Why WWE Is Holding 3 Saudi Arabia PLEs In 2026

The Royal Rumble will not be the only WWE show in Saudi Arabia as the company looks to hold more events there than ever in 2026.

At the start of 2025, it was announced that the WWE Royal Rumble would take place outside North America for the very first time. It had been previously reported that WWE planned to hold the 2026 Royal Rumble in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and that proved to be the case.

Since 2018, Saudi Arabia has hosted multiple WWE PLE shows including the Greatest Royal Rumble, King and Queen of the Ring and the annual Crown Jewel show that usually takes place in November. They have also had episodes of Raw and SmackDown in Saudi Arabia. And it seems the Royal Rumble is just the start of things for WWE in the Middle East in 2026.

WWE Hat Trick For Saudi Arabia

During TKO’s earnings call, the company’s chief financial officer Andrew Schleimer noted that only holding one PLE in Saudi Arabia in 2025 “results in an unfavorable impact to our 2025 plan of approximately $55 million of total company revenue.” Presumably as a result of that missed revenue, Schleimer then confirmed that WWE is planning to hold three major PLEs in Saudi Arabia in 2026 including the Royal Rumble.

In addition to the Saudi Arabia revelation, TKO revealed they were paying out $75 million to investors as part of a stockholders’ dividend. This comes at a time when there is frustration among WWE staff after its parent company has made a whole range of cuts since taking over in 2023.