John Cena Not Ready for Goodbye and More Hot Takes from WWE Crown Jewel Card

Unorthodox start time in the United States or not, WWE's Crown Jewel from Perth, Australia on Saturday exceeded rather large expectations. 

A skippable overseas WWE PLE this was not, as one of the final stops on John Cena's retirement tour created an all-time classic match. Meaningful character and story developments happened across the entire long-running card, too. 

To say the fallout from the event's major happenings could be huge would be an understatement at this point. Questions around the likes of Roman Reigns, several top champions and major factors now dominate the conversation, which will have a nice way of heating up what is normally some pretty relaxed winter months on the pro wrestling calendar. 

Here are a few hot takes from right after the great event's end. 

WWE did Stephanie Vaquer and Tiffany Stratton dirty

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Just skimming Crown Jewel's match card produces an outlier: Stephanie Vaquer and Tiffany Stratton got just 10 minutes of time to work. 

Make no mistake, Vaquer and Stratton, as expected, put on a fantastic match. But it was abbreviated, to put it kindly, which doesn't feel befitting of a matchup meant to showcase Raw and SmackDown's top women's champions on an international stage. 

Stratton, repping the entire SmackDown brand, got the especially blunt side of this by being on the receiving end of most of the match's offense before losing. It almost felt like she was getting worked into position for a major comeback arc for a second half before the match just…ended. 

Maybe WWE wanted to quickly do this one and save the real Vaquer-Stratton classics for when they're in a meaningful feud. But if that's the case, perhaps this one shouldn't have happened at all. 

Roman Reigns enters a new era

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Stop and really think about this: Roman Reigns just ate a pin during a PLE overseas with an 8 a.m. ET start time with an international audience watching on for Bronson Reed. 

It sure feels like Reigns is entering his putting others over era.

A few years ago, the idea of anyone pinning Reigns without months and months of storyline build would be nearly unfathomable on its own, and rightfully so. 

Onlookers can nitpick about the result not being clean or whatever, as the booking threw in some much-needed character development for a Bloodline storyline featuring Jey and Jimmy Uso, too. 

If a 40-year-old Reigns branching out into movies and such is winding down and starting to put over the next generation of stars, it makes him more interesting and the stuff in his orbit all the more must-see. 

Jey Uso heel turn might be a tough sell

All the Roman praise aside, a Jey Uso heel turn sounds compelling…until he's in the ring with and otherwise around Reigns. 

Jey doesn't really have anywhere else to go after the hype around his entrances and the like faded and he had a quick run on top with a title. A heel turn makes sense. 

But the whole thing needs Roman to work, as his influence is key. But WWE is going to find it tough to get fans to both boo Jey and cheer for Reigns after so many, many years of the Tribal Chief being the big bad who gaslit his own family during a GOAT run. 

This could be a bad hot take in hindsight at a much later date, but the disparity was on full display in Perth. 

John Cena-AJ Styles was a classic…and a blueprint for more

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Cena and Styles put on an all-timer of a classic that went for nearly 30 minutes. 

And it felt like a blueprint. 

Make no mistake, the match was finisher spam to the utmost degree. But with both guys retiring from the sport soon, it only felt right that they get together and pay homage to all of those who have influenced their careers.

Fans want more of this from Cena, to say the least. And they certainly wouldn't complain if he stuck around for longer than the advertised four remaining dates if this is the sudden quality his retirement tour will put out each time. 

Here's to hoping, right? 

Recent PLEs, creative booking looks shameful

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WWE upped its game despite the overseas PLE and odd start time for a big chunk of its audience. 

Seeding in meaningful results and character developments, never mind putting on simply great matches, is a good way to remind fans around the world that these international events are no longer non-canon skippable affairs. 

And they put Wrestlepalooza and other recent WWE PLEs in an embarrassing light. 

Triple H and WWE creative have been largely middling to outright bad this year. Saturday was a reminder that there's zero excuse for the most stacked roster of all time to not put on shows like this at premium events on a consistent basis. 

Frankly, this should have easily been the first ESPN PLE, given its quality. Compared to Wrestlepalooza's weird Cena beatdown by Brock Lesnar and other questionable stuff, the ESPN audience really got a bad representation of what this sport can be, especially compared to Crown Jewel. 

Seth Rollins trounces Cody Rhodes in more ways than one

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Seth Rollins beating Cody Rhodes without major interference from a stable when there's certainly a storyline there to develop was a big surprise.

It's also a sign of where things are at right now. 

WWE rightfully wants Rhodes to be top dog and his SmackDown brand right along with him. But Rollins is arguably far more entertaining, important and in bigger feuds. 

Some of this isn't really a fair point of comparison because Rollins is right in the middle of a faction storyline featuring the future of the company in Bron Breakker and one of the best-ever, Paul Heyman. 

But Rhodes has quietly been sitting in a bit of purgatory doing the expected basic champions stuff, like feuding with Drew McIntyre and sitting in tag matches. 

That's a longer way of saying that Rhodes is a distant second right now and WWE got the main event result right.