“The Bathroom Break Match” – Dave Meltzer Told WWE Crown Jewel Bout Had No Heat

WWE invaded the RAC Arena in Perth, Western Australia on Saturday for the seventh Crown Jewel PLE, and John Cena’s final trip Down Under as an active Superstar. The wrestling world continues to debate the history-making event, and Dave Meltzer is receiving backlash for his remarks on a certain match.

Stephanie Vaquer and Tiffany Stratton did battle for the first-time-ever at WWE Crown Jewel III on Saturday night. Representing RAW, the current Women’s World Champion defeated the current Women’s Champion of SmackDown in just over 10 minutes to be crowned the second-ever Women’s Crown Jewel Champion.

The Women’s Crown Jewel Championship match aired as the second match of the night, right after Bronson Reed pulled off a big upset shocker in defeating Roman Reigns in their 21-minute Clash In Paris rematch, held under Australian Street Fight rules. The finish saw fans cheer in anticipation for Vaquer to hit the Devil’s Kiss, but Stratton countered as the back-and-forth continued. Vaquer finally nailed The Devil’s Kiss, and ended up blocking the Prettiest Moonsault Ever for the win.

WWE officials booked Vaquer vs. Stratton as the shortest match by far at Crown Jewel 2025, and that has been a hot topic of discussion during today’s fan debates on the match. The opener went 21 minutes, John Cena vs. AJ Styles ended at just over 27 minutes, The Kabuki Warriors’ loss to IYO SKY and Rhea Ripley went just under 20 minutes, and the main event went almost 30 minutes as World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins of RAW dethrone Undisputed Champion Cody Rhodes of SmackDown, who became the inaugural Crown Jewel Champion last year.

Dave Meltzer Blasts Stephanie Vaquer vs. Tiffany Stratton At WWE Crown Jewel

Tiffany Stratton vs. Stephanie Vaquer was discussed by Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer on the latest edition of Wrestling Observer Radio, and Meltzer could not get past the crowd reactions. He declared this to be the worst bout on the five-match WWE Crown Jewel card.

“No heat. There was no heat until The Devil’s Kiss, [the crowd] popped for The Devil’s Kiss, [the crowd] popped for nothing else, and then they went right for the finish from The Devil’s Kiss. I thought it was… very underwhelming. The crowd was… they had to follow a match the crowd was very, very hot for, and from what I was told, this was the match that the people kind of took as the bathroom break match. … Yeah, the match was there. I was underwhelmed by it, I thought it was easily the worst match on the show, but yeah… just, no heat,” Dave Meltzer said.

Alvarez disagreed for the most part, noting that Stratton is “hit or miss” most of the time, but he thought the WWE Women’s Champion was mostly hitting here at Crown Jewel. Alvarez said this was far from the match of the night, but it was fine. Meltzer chimed in again.

“It was fine, it was just there. I didn’t think either of them did anything particularly wrong. It just was 10 minutes, it didn’t really have time to build and the crowd wasn’t into it, so… other than the one move, which they were really into, they really popped the crowd with that move but that move will always be over, but as far as moves go, they were fine, everything was fine there. It never got exciting,” Dave Meltzer said.

Source link