Money in the Bank has come and gone which means the next big show on WWE’s schedule is Crown Jewel. The show is currently scheduled to emanate from the King Abdullah Financial District in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, next month, but there’s been a lot of talk on social media about whether or not WWE should move the event due to a the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
During a recent episode of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer claimed that some of the employees of the company have talked about not wanting to go to Saudi Arabia. It’s also being reported that none of the wrestlers have spoken up about the situation.
“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. Not one wrestler said a word, which doesn’t surprise me because if they did there would be repercussions. It would be stupid to do so. It’s not your fight, but I would expect that they can’t be thrilled about this.”
As of this writing WWE has yet to give any indication that they will be moving Crown Jewel to a different location, but Bryan Alvarez of the Wrestling Observer recently reported that there is a backup city in the United States that is on the table if things change.
Meltzer also addressed WWE’s reasons for not publicly saying anything about a backup plan when he added, “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.”
WWE Crown Jewel will air live on November 7th and the current card can be seen below.
WWE Men’s Crown Jewel Championship
Roman Reigns vs. Sami Zayn
WWE Women’s Crown Jewel Championship
Liv Morgan vs. Chelsea Green