The 2018 Crown Jewel was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by the American company WWE. It was the inaugural Crown Jewel and took place on November 2, 2018, at the King Saud University Stadium in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown brand divisions.

It was the second event WWE held in Saudi Arabia under a 10-year partnership in support of Saudi Vision 2030, after the Greatest Royal Rumble in April, and it hosted the first-ever WWE World Cup tournament. The event marked the final match of Shawn Michaels, who had retired from active in-ring competition at WrestleMania XXVI in 2010, though returned for a one-off match at this event, and the return of Hulk Hogan—who had not appeared on WWE programming since a 2015 scandal—who served as the event's host. The event also marked the final time that The Undertaker and Kane teamed together as The Brothers of Destruction.

Twelve matches were contested at the event, including one on the Kickoff pre-show. In the main event, D-Generation X (Triple H and Shawn Michaels) defeated The Brothers of Destruction (The Undertaker and Kane). In the penultimate match, Shane McMahon defeated Dolph Ziggler to win the WWE World Cup. In other prominent matches, The Bar (Cesaro and Sheamus) retained the SmackDown Tag Team Championship against The New Day (represented by Big E and Kofi Kingston), AJ Styles defeated Samoa Joe to retain SmackDown's WWE Championship, and Brock Lesnar defeated Braun Strowman to win Raw's vacant Universal Championship.

Due to the controversy surrounding the killing of Jamal Khashoggi as well as accusations against Saudi Arabia for severe human rights abuses, leading a war of attrition in Yemen and suppressing women's rights, WWE faced harsh criticism for producing the event and was asked to stop its business ventures in Saudi Arabia by multiple parties. The controversy also led to the company's top babyfaces at the time, John Cena and Daniel Bryan, pulling from the event. The event itself was met with overwhelmingly negative reviews, with the main event, Universal Championship match, and the World Cup final was singled out for criticism. This event did not get a home video release, but it is available to stream on Netflix under the WWE section.

In early 2018, the American professional wrestling promotion WWE began a 10-year strategic multiplatform partnership with the General Sports Authority in support of Saudi Vision 2030, Saudi Arabia's social and economic reform program. The first pay-per-view (PPV) and WWE Network event under this partnership, the Greatest Royal Rumble, was held at the King Abdullah Sports City's King Abdullah International Stadium in Jeddah on April 27. On September 17, 2018, a follow-up titled Crown Jewel was announced to take place on November 2 and feature wrestlers from the Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. It was originally to take place at the King Fahd International Stadium in Riyadh, but was later changed to the King Saud University Stadium, also in Riyadh.

In 2015, WWE terminated Hulk Hogan's contract due to a report by the National Enquirer and Radar Online of a partially racist rant made by Hogan on his controversial leaked sex tape; he was heard expressing disgust with the notion of his daughter dating black men, referenced by the repeated use of the racial slur "nigger". On July 15, 2018, after a three-year suspension, the company reinstated Hogan into the WWE Hall of Fame, and on October 31, it was announced that Hogan would be the host of Crown Jewel.

The event comprised 12 matches, including one on the Kickoff pre-show, that resulted from scripted storylines. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on the Raw and SmackDown brands, while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television shows, Monday Night Raw and SmackDown Live.

At SummerSlam, Brock Lesnar defended the Universal Championship against Roman Reigns. Before the match began, Braun Strowman came out and announced that he would be cashing in his Money in the Bank contract on the winner. During the match, however, Strowman was incapacitated by Lesnar, preventing him from cashing in. The distraction allowed Reigns to defeat Lesnar and win the championship, ending Lesnar's 504-day reign. The following night on Raw, Raw General Manager Kurt Angle told Lesnar's advocate Paul Heyman that although Lesnar had a contractual rematch, it would not occur for an indefinite period of time, as he preferred a fighting champion like Reigns. The following week, Strowman announced that he would be cashing in against Reigns at Hell in a Cell inside the namesake structure. At the event, Lesnar interfered in the match by kicking in the cell door and attacking both men, rendering them unable to continue, thus ruling the match a no contest and Reigns retained the championship. The following night on Raw, both Reigns and Strowman called out Lesnar, resulting in Acting Raw General Manager Baron Corbin scheduling a triple threat match between Reigns, Strowman, and Lesnar for the Universal Championship at Crown Jewel. On the October 22 episode of Raw, however, Reigns relinquished the title after announcing that his leukemia, which had been in remission since late 2008, had legitimately relapsed. This turned the scheduled triple threat match into a singles match between Lesnar and Strowman for the now vacant title. In February 2019, Fightful reported that prior to his leukemia diagnosis, Reigns had informed Vince McMahon and WWE officials that he would not be taking part in the Crown Jewel PPV due to the controversy surrounding the event.