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What is being said about the lack of fans in attendance for WWE SmackDown in Riyadh

Aaron Rift

Ahead of the 2026 WWE Royal Rumble PLE, the January 30th 2026 edition of SmackDown took place at a newly built stadium in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. When the show started, Michael Cole stated that there were 18,000 fans expected to be in attendance and described the situation as a “late-arriving” crowd. However, numerous empty seats were visible throughout the broadcast.

Fans in Saudi Arabia have claimed that tickets were not properly sold through the official site and instead ended up on a secondary website. For the Royal Rumble, tickets originally priced at 80 Riyals ($21 USD) were reportedly being resold for as much as 1,012 Riyals ($270 USD).

Here is what Twitter/X user @ali_a_marafi wrote about the situation in a post translated to English from Arabic…

“Everything was great yesterday at the #SmackDown show

– The crowd
– The organization
– The fun
– The stadium
– The stage

Regardless of the level of the show and the matches

But………

The black market and the way tickets are being resold completely destroyed the final look of the crowd attendance. A large number of seats were empty.

Not because the show failed and not because there is a lack of wrestling fans but because of an unfair system that has greatly wronged a huge number of people who want to attend the shows. People who simply cannot afford the insane prices, whether in the black market or through resale platforms. I hope they find a quick solution, @webook website today and release tickets at reasonable prices so that everyone can attend and fill the stands.

Don’t destroy the dream of a large number of people who want to attend, watch, and enjoy the first #RoyalRumble show ever held in the Arab world.”

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