There may be a reason WWE moved the title on Friday.
PWInsider reports that the belief among several people spoken to inside WWE is that the company wants to headline Crown Jewel with Roman Reigns against Sami Zayn, and that the title change from CM Punk on the September 11 SmackDown was made with that in mind.
The logic is practical. Zayn goes into November as champion with a queue of challengers behind him, and WWE keeps Punk against Reigns in reserve rather than spending it now. That pairing headlined WrestleMania 42 and can be revisited whenever the company decides to.
It lines up with what has already been said about the switch. Dave Meltzer reported that the change was made for storyline reasons and would make sense in hindsight, while noting there were people inside the company who were against it.
One wrinkle sits in the way. Crown Jewel has been built around the Raw and SmackDown champions meeting to decide the Crown Jewel Championship, which would require Reigns to be holding a title by November. Nothing has been announced either way.
Crown Jewel takes place on November 7 at the Riyadh Season Stadium in Saudi Arabia. WWE is taping Raw and SmackDown at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn the week before to clear the schedule for the trip.
Zayn is a two-time champion with a combined reign of under three months. He won the belt at Night of Champions, held it for nine days, lost it to Punk on the July 6 Raw, and took it back on Friday with help from Kevin Owens, Johnny Gargano, and Candice LeRae.
