WWE, an American
professional wrestling promotion based in
Stamford, Connecticut, has been promoting events in
Saudi Arabia since 2014. After initially holding non-televised
house shows, WWE announced a 10-year strategic partnership with the
Ministry of Sport in 2018, which would see the hosting of
pay-per-view (PPV) events in Saudi Arabia. In 2019, WWE announced it had "expanded" its partnership with the
General Authority for Entertainment through 2027, under which it would hold two "large-scale events" in the country per-year.[1] These events have been held at venues in
Riyadh or
Jeddah.
The first event in the agreement was
Greatest Royal Rumble—a one-off edition of WWE's annual
Royal Rumble—on April 27, 2018. In November of that year, WWE held
Crown Jewel, their second PPV in Saudi Arabia. From 2019, two PPVs were held in the country per-year, with one
Super ShowDown event in the first half of the year, and
Crown Jewel in late-October or early-November. Due to the
COVID-19 pandemic and WWE's suspension of touring, Crown Jewel was not held in 2020 and Super ShowDown was not held in 2021.[2] From 2022, Super ShowDown was replaced by events within WWE's existing PPV chronologies, including
Elimination Chamber and
Night of Champions.
In December 2013, it was announced that WWE would begin holding shows in Saudi Arabia,[9] and in April 2014, the promotion held their first house shows in
Riyadh;[10] these were three separate shows at Green Halls Stadium.[11] In October 2015, WWE held three house shows in
Jeddah, at the
King Abdullah Sports City Sports Hall.[12][13] In November 2016, WWE returned to Green Halls Stadium for two non-televised events,[14] which exclusively featured wrestlers from the
SmackDown brand.[15] In 2017, WWE launched the Arabic-language
recap show, WWE Wal3ooha, which airs in Saudi Arabia.[16]
WWE announced on November 4, 2019, that it had "expanded" its partnership with the
General Entertainment Authority through 2027, under which it would hold two "large-scale events" in Saudi Arabia per-year.[21] In addition,
Riyadh Season, an entertainment festival also organized by the General Entertainment Authority, would host the WWE Experience, an indoor theme park themed around the WWE (named after
its former syndicated television program), for its 2023 season; it opened on February 16, 2024. It was the first WWE theme park since the 2011 closure of the former
WWE Niagara Falls.[22]
WWE received criticism for holding the events without female wrestlers, who were unable to perform in Saudi Arabia between 2014 and 2019, due to the
country's limitation on women's rights.[23]Triple H, WWE's Executive Vice President of Talent, Live Events and Creative, stated: "I understand people are questioning it, but every culture is different and just because you don’t agree with a certain aspect of it, you can’t dictate to a country about how they handle things... WWE is at the forefront of a women’s evolution in the world [and] we have had discussions about [women competing] and hope in the next few years, they will".[23]
Consistent with the change in law for sporting events in 2017,[24] women were able to attend WWE events if
accompanied by a male guardian.[23] This was in response to "a series of social changes" by Crown Prince
Mohammad bin Salman,[25] who repealed the previous legislation completely banning women from public events. During the
Greatest Royal Rumble, WWE aired a promotional video which included female wrestlers in their ring gear. The Saudi General Sports Authority issued an apology for "indecent material" that aired at the event.[26]
During the second
Crown Jewel event in 2018,
Renee Young provided commentary at the show; she reprised her role at 2019's
Super ShowDown.[27] Hours before 2019's Super ShowDown, reports emerged that WWE were attempting to add a women's match, which would have seen
Alexa Bliss face
Natalya. The two women joined WWE personnel for the trip, but the match was ultimately rejected by the
Saudi Arabian government.[28][29]
On October 30, 2019, WWE announced that a match between Natalya and
Lacey Evans had been approved for the 2019
Crown Jewel event, making it the first-ever women's match in Saudi Arabia. At the event, Evans wore a full bodysuit instead of her normal ring attire (Natalya's normal ring attire is a full bodysuit) and both wore T-shirts promoting their WWE shirts for sale, due to the country's conservative dress policy.[30] WWE largely celebrated the match as groundbreaking, which they later nominated for a
WWE Year-End Award for
Moment of the Year, with WWE
CBOStephanie McMahon stating in an interview: "You can either sit on the sidelines and there are plenty of companies and brands that decide to do that or you can be a part of hopefully enacting change. You can be a part of progress. Nothing worthwhile is ever easy. It takes time. It takes perseverance. Now here we are with the first ever women's match in Saudi Arabia. It's pretty mind blowing."[31][32]
However, reactions from other media outlets were mixed. While some were positive, such as Heavy.com, who stated that the match was "put in place to break barriers and further WWE's 'Women’s Evolution' for the proud ladies in attendance and watching all over the world. And for that, I have to give it the utmost props", or Canoe.com who stated that "The historic match was about and meant so much more [than its result]."[33][34]Newsweek called the match part of "Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's [intent on] luring major sports event [...] to position the ultra-conservative Islamic country as more liberal and diversify its economy away from depending on the oil industry as part of its Saudi Vision 2030 plan", with Saudi Arabian
Amnesty International researcher Dana Ahmed calling the match "a prime example how the Saudi Arabian authorities are using elite sports to try to 'sportswash' their dire human rights record and image internationally".[35]CBS Sports criticized
Michael Cole's commentary, pointing out that he was "trying to put over the progressiveness of Saudi Arabia" during the match.[36]
One month prior to the 2018 edition of Crown Jewel, Saudi Arabia received substantial negative press due to the
killing of Jamal Khashoggi at the hands of Saudi agents. This led to the WWE facing calls to cancel the event, with prominent U.S.
