Randy Orton’s head had just met the ring steps, there was a gash to prove it, and the referee was counting. That is where Cody Rhodes, the guy WWE has sold as its moral center for years, reached out and stopped the count so he could hit a punt instead.
That was the Last Man Standing finish at Crown Jewel in Riyadh. Reports differ on the exact mechanics of how Orton went down, but the shape is not in dispute: Cody punted Orton and won. CBS Sports had Orton landing a low blow earlier and Cody answering with three Cross Rhodes, the third one driving Orton’s head into the steps. Sportster’s recap says Cody couldn’t believe his actions afterward.
Good. I can’t either.
https://x.com/WWE/status/2119173127678922944
Then the main event did its own version. Roman Reigns pinned Sami Zayn with a spear to take the Men’s Crown Jewel Championship, and when Zayn stopped Triple H from handing Reigns the belt and offered a handshake, Reigns slapped it away. Then they hugged. CBS Sports has that order: slap first, hug second.
https://x.com/SportsCenter/status/2119153487040659879
Put the two moments next to each other and you get the actual story of these Crown Jewel results. The belts went where everyone figured. Chelsea Green beat Liv Morgan, Tiffany Stratton cashed in Money in the Bank on the way out, and Penta and Je’Von Evans took the tag titles from Bron Breakker and Austin Theory. All fine. All forgettable by Tuesday. What people will argue about is that WWE’s two biggest faces finished the night somewhere in the gray.
The counterargument is easy to make, and it’s a fair one. Wrestling runs on clean heroes, and a babyface who stops a count to punt a bleeding man has torched the one rule that makes the crowd cheer. Cody’s whole appeal is that he does it the right way. If that goes, what is he selling?
I’d say he’s selling something better. A hero who never gets tested is a poster, and Cody just got tested in front of everybody, with a referee and a bloodied opponent as witnesses. Sportster’s line about him not believing his own actions is the hook. A guy who is horrified by what he did has a conscience, and a conscience is a story you can run for months. Orton gets a grievance that is actually justified, which is the best thing you can hand a veteran villain.
Reigns works the same way from the other side. A clean handshake would have wrapped the feud with a bow. The slap followed by the hug leaves it unfinished: he turned down the peace offer, then took the embrace anyway, and he left it open which one he meant. Zayn has to live with that. So does the audience.
The noise before the show was about the travel advisory and the insiders contradicting each other. Now the conversation is about a punt and a slap, which is a trade WWE should take every time.
A clean win would have been a nice Saturday night. Two guys who did something they can’t take back is a whole fall.
Cody can’t un-punt him.
