WWE is moving ahead with running its Crown Jewel PLE next weekend (Nov. 7) in a war zone in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The main reason why the event isn’t being canceled is because the Saudi government typically pays WWE around 55 to 60 million dollars to run a show like this, which WWE does at least twice a year.
Most wrestling fans can see this situation for what it is, which is corporate greed and stock price taking precedence over the safety of wrestlers, workers, and company employees.
Earlier this
week, TKO held a company-wide town hall meeting where President Mark Shapiro reportedly said that safety of employees is paramount. POST Wrestling has now obtained audio of Shapiro’s remarks, which you can listen to here.
Shapiro expresses concern for TKO’s financial performance for 2026 if any of their Middle East events are canceled. You see, TKO has to keep shareholders happy, and those shareholders won’t be happy if WWE doesn’t bring in that Saudi money.
“We of course stand with a lot of obstacles in our way in these last two months, [including] Iran and the impact that has on the entire Middle East.
And I’ll remind you that we still have three events left for the remainder of the year. So, several goals we still need to accomplish, and events that we need to be successful for us to close out 2026 in the way that we hope it will close out. And that all gets wiped away to a certain degree if those events get canceled.
We are a public company, of course…we have a lot of investors and analysts out there across the Wall Street community that are nervous that we’ll be able to pull off the year without any of our events being canceled…So far, we’ve been lucky enough to not have any interruption. Can’t guarantee that, and again if it happens, it will certainly have an impact on our year in a very negative way. But there’s not much we can do about that.”
Shapiro praises TKO’s workers for heroically putting themselves in “potential danger” to make sure these Middle East events run as planned. The decision-makers at TKO are “praying” that everything works out okay.
“At the same time, we have courageous employees, full-time and part-time, that are working across our events, going into these territories in the Middle East, and standing behind our events so that we can stage them properly, at the high quality level we’re accustomed to doing so, in the face of potential danger, and/or certainly anxiety, and nervousness.
So, a big thank you to all of you that are working across these events, and you’re able to bring them in as planned. It’s really been nothing short of astonishing…it’s really miraculous, and heroic what we’re able to do. So thank you for standing in there. Thank you for making the commitments and delivering on the commitment as you always have. And we’re all hoping and praying everything goes off without a hitch.”
He closes out the topic by saying humanity is more important than business, and TKO “will not hesitate” to cancel the events if necessary, even if it screws up the company’s budget. He then admits these decisions are a “balancing act” between employee safety and making money.
“Of course business is important, but humanity is most important. This is more about keeping people safe and comfortable. The business is secondary. So, I don’t want to talk out of both sides of my mouth here. We want to have the year we all envisioned. We’ve all worked hard for that year. [2026] is shaping up to be that year. But if there is danger, or further escalation of any of these conflicts that are going on, we will not hesitate to cancel those events, damned be our budget, because our people come first. You have that commitment from us.
At the same time, we do know that everybody wants to be successful and keep growing our sports, and we need to have events in order to do it. So, it’s certainly a balancing act, but the people part of it does come first in that.
That’s a whole lot of corporate speak to try to cover up the fact that TKO has already hesitated far too long to cancel these events, and they don’t mind putting their workers in danger to make sure all their stockholders have a smile on their face.
What’s your reaction to Shapiro’s remarks on money and safety when it comes moving forward with events like WWE Crown Jewel in Saudi Arabia? Let me know in the comments below, Cagesiders.
