Credit: WWE.com

Fantasy Booking WWE Crown Jewel 2018 Match Card

Aaron Bower

WWE Crown Jewel is arguably the most controversial pay-per-view show in the company's recent history. For a change, that is not due to events inside the ring. But if it goes ahead as expected, the in-ring action looks intriguing, to say the least.

Old-school fans will be treated to a throwback bout between four of the greatest stars of the Attitude Era, while at the other end of the scale, the WWE Championship will be settled between two icons of the modern era.

Throw in the bracket for the first WWE World Cup, and the Nov. 2 event in Saudi Arabia offers plenty to get excited about, despite the controversy.

But fantasy booking the matches fans know about isn't enough. In fact, there's an alternative look at how WWE could have executed the World Cup, with almost an entirely different field involved. Will it produce a similar winner? Read on to find out.

D-Generation X vs. The Brothers of Destruction

It's a match that, as recently as a few weeks ago, nobody could have envisaged taking place.

Four guys with a combined age of 206 will aim to settle old differences in Saudi Arabia, as D-Generation X returns to try to avenge The Brothers of Destruction's attack in Australia.

That night, Triple H emerged victorious over The Undertaker, but what will the outcome be at Crown Jewel?

Although this is clearly a short-term feud and is highly unlikely to lead to anything more permanent, it's still hard to imagine DX reunites to simply lose in Saudi Arabia.

Fans at that show will want a feelgood moment, and Shawn Michaels' in-ring return after almost a decade on the shelf retired almost certainly isn't going to end in defeat.

On that basis alone, the smartest booking decision at Crown Jewel is for there to be a sea of green as DX roll back the years with victory.

AJ Styles vs. Daniel Bryan

If WWE fans were to compile a list of dream matches for Daniel Bryan when it was announced he would return to in-ring competition, then this would have surely been high up on the list.

Granted, Styles and Bryan have fought since the latter returned to action earlier this year, but with the WWE Championship on the line this time around, this feels like more of a special occasion.

However, the presence of one man lurking in the background makes it incredibly likely Styles and Bryan won't fight to a clean finish.

The Miz has done his best to stir tension between the two in the build to Crown Jewel, and given his stature and position on SmackDown Live, it's beginning to look more and more likely that he will be in the WWE Championship picture again at some point.

So from a booking sense here, creating a non-finish in the match works. Have The Miz attack Bryan and Styles to end the match, thus creating a three-man feud for the title that could climax at a major show like Survivor Series in November.

Neither Styles nor Bryan feels ready to lose a match of this stature, so it would be smart to have The Miz get involved.

Roman Reigns vs. Brock Lesnar vs. Braun Strowman

The first thing to make clear when booking the Universal Championship match at Crown Jewel is that under no circumstances does the title return to the ownership of Brock Lesnar.

Even though Roman Reigns hasn't been defending the title on a weekly basis since winning it from Lesnar, he's far more of a fighting champion than Brock ever could have claimed to be.

Pinning the belt back on a part-time guy makes no booking sense, which leaves us with only two realistic winners at Crown Jewel.

For a long time, the temptation with fantasy booking any Braun Strowman title match would have ended in making him champion given how he's positioned himself as one of the top guys on Raw over the past year or so.

But his heel turn and alliance with Drew McIntyre and Dolph Ziggler hasn't work out as planned. And given the events of the most recent edition of Raw, there's the prospect of a McIntyre-Strowman feud that could benefit both guys moving into 2019.

Realistically, the smartest booking move is having Reigns retain. With The Shield likely to implode before the year is out, keeping the title on Reigns makes things interesting if, or when, there is a Dean Ambrose heel turn.

WWE World Cup: Existing Bracket and Contenders

There are many ways the first WWE World Cup can be arranged. However, with there being four Raw and four SmackDown Live stars included, it makes sense to have the red brand and the blue brand on different halves of the draw, making the potential quarter-finals look like this:

If WWE is serious about Angle's in-ring return, he should win at least once at the World Cup. That, in a fantasy booking sense, comes after a stellar bout with Dolph Ziggler in a meeting between two outstanding performers. The other Raw bout is the best of the entire bracket, as Seth Rollins outlasts a determined John Cena in a 25-minute classic.

On the blue side, The Miz sneaks his way past Jeff Hardy, likely via some level of trickery or underhand tactics. Rey Mysterio should at least be making the final four, so he beats Randy Orton. Into the semi-finals:

A competition to determine the best in the world wouldn't be right without Seth Rollins' stellar 2018 seeing him reach the World Cup final. He beats one-time Shield compatriot Kurt Angle on the Raw side of proceedings, while in SmackDown territory, The Miz battles his way through to the final against a gallant Rey Mysterio.

OK, almost everyone would want Seth Rollins to win the World Cup in this scenario. But how great would it be to see a cocky, brash and arrogant Miz claim on SmackDown Live every week that he's officially the best in the world? That's the fantasy booking for the eight participants confirmed to be in the World Cup. What follows is a look at something entirely different.

WWE World Cup: Alternative Bracket and Contenders

The beauty of a World Cup in any sport is that it allows various nations to have a participant or team compete to become the best on the entire planet.

As such, WWE's decision to have all eight wrestlers remaining in this World Cup hail from the United States is bizarre, particularly when you consider the abundance of international talent the company has on its books. With that in mind, here's some alternative booking for the World Cup, also featuring four guys from Raw and four from SmackDown.

Eight wrestlers, several countries represented (albeit some only hail from certain nations in storyline). On Raw, the Republic of Ireland's Finn Balor defeats Kevin Owens of Canada, which is handy, as Owens is injured. Seth Rollins, like in the actual World Cup fantasy booking, makes it to the semi-finals after beating India's Jinder Mahal.

On SmackDown, Rey Mysterio's return still sees him win, though not before he is pushed to the limit by Joe, while Shinsuke Nakamura gets the place a guy of his stature deserves in a tournament like this by beating Switzerland's Cesaro.

As mentioned previously, it just wouldn't be a World Cup final without Seth Rollins. His match with Balor is this alternative tournament's standout contest, with both men giving it their all before Rollins puts his old foe away. On the other half of the draw, Nakamura lays Mysterio to waste to set up a mouth-watering final.

It was a tough call, but Rollins gets the win.

   

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