Heading into the WWE Crown Jewel premium live event earlier this month there was a lot of controversy surrounding the show due to the ongoing attacks in Saudi Arabia. Ultimately WWE moved forward with the show, and the WWE roster managed to return home safely after the show.
The Wrestling Observer Newsletter is reporting that in recent years talent had been told that refusal to go could hurt their future booking. It was also noted that people who where holding championships were considered not going were outright told that they would have to drop the championship before the show.
According to the report most talent went with the idea that there was no choice. In the early days talent was given a choice, even though only a few made the choice not to go, but in recent years the feeling has been that there wasn’t a choice.
Originally Gunther vs. Finn Balor was planned for Crown Jewel, but Gunther went back and forth on the idea, and told WWE in the end that he wasn’t going. The belief is that Finn Balor wasn’t thrilled about the idea either, but would have gone if Gunther agreed to it. Ultimately Gunther and Finn Balor faced off on SmackDown this week in a match that saw Gunther get the win.
Recently TKO employees accused the company of being greedy and gross, and you can get more details on that here.