MR. TITO: Should WWE Have Their Night of Champions PLE in Saudi Arabia This Saturday?
During late 2005, Rob Van Dam was asked by the WWE to perform on the “Tribute to the Troops” event held in Afghanistan for United States soldiers. Van Dam replied, in kind, as “no thanks” citing that he looked forward to having 10 days off around Christmas time after the brutal WWE schedule of working 4-5 days a week and likely traveling for much of the other 2-3 days. Performing for the troops was considered “voluntary”, but Vince McMahon and John Laurinaitis applied some pressure on talent to appear. RVD told Laurinaitis “no”, to which he escalated to Vince to have a conversation to RVD about appearing.
RVD took offense to the pressuring by Vince, John, and even some of his fellow stooge wrestlers who felt that they HAD to go to Afghanistan to perform in front of the troops. They kept asking and asking him to perform, but RVD was adamant about finally receiving time off.
The irony of the situation is that the 2005’s initial “Tribute to the Troops” location actually had a few incidents and became “unsafe” for non-military personnel to be there. Then, the newer location truly did become voluntary for the wrestlers.
This Saturday, the WWE will be holding their Night of Champions Premium Live Event (PLE) on Saturday, June 28th at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The show was to be headlined by John Cena vs. CM Punk, and that’s unique given CM Punk’s previous posts about Saudi Arabia on social media especially telling the Miz to “go suck a blood money covered d***” there. While Punk and the Miz have reportedly made up, I’m guessing that Punk’s apprehension towards an entire country must have as well?
On any other week, prior to June 2025, this would be just another international WWE event. After all, the WWE has been hosting PLE events there since April 2018 and making between $20 to $30 million per event. While the road hasn’t always been smooth, such as dealing with Saudi’s political events and the WWE plane full of wrestlers not being allowed to take off following Crown Jewel 2019, it has been a mostly lucrative experience for both parties involved. WWE gets a big fat check as a corporation, while Saudi Arabia is using WWE events to advertise cultural changes of their country.
June 2025 is different, however… In case you have lived under a rock, war drums are beating in the form of Israel and Iran launching missiles at each other and then on Saturday evening, the United States launched missiles and dropped bombs on 3 specific nuclear locations. Through today as retaliation, missiles have been launched at the United States military bases in the countries of Iraq and Qatar.
Reportedly, WWE production staff for this Saturday’s event in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia are stuck in an airport in Qatar. They left early for preparations for the big event.
How are they in Qatar?
After all, Qatar is actually East of Riyadh… Most flight plans have planes flying above Europe and then essentially taking a turn at Italy to fly South of Israel before landing in Saudi Arabia. Flying to Qatar is unique, unless WWE officials were diverted there on purpose. That’s unique because it’s Qatar receiving missile strikes, not Saudi Arabia. Furthermore, there are 5 separate United States military bases in Saudi Arabia which we use to protect them as an ally and to watch the region, particularly since the early 1990s Desert Storm where Sgt. Slaughter turned heel and took on Hulk Hogan for Wrestlemania 7.
As NoDQ Review contributor Virtue pointed out, Saudi Arabia is extremely close to the military action right now with them being Southeast of Israel and only separated by water and the country of Jordan while being Southwest of Iran separated by the Persian Gulf body of water and Iraq. Given that both Israel and Iran are launching rockets at each other, this presents significant risks for any pro wrestling flying to Saudi Arabia, let alone performing there. Furthermore, shooting missiles into Qatar and Iraq is getting really close to Saudi Arabia.
However, how close is Saudi Arabia with either Israel or Iran?
Saudi is not a big trade partner with either country. Militarily, while some religious tension may exist, Israel and Saudi Arabia are peaceful between each other and no recent conflicts have existed between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Saudi kind of keeps to themselves, but they are heavily protected by the United States military for over 30 years now. When Iraq invaded Kuwait to initiate Desert Storm, the fear was that Saudi Arabia would be invaded next. Why? Oil… While the United States only imports 7% of their oil from Saudi Arabia now, it was much higher 35 years ago. Had Saddam Hussein lit Saudi’s oil fields on fire, gas prices would have been higher than they already were during 1990-1991.
Still, they are a big enough country to export oil to the United States but they are also heavily invested in many other U.S. ventures as well. Besides the WWE, they host UFC events, own much of pro golf, have investments in big corporations like X/Twitter, among many other things. They are a country that the United States takes very seriously on the world stage for their energy and financial assets, even if certain things don’t align culturally.
In other words, if Saudi Arabia received any military strikes by Iran, I can guarantee that ANY President of the United States would retaliate immediately.
Compare that to Qatar today, which is a smaller country, and Iraq whom Iran has bombed before (January 2020). It’s likely that both military actions today were a message that their range missiles can hit targets and assets nearby, though the United States shot down most missiles before they reached their destination to cause any damage.
Within Saudi Arabia, it could be safe for the WWE wrestlers… Again, 5 United States military bases in that country and right now, thanks to actions taken in Iran, there are plenty of United States military assets in that region. Furthermore, Saudi Arabia is a difficult country to get in and a harder one to get out (see 2019 WWE plane incident). They are a police state and ruled pretty much with an iron fist. The way they operate plus U.S. military assistance would keep the WWE talent safe.
