Today’s WWE Crown Jewel premium live event kicked off with two WWE champions successfully defending their titles, World Heavyweight Champion Seth “Freaking” Rollins and WWE Women’s World Champion Rhea Ripley. Following Solo Sika obliterating John Cena and a Miz TV segment, Rey Mysterio put his WWE United States Championship on the line against Logan Paul.
The brash, young showman publicly called out Mysterio for a title match following his legitimate boxing defeat over Dillon Danis. While Paul has tried to make it clear he does not have a problem with Mysterio personally, he does want what he has around his waist and has largely played heel throughout. On WWE SmackDown this past Friday night, the two men participated in a weigh-in segment that devolved into a scuffle after an irritated Mysterio took a cheap shot at Paul.
During their match at Crown Jewel, Mysterio worked a more technical style than usual, hoping to keep the heavy hitter tied up and unable to land a blow. At one point, while attempting to hit a springboard moonsault, Mysterio appeared to land a little short, but Paul was able to muscle the luchador up onto his shoulder at the last minute before his head hit the mat. It was impressive, and the action began to heat up from there.
The closing moments saw “one of those fools from Logan Paul’s entourage,” as Michael Cole described him, snuck to the ringside area and handed the viral star a pair of brass knuckles, like what happened at SummerSlam when Paul beat Ricochet. This time, however, Mysterio was able to quickly push Paul into the corner, causing him to drop the knuckles.
As Paul’s entourage member went to retrieve them, LWO member Santos Escobar jumped the barricade to cut him off. As chaos ensued outside the ring, Paul recovered the knuckles and dropped Mysterio with a loaded punch after he tried to hit a springboard. This led to Paul pinning Mysterio to become the new WWE United States Champion. The two men showed respect to one another afterward despite the finish.