What Time Does WWE Crown Jewel Start?

WWE's next pay-per-view event, Crown Jewel, will take place at the King Saud University Stadium in [...]

By Connor Casey

WWE's next pay-per-view event, Crown Jewel, will take place at the King Saud University Stadium in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Friday.

Because of time zone differences, the show will start at 12 p.m. Eastern Standard Time and will be available on the WWE Network. With 11 matches announced for the main card along with one pre-show match, the event will likely last more than four hours.

The show is highlighted by an eight-man World Cup tournament to crown what WWE has coined "The Best in the World." The first round of the tournament will see Seth Rollins vs. Bobby Lashley, Kurt Angle vs. Dolph Ziggler, Jeff Hardy vs. The Miz and Rey Mysterio vs. Randy Orton. The winners of their respective matches will face off in the next round until one wrestler from Raw and one from SmackDown face off in the finals.

As an added twist, Shane McMahon announced during SmackDown Live this week that if a SmackDown star loses in the final round, they'll be kicked off the blue brand.

Other matches announced for the show include D-Generation X vs. The Brothers of Destruction, Cesaro and Sheamus defending their SmackDown Tag Team Championships against The New Day, WWE Champion AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe and Brock Lesnar vs. Braun Strowman for the vacated WWE Universal Championship.

The event, which has been shrouded in controversy in recent weeks following the alleged murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents in Turkey, has seen a number of its matches be forced to change. Roman Reigns announced back on Oct. 22 that he had been recently diagnosed with leukemia, forcing him to vacate the Universal Championship as he undergoes treatment. Reigns was originally booked to defend his title in a triple threat match with Strowman and Lesnar.

Both John Cena and Daniel Bryan were booked for the show but were written out after both wrestlers refused to attend the event. Cena was originally set to take part in the World Cup tournament, and was replaced by Lashley under order of acting Raw general manager Baron Corbin on Monday.

Meanwhile, Bryan was scheduled to face Styles for the WWE Championship. The two decided instead to have their championship match on SmackDown Live this week, which resulted in Bryan tapping out to Styles' Calf Crusher at the end of an excellent bout. Joe ran in and attacked both men after the match, prompting Styles to demand a one-on-one match with him at Crown Jewel.

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