The WWE Crown Jewel premium live event has come and gone and the show featured four big matches. Ahead of the event promotional material for a potential Gunther vs. Finn Balor match surfaced online, but ultimately the match was not added to the card.
The Wrestling Observer is now reporting that the reason why Finn Balor vs. Gunther didn’t take place at Crown Jewel is because Gunther opted not to go to Saudi Arabia.
The report claims that multiple WWE sources confirmed the story, which others internally believed to be true. One source added that the situation went back and forth as things were playing in that direction on TV.
There was also reportedly talk that Finn Balor didn’t want to go to Saudi Arabia, but the belief internally is that he would have gone if Gunther did.
Several people in the company reportedly noted leading up to the show that you could no longer turn down going as others had done in the past, but apparently that wasn’t the case.
In addition to Gunther vs. Finn Balor not being added to the card, WWE also made another change to the event as Oba Femi & Je’Von Evans & Penta vs. Bron Breakker & Austin Theory & Bronson Reed was originally planned for Crown Jewel.
Ultimately Penta & Je’Von Evans challenged Bron Breakker & Austin Theory for the WWE World Tag Team Championship, and won the belts after Oba Femi returned and fought off Bronson Reed. The idea is that Femi causing the title change will set up an angle for a trios match.
In the early years of WWE’s deal with Saudi Arabia, wrestlers were allowed to choose not to go. As time went on although wrestlers were told they had the option not to go, it was made clear that the decision could affect their push, or possibly result in a title change for talent who were holding championships.
As of late there weren’t any situations where talent chose not to go, but things changed due to the recent attacks in Saudi Arabia as talent were concerned for different reasons compared to the early days of WWE’s relationship with Saudi Arabia.