It was the inaugural Crown Jewel and took place on November 2, 2018, at the King Saud University Stadium in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Due to the controversy surrounding the killing of Jamal Khashoggi as well as accusations against Saudi Arabia for severe human rights abuses, leading a war of attrition in Yemen and suppressing women's rights, WWE faced harsh criticism for producing the event and was asked to stop its business ventures in Saudi Arabia by multiple parties.

The controversy also led to the company's top babyfaces at the time, John Cena and Daniel Bryan, boycotting the show.

[6][7] On September 17, 2018, a follow-up titled Crown Jewel was announced to take place on November 2 and feature wrestlers from the Raw and SmackDown brand divisions.

[1][8] In 2015, WWE terminated Hulk Hogan's contract due to a report by the National Enquirer and Radar Online of a partially racist rant made by Hogan on his controversial leaked sex tape; he was heard expressing disgust with the notion of his daughter dating black men, referenced by the repeated use of the racial slur "nigger".

[19] On the October 22 episode of Raw, however, Reigns relinquished the title after announcing that his leukemia, which had been in remission since late 2008, had legitimately relapsed.

[20][21] In February 2019, Fightful reported that prior to his leukemia diagnosis, Reigns had informed Vince McMahon and WWE officials that he would not be taking part in the Crown Jewel PPV due to the controversy surrounding the event.

Following Bryan's win, SmackDown General Manager Paige announced that he would receive his title match against Styles at Crown Jewel.

[31] However, after the two had a heated exchange on the October 30 episode of SmackDown, Commissioner Shane McMahon announced that their championship match would take place that night, where Styles successfully retained after submitting Bryan with the "Calf Crusher".

Enraged, Styles demanded to face Joe at Crown Jewel with the title on the line, and Paige reluctantly made it official.

[30] In reality, Bryan had also legitimately refused to work Crown Jewel due to the controversy surrounding the event, so WWE moved his championship match up to the October 30 episode of SmackDown.

[33] On November 1, it was announced that Shinsuke Nakamura would defend the United States Championship against Rusev on the event's Kickoff pre-show.

[34] During the Crown Jewel Kickoff pre-show, Shinsuke Nakamura defended the United States Championship against Rusev.

[35] The actual pay-per-view opened with Rey Mysterio facing Randy Orton in SmackDown's first WWE World Cup quarterfinal match.

In the climax, Miz countered a submission hold and performed the "Skull Crushing Finale" on Hardy to win the match and advance to the semi-finals.

[36] After that, Seth Rollins faced Bobby Lashley (with Lio Rush) in Raw's first WWE World Cup quarterfinal match.

[36] Next, Seth Rollins faced Dolph Ziggler (accompanied by Drew McIntyre) in Raw's WWE World Cup semi-final match.

As the match officially began, Shane attacked Ziggler, however, Acting Raw General Manager Baron Corbin interfered only to get ejected himself.

Triple H, WWE's Executive Vice President of Talent, Live Events and Creative, as well as a current wrestler, denied that Evolution was intended to be a counterpoint for the all-male Saudi Arabia events, explaining that WWE's female performers "deserve[d] the opportunity" for such a showcase, and that it "was simply the right time for this to happen".

[41] English comedian and political commentator John Oliver also weighed in on the controversy on his show Last Week Tonight, criticizing WWE for what he saw as blatant pro-Saudi propaganda.

[46][47][48] On the other hand, John Cena, who was scheduled to participate in the WWE World Cup and had called it "an honor and a privilege" to compete in Saudi Arabia during the Greatest Royal Rumble, was replaced by Bobby Lashley, as he reportedly refused to work the show in wake of the Khashoggi murder.

[29][49] Daniel Bryan, who was scheduled to face AJ Styles for the WWE Championship, had his title match bumped up to the October 30 episode of SmackDown, and was replaced on the Crown Jewel card by Samoa Joe, as he too reportedly refused to work the show.

[52] On October 25, WWE confirmed the event would go on as planned, citing contractual obligations to the General Sports Authority.

[56] Writing for Pro Wrestling Dot Net, Jason Powell viewed the event as a "cash grab" by WWE,[57] and said that "Crown Jewel was gross for all the obvious reasons, including Vince McMahon doubling down on the controversy by bringing back Hulk Hogan".

[58] Silverstein and Crosby said that the main event tag team match between D-Generation X and The Brothers of Destruction offered "effort and nostalgia ... but not much more" given the wrestlers' age, resulting in them "operating at 50 percent of their prior capacity".

[56] Powell wrote that despite their efforts, "everyone involved came up short regardless of how much gushing the broadcast team did afterward", and the four veterans were instead "stealing the spotlight from the deserving full-time stars of yet another generation".

[58] For the WWE Championship match between AJ Styles and Samoa Joe, Silverstein and Crosby gave it a "C+" rating for being "relatively slow".

[60] The site also noted that if were not for the final three matches, Crown Jewel "would have been a passable, if completely tasteless, pay-per-view event".

[70] After failing to recapture the tag team championship the following month at Fastlane, Shane attacked The Miz, thus ending their partnership and turning heel for the first time since returning to WWE in 2016.

[92] John Cena was originally announced as a direct participant on account of his previous achievements in WWE, but was replaced by Bobby Lashley after he legitimately refused to work the show in wake of the Khashoggi incident.