Crown Jewel (2026)
WWE premium live event
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The 2026 Crown Jewel, also promoted as Crown Jewel: Riyadh (Arabic: جوهرة التاج: الرياض, romanized: jawharat altaaji: alriyad), is an upcoming professional wrestling premium live event (PLE) produced by the American company WWE, to be held for wrestlers from the promotion's main roster brands, Raw and SmackDown. It will be the eighth Crown Jewel and will take place on Saturday, November 7, 2026, at Riyadh Season Stadium, a purpose-built temporary outdoor stadium in the King Abdullah Financial District in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The event will be held as part of Riyadh Season and will air live at 8:00 p.m. Arabia Standard Time (12:00 p.m. Eastern Time).
| Crown Jewel جوهرة التاج (Arabic) | |||
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| Promotion | WWE | ||
| Brand(s) | Raw SmackDown | ||
| Date | November 7, 2026 | ||
| City | Riyadh, Saudi Arabia | ||
| Venue | Riyadh Season Stadium at King Abdullah Financial District | ||
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| WWE in Saudi Arabia chronology | |||
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| Crown Jewel chronology | |||
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This will be the 16th event that WWE will hold in Saudi Arabia under a 10-year partnership in support of Saudi Vision 2030. The event will center around the men's and women's Crown Jewel Championship matches, which will feature the respective men's and women's world champions of Raw and SmackDown against each other to determine the better champion.
Production
Background
Crown Jewel is a professional wrestling premium live event (PLE) produced by the American promotion WWE since 2018, typically held in late October–early November. From its inception, it is the main recurring event that takes place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia as part of a 10-year partnership with the country in support of Saudi Vision 2030, Saudi Arabia's social and economic reform program, and it is held as part of the city's annual Riyadh Season festivities.[1] Beginning with the 2024 event, Crown Jewel became centered around the men's and women's Crown Jewel Championship matches, held between the respective reigning men's and women's world champions of the Raw and SmackDown brand divisions to determine who is the better champion.[2]
Announced on the August 31, 2026, episode of Monday Night Raw, the eighth Crown Jewel, and the 16th event in the Saudi Arabian partnership, would be held on Saturday, November 7, at an unannounced venue in Riyadh. This returns Crown Jewel to the city after the previous year's event was held in Australia.[3] WWE later announced that Crown Jewel would take place at the Riyadh Season Stadium, a purpose-built temporary outdoor stadium in the King Abdullah Financial District. This stadium had been originally used for WWE's Royal Rumble event in January.[4]
In addition to airing on traditional pay-per-view worldwide, Crown Jewel will be available to livestream on ESPN's direct-to-consumer streaming service in the United States, Netflix in most international markets, and SuperSport in Sub-Saharan Africa.[5] With the event being held in Saudi Arabia, it will air live at 7:00 p.m. Arabia Standard Time (12:00 p.m. Eastern Time).[3]
Storylines
The event will involve matches that result from scripted storylines. Results are predetermined by WWE's writers on the Raw and SmackDown brands,[6][7] while storylines are produced on WWE's weekly television shows, Monday Night Raw and Friday Night SmackDown.[8]
At Money in the Bank, Raw's World Heavyweight Champion Roman Reigns retained his title, ensuring that he would face SmackDown's Undisputed WWE Champion Sami Zayn or Trick Williams or Je'Von Evans as Zayn and Evans, will face each other on the October 26 episode of Raw, but the winner will face Williams on the October 30 episode of SmackDown. Whoever wins the match for Zayn's title will face Reigns. On the women's side, 2024 women's Crown Jewel Champion Liv Morgan won Raw's Women's World Championship at Money in the Bank, ensuring that she would face SmackDown's WWE Women's Champion Chelsea Green or Nikki Bella as Green and Bella will face each other on the October 30 episode of SmackDown. Whoever wins the match for Green's title will face Morgan.[9][10]
In the main event of Night 1 of WrestleMania 42, Cody Rhodes defeated Randy Orton to retain the Undisputed WWE Championship.[11] Orton then returned at Night 1 of SummerSlam, costing Rhodes the title.[12] This led to a rematch between the two for Sunday Night's Main Event, which Orton won.[13] On the October 23 episode of SmackDown, SmackDown General Manager Nick Aldis scheduled a Last Man Standing match between Rhodes and Orton for Crown Jewel.[14]
Security concerns
In the wake of the October 2026 attacks on Saudi airports, less than four weeks before the event is scheduled to take place, concerns have been raised about the safety of people traveling to Riyadh for the event.[15] On October 23, 2026, TKO Group Holdings CEO Ari Emanuel confirmed in an interview with Fox News that the event will proceed as planned while stating that "daily monitoring" is done should the event not happen, and can be moved elsewhere.[16]
Matches
| No. | Matches* | Stipulations | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Roman Reigns (Raw's World Heavyweight Champion) vs. Sami Zayn or Trick Williams (SmackDown's Undisputed WWE Champion)[a] | Singles match for the 2026 WWE Crown Jewel Championship[17] | ||||
| 2 | Liv Morgan (Raw's Women's World Champion) vs. Chelsea Green or Nikki Bella (SmackDown's WWE Women's Champion)[b] | Singles match for the 2026 WWE Women's Crown Jewel Championship[18] | ||||
| 3 | Cody Rhodes vs. Randy Orton | Last Man Standing match[19] | ||||
| 4 | The Vision (Bron Breakker and Austin Theory) (c) vs. Penta and Je'Von Evans | Tag team match for the World Tag Team Championship[20] | ||||
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