The Greatest Royal Rumble event featured plenty of action and botches that we will be talking about for a very long time. But the big event in Saudi Arabia wasn’t without its share of controversy that fans will also probably be talking about for a very long time as well.
Plenty of people didn’t make the trip including every single woman because women don’t enjoy the same freedoms there as they do in America. In fact, just showing women during the Greatest Royal Rumble match in a video package for Backlash caused a huge stir in Jeddah. Sami Zayn also wasn’t invited to the show reportedly because he is of Syrian descent. But it turns out one new Raw Superstar didn’t make the trip and this reason was a little bit more understandable.
PW Insider reports the thought backstage is Drew McIntyre wasn’t brought over to Saudi Arabia for the Greatest Royal Rumble because his insertion into the main roster was just too recent.
McIntyre has only been on Raw for a couple of weeks since jumping up during the Superstar Shake-Up. The former NXT Champion was previously thought to make a return to WWE’s developmental territory upon his return from injury but a lot changed in the time since he’s been out of action.
Instead, Drew McIntyre joined Dolph Ziggler in a tag team and those two could have championship goals together but apparently, it didn’t give WWE’s travel people enough time to arrange for Drew to make it to Jeddah.
Visas need to be worked out for foreign talent and Drew McIntyre’s main roster jump just didn’t give them the proper timeframe to make it happen. But since WWE and Saudi Arabia are apparently in a 10-year deal then that probably means WWE will have McIntyre’s travel issues worked out by the next time they take the long trip to the Middle East.
