WWE Personnel Facing Travel Issues Prior To Night Of Champions In Saudi Arabia
There are WWE crew members who appear to be stuck en route to Saudi Arabia for upcoming shows.
The WWE Night of Champions PLE is supposed to take place on Saturday, June 28th at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The June 27th edition of SmackDown is also supposed to take place in the same building.
While WWE is a professional wrestling show featuring scripted entertainment, the real world has seen some significant events unfold in recent days.
The United States President Donald Trump announced that his country had hit Iran’s Fordow nuclear site with an attack designed to prevent Iran from using nuclear weapons in their ongoing war with Israel, which is an ally of the US.
In response to that, Iran attacked a US military base in Qatar, where no civilians were harmed.
Authorities in the United Kingdom have advised their citizens not to travel to the Middle East, specifically mentioning Saudi Arabia as one of the countries to avoid.
Despite all this, WWE has informed its staff and talent that it is still planning to host the Night of Champions and SmackDown shows in Saudi Arabia. Some people within the company are concerned about the situation, which isn’t a surprise, given its significant impact.
WWE Employees Are Stuck In Qatar
According to the Wrestling Observer, “many WWE production employees who flew in early for this Saturday’s Night of Champions in Saudi Arabia are now stuck at the Qatar airport.” That’s according to Bryan Alvarez.
The airspace around Qatar has been temporarily shut down due to escalating threats of violence in the Middle East.
A charter plane is expected to depart on Wednesday, transporting the talent and staff to Riyadh for the Night of Champions and SmackDown shows.
Fightful Select reports that there were no changes to WWE’s plans as of this writing. In addition to Night of Champions and SmackDown, fan events featuring WWE talent are expected to take place in the area.
It was reported by Fightful that WWE talent are no longer receiving bonuses for the Saudi shows. Those shows are now a part of talent contracts, so there is no additional financial incentive for a wrestler to go on those trips.
Tonight’s June 23rd edition of WWE Monday Night Raw takes place in Columbus, Ohio, with Cody Rhodes facing Jey Uso in the King of the Ring Semifinals and Jade Cargill in action against Roxanne Perez in the Queen of the Ring Semifinals.
The main event of Night of Champions will see John Cena defend the Undisputed WWE Championship against CM Punk in what is being billed as Cena’s final match in Saudi Arabia, and perhaps his last time facing Punk as well.