Democratic and
Republican politicians criticizing the company's endeavors in Saudi Arabia.[39] Questions were raised whether because of the position of then-
Administrator of the Small Business AdministrationLinda McMahon, who is married to the WWE Chairman
Vince McMahon and a former WWE executive herself, WWE's endeavors in Saudi Arabia could still be viewed as a strictly private business enterprise. Due to this, Democratic Senator
Bob Menendez urged the US government to pressure WWE into canceling the event, while Republican
Lindsey Graham, among others, called for WWE to reconsider their business deal with the Saudi kingdom.[40] WWE continued to promote the show, but erased all references to Saudi Arabia as the event's location.[41]
On October 19, the day tickets were to go on sale, the Saudi government confirmed the death of Khashoggi within the consulate and WWE.com removed ticket information from the event page.[42] On October 25, WWE confirmed the event would go on as planned, citing contractual obligations to the General Sports Authority.[43] Speaking with
Sky Sports on pushing forward with the event despite the murder, Stephanie McMahon spoke of "an incredibly tough decision, given that heinous act", but said that in the end it was strictly a business decision.[44]
During Crown Jewel (2018),
Daniel Bryan was scheduled to face
AJ Styles for the
WWE Championship, but he refused to work the show due to the Khashoggi murder.[47][48] As a result, his title match was bumped up to the October 30 episode of SmackDown, and he was replaced by
Samoa Joe.
John Cena, who was scheduled to participate in the
WWE World Cup at the event and had called it "an honor and a privilege" to compete in Saudi Arabia during the Greatest Royal Rumble, was replaced by
Bobby Lashley, as he reportedly refused to work the show in wake of the Khashoggi murder.[49][50][51] In February 2019, Fightful reported that prior to his
leukemia diagnosis,
Roman Reigns had informed
Vince McMahon that he also would not be taking part in the Crown Jewel PPV due to the controversy surrounding the event.[52]
In 2019 for Super ShowDown,
Kevin Owens and
Aleister Black told WWE that they would not travel to Saudi Arabia, in addition to Zayn and Bryan once again not competing on the show.[53][54] Kevin Owen's refusal to work the show allegedly comes from his friendship with Sami Zayn.[55] As a result of his absence, he was replaced in the WWE Championship match by
Dolph Ziggler.
Despite Dar not participating in the Saudi Arabia shows due to the Arab–Israeli conflict,
Goldberg and
Paul Heyman have worked multiple Saudi Arabia shows without incident despite both being
Jewish and in Heyman's case his own mother having been a
Holocaustsurvivor. Goldberg would go on to defend WWE on the shows following his victory over
Bobby Lashley at the
2021 Crown Jewel, saying that he feels the country is heading in the right direction in "Westernizing" the country and the Middle East region as a whole, citing the progress just in WWE's shows alone in the Kingdom.[56] Goldberg did, however, later admit on
Pat McAfee's podcast that he was initially scared to go to Saudi Arabia due to his strong Jewish heritage, but felt more comfortable after receiving a positive response from the Saudi fans and understood the bigger picture of the shows.[57]
After
Saudi Arabia–Syria relations were re-established in May 2023, Zayn and Owens were scheduled to perform at
Night of Champions later that month in Jeddah.[60] This was in turn Zayn's first Saudi event since a WWE Live tour in April 2014 and Owens' first Saudi event since Greatest Royal Rumble in April 2018.[61]
Travel issues
After Crown Jewel in 2019, a charter flight back to the United States carrying roughly 200 WWE employees (including performers and other staff) was delayed at
King Fahd International Airport for multiple hours. WWE and the airline
Atlas Air officially stated that the flight had been grounded for mechanical issues,[62][63] but reports from former WWE Spanish-language commentator
Hugo Savinovich and wrestling journalist
Dave Meltzer suggested that disputes with the Saudi government over missed payments to WWE for the previous shows were a factor in the delays (including the presence of Saudi military police).[62][64] 20 WWE employees, including CEO
Vince McMahon and 12 wrestlers, booked their own flights back to the United States,[62][64] while the following night's SmackDown in Buffalo was retooled to primarily feature talent from the women's division and
NXT (which did not participate in the event).[65][66]
Lawsuit
On March 6, 2020, a retirement fund for firefighters filed a lawsuit against WWE in the
United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, stemming from concerns related to the fund's holding of WWE stock. According to Forbes, it is "an attempt at class action alleging that WWE defrauded investors via its handling of their deals with the Saudi royal family, who also control
OSN, the network that airs WWE programming in Saudi Arabia." The lawsuit claims that the Saudi Arabian government failed to pay WWE millions of dollars owed from their deal with the company, that WWE's failed to disclose said payment issues and that OSN unlawfully terminated a broadcast deal with WWE.[67]
^Lake, Jefferson (October 9, 2018).
"WWE Raw: D-Generation X reunite to battle The Undertaker and Kane". Sky Sports. Retrieved April 15, 2021. Michaels has not competed since losing a career-versus-streak match to The Undertaker at WrestleMania 26 but makes his return to face the Dead Man in a tag match at the Crown Jewel pay-per-view in Saudi Arabia next month.