Report on why Sami Zayn will be wrestling in Saudi Arabia at WWE Night of Champions

As seen during the May 12th 2023 edition of WWE Smackdown, it was announced that Solo Sikoa and Roman Reigns will challenge Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn for the WWE tag team titles at the 2023 Night of Champions PLE.

This will be Zayn’s first match in Saudi Arabia since WWE entered a multi-year agreement with the Kingdom in 2018. At the time, the Kingdom requested that Zayn not appear on WWE shows from the country due to his Syrian heritage. Diplomatic relations between Syria and Saudi Arabia had broke down in 2011 following the Arab Spring movement and the Syrian civil war.

Earlier this month, Syria and Saudi Arabia agreed to resume diplomatic missions which has opened the door for Zayn to wrestle in the country. Dave Meltzer of F4WOnline.com stated the following during Wrestling Observer Radio…

“Kevin and Sami are wrestling Roman and Solo Sikoa and that’s going to be one of the two main events for the Saudi show on the 27th. And what basically happened there was, I guess, Saudi Arabia has opened up to where Syrians can come in, so, Sami can come in and decided that he would go and when Sami decided he would go, Kevin decided that if Sami is going to go he’ll go too.”

“When the thing started, women weren’t allowed to go. It’s not just WWE but it’s with other products as well. As more western products have gone to Saudi Arabia, they have allowed them to be what they are and WWE being no different.”