An interesting update on something that’s top-of-mind for a lot of wrestling fans, and absolutely a focal point for everyone at WWE: the Crown Jewel PPV on Nov. 7, currently planned to take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia despite recent missile strikes that have killed at least 17 people at the city’s airport.
WWE has continued to promote the show for the Saudi capital, even as another event planned for the Kindom’s annual Riyadh Season celebration has been postponed. An obvious reason for WWE’s insistence
to hold shows in Saudi Arabia despite its murdering of journalists, alleged detainment of company employees, and now a Level Three Travel Advisory from the State Department? The $50+ million each Saudi event brings in for WWE and parent company TKO.
There could be even more money on the line for this year’s Crown Jewel. WWE president Nick Khan and his bosses at TKO are making a big play right now with Zuffa Boxing, which included successfully lobbying Congress for passage of Muhammad Ali American Boxing Revival Act — a now-law that critics say will effectively give Zuffa Boxing control of the boxing space that’s akin to the way UFC dominates mixed martial arts, and how WWE is nearly synonymous with pro wrestling for the general public.
And Zuffa Boxing’s main financial backer is the same man who wants WWE Crown Jewel to happen in Riyadh in two weeks… Turki Al-Sheikh, key ally of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and chairman of the Saudi General Entertainment Authority. The GEA is the other party on WWE’s ten-year contract to hold events in the KSA.
Thinking out loud about the situation on the latest Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer said he believes that if Al-Sheikh tells WWE the show needs to go in Riyadh on Nov. 7, it’s unlikely anyone at WWE or TKO would stand up to him. Because doing so would risk of losing out on Zuffa Boxing, a property that could be worth tens of billions in a few years —which is in the same range as current the values of UFC and WWE.
Some have pointed to Al-Sheik’s Oct. 11 tweet about Canelo Alvarez’s scheduled Riyadh Season fight, which praised Alvarez for saying he’d box on Oct. 31 “no matter what happens” and closed with “hard times reveal true friends”, as evidence he’s not someone TKO can afford to cross.
Meltzer says that’s why WWE won’t confirm reports of a back-up location, even though they obviously have one set-up in case the situation worsens in and around Riyadh:
“They will not even publicly say that there’s a backup plan, there is, but they can’t publicly say it because if they publicly say it, it sounds like they’re wavering on going. And they can’t have that out because then the Saudis and Turki will be very upset at them for having that out. That’s why no one talks about the idea of a backup plan, and they deny it. But to not have a backup plan, you would have to be incompetent, and if there is anything that the people that run WWE are, incompetent is not one of those things.”
Could the talent stand up and refuse to travel to Saudi Arabia at this time? That’s apparently why the Six Kings Slam tennis tournament is now scheduled for December. Meltzer hasn’t heard of any wrestlers backing out of Crown Jewel however, and says WWE isn’t happy that some non-wrestler employees have shared their reservations about working in Riyadh right now:
“I heard that WWE wasn’t thrilled that some of the employees, non-wrestlers, did actually talk about not wanting to go because they want that united front. And not one wrestler said a word, which doesn’t surprise me because if they did, there would be repercussions. It’d be stupid to do so… but I would expect that they can’t be thrilled about this.”
And so, unless something even more horrible than 17 deaths and more than a hundred wounded happens to Riyadh in the next couple weeks, it seems WWE will have to defy the man TKO needs to see its billion-dollar boxing plans to fruition.
The UFC has a show in Abu Dhabi this weekend, and that Middle Eastern country is also under the same “do not travel” advisory from the United States. UFC president Dana White is adamant that show will go on, so it’s unlikely to give us any clues about which way WWE’s leaning that we don’t already have now. Beyond that, Meltzer believes “it’s gonna be a story right down to the wire”, but that Crown Jewel will happen in Riyadh on Nov. 7 unless “Turki basically says, ‘You know what, it’s not safe. Don’t come.‘”
Seems unlikely Al-Sheikh will giving TKO Chairman Ari Emanuel that call. Let us know where you currently stand on this in the comments below, Cagesiders.
