WWE talent reaction to Crown Jewel (Patreon)

WWE is headed to Crown Jewel next week, and there's a lot of conjecture around the event.

WWE was told repeatedly throughout the last couple of weeks by those working on the event that Saudi officials were working hard to assure WWE that the event should go on in Riyadh. Finally this past week, plans shifted from the makeshift arena to a more solid venue. It was reiterated to Fightful Select that it was for safety, not related to ticket sales.

The venue that they're moving to is the same that was used for the Royal Rumble. Those working on the event say there’s no big arenas in Riyadh yet which are readily available outside of Kingdom Arena. However, Al Hilal play football there, and it's in season so that can’t be used. The WWE team load in to the venue in the early hours post the Canelo fight. They're doing doing 3 shows in a week there -- Power Slap, WWE & Zuffa Boxing.

After reports emerged that WWE stars had not requested to not go to Saudi, a number of WWE stars, including some top talent contacted Fightful's Sean Ross Sapp to note that they made it clear they didn't want to be booked on the show due to the ongoing dangers. One talent said that some who are even on the show have communicated to WWE that it was a concern to them as well, but WWE officials had assured safety precautions were a priority during the trip. A much smaller crew than usual will be going to Crown Jewel, and WWE is not planning to take a ton of talent that aren't booked for the show.

The Saudi events are largely worked into WWE contracts at this point, and have been for quite some time. The vast majority, if not all of the newer contracts do not have bonuses for Saudi events that used to exist. There can always be exceptions.