Velasquez | 888Sport | BetOnline | 5Dimes |
| Brock Lesnar | -190 | -230 | -210 |
| Cain Velasquez | +134 | +160 | +160 |
This will be Cain Velasquez’s first match in WWE and him winning this match, and therefore winning the WWE Championship, would really be something. So much so that I am not sure why this line isn’t higher.
People just don’t debut in WWE and win the title in their first night, especially when the reactions are less than desired. Adding to that, Velasquez has been wearing a knee brace in his appearances and is rumored to need surgery. I just don’t see him winning the title here.
That said, him losing clean doesn’t seem likely either. While Brock should retain, I can see a screwy finish here that builds towards a rematch down the line. Cain winning the title would be a shock, but him winning by DQ or something like that is possible.
| Tyson Fury vs. Braun Strowman | 888Sport | BetOnline | 5Dimes |
| Tyson Fury | -625 | -600 | -600 |
| Braun Strowman | +350 | +350 | +400 |
Celebrities always win in WWE. Right or wrong, they always manage to grab the win and a guy like Fury isn’t coming in to lose. Not when he is still a major draw in boxing. He isn’t going to do anything to make himself look weak here and tarnish that, and WWE doesn’t mind giving Strowman a loss here. Stay away.
| Universal Championship – Seth Rollins vs. The Fiend | 888Sport | BetOnline | 5Dimes |
| Seth Rollins | -200 | -140 | -160 |
| The Fiend | +140 | +100 | +120 |
A few years ago the whole world thought that Roman Reigns was beating Brock Lesnar in the main event of Wrestlemania and then he didn’t. The
match got a terrible reaction live and they had a rematch in Saudi Arabia. Again, the whole world thought that Reigns would get the win, especially because it was in Saudi Arabia where they wouldn’t get that negative reaction and then… he didn’t.
This feels like a similar situation where Rollins could win here and avoid the backlash that would come in the US. It didn’t happen then, but most people think it will happen now. The Fiend “doesn’t need the title”, but they also don’t need to lose to Rollins. Neither result would surprise me, but there is no value in betting it. Stay away.
| Team Hogan vs. Team Flair | 888Sport | BetOnline | 5Dimes |
| Team Hogan | -500 | -350 | -530 |
| Team Flair | +300 | +225 | +350 |
Team Hogan is made up of Roman Reigns, Rusev, Ricochet, Shorty G, and Ali while Team Flair is Randy Orton, King Corbin, Bobby Lashley, Shinsuke Nakamura, and Drew McIntyre. I get the idea that Team Hogan is favored here because this whole thing feels like an excuse for Hogan and friends to pose in the ring. However, looking at it strictly name-for-name and it’s hard not to go with Team Flair here.
Corbin, Lashley, and McIntyre are three of the biggest heel stars they have going right now and Randy Orton is a legend. It’s too early in the Rusev/Lashley feud for Rusev to get his revenge while Ricochet, Shorty G, and Ali are all on a slightly lower tier than Flair’s team.
Team Flair is a great value here.
| Mansoor vs. Cesaro | 888Sport | BetOnline | 5Dimes |
| Mansoor | -1500 | -1000 | -1500 |
| Cesaro | +700 | +525 | +700 |
I own five or six Cesaro shirts and I’d love to bet him here, but I just can’t. This makes me so mad.
| Lacey Evans vs. Natalya | 888Sport | BetOnline | 5Dimes |
| Lacey Evans | -150 | ||
| Natalya | +108 |
Only 888Sport has odds on this one right now, but Natalya is a nice play. The first ever women’s match should leave the crowd happy with the winner and wanting more.
| Tag Team Turmoil | 888Sport | BetOnline | 5Dimes |
| Curt Hawkins & Zack Ryder | +2500 | +3300 | +4000 |
| Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode | +1100 | +700 | +950 |
| Heavy Machinery | +1100 | +700 | +800 |
| Lucha House Party | +3300 | +2500 | +4500 |
| The B Team | +3300 | +4000 | +5000 |
| The New Day | +134 | +120 | +135 |
| The O.C. | +700 | +1000 | +350 |
| The Revival | +900 | +800 | +900 |
| Viking Raiders | +200 | +150 | -120 |
This is for the Tag Team World Cup so we should all be wary of one of these teams getting injured and then replaced by Shane McMahon who will then win it all.
Barring that, I have to go with the Viking Raiders. They are yet to take a pin since joining the main roster and even further back than that if you count NXT. They are currently the Raw Tag Team champions and they should continue to win here.
There is a chance that WWE does the double count-out or double-DQ/two teams eliminated at once thing to eliminate them, but they just did that two months ago with the Viking Raiders and the O.C. and I can’t imagine they pull that again.
| 20-Man Batle Royale | 888Sport | BetOnline | 5Dimes |
| Akam | +1800 | ||
| Akira Tozawa | +3300 | +2500 | +3000 |
| Andrade | +400 | +600 | +650 |
| Angelo Dawkins | +1800 | ||
| Apollo Crews | +800 | +2500 | +3000 |
| Brian Kendrick | +5000 | +3300 | |
| Buddy Murphy | +267 | +300 | +400 |
| Cedric Alexander | +400 | +300 | +450 |
| Chad Gable | +850 | ||
| Drake Maverick | +2500 | +4000 | |
| Drew Gulak | +2300 | ||
| Eric Young | +5000 | +4000 | |
| Erick Rowan | +2000 | +1200 | +1400 |
| Heath Slater | +2500 | +4000 | |
| Humberto Carrillo | -118 | +200 | +150 |
| Luke Harper | +3300 | +1600 | +2300 |
| Matt Hardy | +1800 | ||
| Montez Ford | +1800 | ||
| Mojo Rawley | +650 | +1000 | |
| No Way Jose | +5000 | +4000 | |
| R-Truth | +800 | +2000 | +2300 |
| Randy Orton | +1000 | ||
| Rezar | +1800 | ||
| Shelton Benjamin | +1500 | +2500 | |
| Sin Cara | +5000 | +2500 | |
| Sunil Singh | +5000 | +3300 | |
| Titus O’Neil | +1500 | +3300 | |
| The Miz | +1100 | ||
| Tony Nese | +5000 | +1200 |
The winner of this match receives a title shot at AJ Styles later in the show. The favorite is Humberto Carrillo, but he just wrestled Styles on Monday. It was good and it could lead to more down the line, but four days later? Nah.
My pick here is a small bet on Cedric Alexander. Remember that feud with AJ Styles where Cedric Alexander lost every match convincingly? Wouldn’t it be a classic WWE move to give him a rematch (and maybe even the title) here? They love repeating themselves almost as much as they love giving titles to guys after they’ve lost a ton of matches in a row.
WWE Crown Jewel 2019 Betting Tips:
- Team Flair +300
- Natalya +108
- Viking Raiders +200
- Cedric Alexander +400
