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Report: The Undertaker Expected to Appear (and Likely Wrestle) at WWE’s Saudi Arabia Event in May

TJR Wrestling

The Undertaker is not currently scheduled for a WrestleMania 35 and with just over two weeks left until that show, he likely won’t be put in a match. However, he is not done wrestling.

It was reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter by Dave Meltzer that The Undertaker is expected to have a match at WWE’s May 5th event in Saudi Arabia, which currently doesn’t have a name. That appearance from Undertaker was confirmed in the last week.

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The Undertaker wrestled at both WWE events in Saudi Arabia last year. At Greatest Royal Rumble on April 27, he defeated Rusev in a Casket Match. At the Crown Jewel event on November 2, he teamed up with Kane to lose to Triple H and Shawn Michaels in the main event.

It has also been reported in the past that WWE officials aren’t happy about The Undertaker appearing at Starrcast in late May, but that is still going to happen.

Another point that Meltzer made was that due to the ridiculous amount of money WWE is making off the two Saudi Arabian shows every year as part of the 10-year deal signed last year, the two WWE shows in Saudi Arabia are the two biggest money events of the year for WWE. It’s not known exactly what WWE is making off the shows, but the rumors are that they are being paid somewhere around $80 to $100 million for the two shows. For a top guy like The Undertaker, that also means a huge payday for wrestling in one big match.

TJR Thoughts: If he’s going to get paid six figures or more for wrestling one match, then it’s easy to see why The Undertaker will continue to wrestling at big shows like the two events in Saudi Arabia. At 54 years old (in three days actually), he probably doesn’t have a lot of matches left.

Another aspect of the WWE Saudi Arabian shows is that some wrestlers may choose not to go like John Cena and Daniel Bryan at last year’s Crown Jewel event. Apparently, Roman Reigns wasn’t going to go either, but then he revealed his leukemia diagnosis in late October and he was out of action anyway. Before this year’s Saudi Arabian events, we will likely learn of some names that have no interest in going due to questionable actions from Saudi’s Crown Prince.

If you’re wondering, wrestlers that choose to skip the Saudi shows don’t get “heat” from management. A few weeks after skipping Crown Jewel, Daniel Bryan became the WWE Champion. Rumors of “heat” in WWE are overblown a lot of the time. That’s just another example of it.