Bengaluru, November 1: Two of the main event matches have been altered for Crown Jewel PPV event. Roman Reigns will not compete in the Universal Championship match, it will now be a one-on-one contest between Braun Strowman and Brock Lesnar. Daniel Bryan will also not be part of the WWE Championship match as Samoa Joe replaced him to take on AJ Styles.

The world cup tournament also underwent changes at Crown Jewel. The biggest name in the contest, John Cena refused to take part in it as he did not wish to go to Saudi Arabia due to the Jamal Khashoggi controversy. Hence, Bobby Lashley replaced him in the first round matchup. Plus, the bracket has also been changed.

Reports from Mike Johnson of PWInsider.com stated that the initial plan was to put one Raw superstar against a Smackdown superstar. John Cena was set to compete against Rey Mysterio as per the source. But the lineup was entirely changed at the very last moment and revealed on this week's WWE Raw.

The bracket was created in a way where superstars from WWE Raw will be in one side, while Smackdown superstars will be competing on the other side. The final match will be between a Raw superstar and a Smackdown superstar. This will be a small preview of the Survivor Series theme.

Here are the updates from the source,

“The original plan was to kind of have the talents mixed up. In fact, at one point we were told that John Cena was going to wrestle Rey Mysterio in the first round and then the decision was made to keep the Raw and SmackDown talents segregated until the final because the final would also serve as sort of a preview of next month’s Survivor Series which will have a Raw vs SmackDown theme.”

Despite the massive changes on the card and the fan backlash from the US fans, the good news is that Crown Jewel PPV is sold out. Tickets for the event went on sale last week and it appears that it vanished within three hours of the booking opening. The Chairman of the General Sports Authority posted to Twitter informing the big news to WWE Universe.



Another big update about Crown Jewel is that the sports authority might allow Renee Young in the commentary table. As per the reports of Pro Wrestling Sheet, the real-life wife of Dean Ambrose could make history this Friday night. If she does call out the actions from ringside then she will be the first woman to do so in the conservative middle-east country.