Where I have worries is flying… Right now, the flight plan goes SOUTH of both Israel and Iran. Getting too close to that HOT stove is dangerous enough, but any jetliner in the sky for 12 hours could be at risk. While I would guess that the United States military may provide some assistance, you never know what could happen with DRONES these days or ROCKET LAUNCHERS, whether they are from the shoulder variety or launching off the back of a truck. You never know what could pop out of the Atlantic Ocean to launch something, too. Lots of bad things could happen for over 6,500 miles too and then over 6,500 miles heading back home.
Getting back to the recent news…
Qatar airways have re-opened, so the stuck WWE production crew should be on their way to Riyadh anytime soon.
Statement sent to Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp indicates that WWE Night of Champions will happen, as planned, on 6/28.
With that said, if the WWE and TKO are adamant about getting that WWE event in Saudi Arabia to cash that $20 to $30 million check and assure that the even BIGGER check for 2026 Royal Rumble gets cashed, do the WWE wrestlers have any say in this matter? Like Rob Van Dam, could they refuse performing in Saudi Arabia?
Yeah, if they unionized and all collectively refused to go.
But WWE wrestlers are independent contractors who are paid based on a downside guarantee. As long as the WWE provides the minimum accommodations to perform anywhere, the WWE talent has to do perform where they are told. Certain exceptions may apply here and there, but as you can see from the headlining match of this event, we’re seeing CM Punk vs. John Cena. The same guy who told the Miz to “go suck a blood money covered d***” in Saudi Arabia now has to oblige to his WWE contract or else be in breach of it.
Let’s not cry foul for CM Punk… He signed that contract and likely as being one of the highest paid WWE talents, he’ll probably be placed on a private jet to ensure that a top superstar gets home safely. His principles might have taken a low blow, but he’s well taken care of by the WWE and TKO, believe me.
Security for Saudi Arabia trips has always been high by the WWE. Prior to 2018’s Crown Jewel event, a journalist named Jamal Khashoggi was reportedly killed by “agents of the Saudi government” and as mentioned before, the 2019 Crown Jewel event had hours upon hours of flight delays. Relations between WWE and the Saudi government have been strong since, as seen by them acquiring one of the WWE’s “big 3” events with 2026’s Royal Rumble. But WWE probably remains cautious and not only beefs up security for their wrestlers, but likely converses with the United States government about their trips. I’m sure that they will now…
For WWE and TKO, is it the RIGHT THING to do right now in continuing to host the event in Saudi Arabia?
While Saudi Arabia had nothing to do with what is happening in Israel, Iran, or the United States, they are still very close geographically to Israel and Iran. Just too much of a risk… However, as Stephanie McMahon once put it following the Jamal Khashoggi incident and still having the 2018 Crown Jewel event despite metric tons of political pressure, it was “strictly a business decision”.
And that’s what this is all about… Business. TKO and its Silver Lake-owned Endeavor daddy LOVE money. They want to pad their financials as much as humanly possible to jerk off investors of their TKO stock. THAT is what truly matters to TKO and WWE executives…
For TKO to pull WWE events out of Saudi Arabia risks the $20 to $30 million per event payday along with forgoing two of those paydays, per year, moving forward. Plus, the 2026 Royal Rumble payday is likely to be much larger than that!
TKO cares more about the shareholders purchasing their stock than anything else that could occur. In fact, their executives are paid highly to take RISKS just like this. Sure, it would be terrible publicity if a plane full of WWE wrestlers was hit with a rocket or if an arena full of WWE talents got bombed, but that doesn’t happen, nothing but pure profit for TKO and WWE as a line item. I guarantee that TKO executives have weighed the pros and cons of the situation, making the assumption that Iran wouldn’t gain sympathy from the world by killing WWE talents from different countries (not just U.S.) or Saudi Arabia fans in attendance for 2025 Night of Champions on Saturday. Trust me, they’ve had that conversation and weighted the option. They don’t want to lose that $20-$30 million payday, along with future paydays from Saudi Arabia.
Welcome to corporate hell, everybody.
I’ve been behind closed doors when some rough things were said about other people’s money, exploiting consumers openly through marketing, and what companies really think about their employees. Both consumers and employees are numbers on an Income Statement, folks, and that’s why you’re seeing this major race to implement Artificial Intelligence. They want to use computer automation to SHRED as much labor as they can and companies give ZERO craps about how sudden unemployment affects their employees. Zero empathy, zero cause for concern, and everything about pure profit to yank the crank of shareholders who are shredding their own employees, too.
While TKO’s revenues from the WWE continue to skyrocket from these Saudi events, lucrative TV deals such as the one with Netflix, and from higher ticket prices, wrestler pay is NOT moving at the same rate. In fact, it has plateaued and many wrestlers are getting let go simply because they’ve earned too many promotions by being there longer than others. See R-Truth and Braun Strowman.
If WWE wrestlers don’t want to attend Saudi Arabia events, then they need to take a stand together and refuse collectively to participate in the event unless certain security standards are met and payment increases. You know, like bargaining for something as a team…
But if you’re a fan and you’re upset that WWE is placing your favorite wrestlers at risk, then don’t watch WWE Night of Champions 2025. I keep telling you that CONSUMERS have more power than the WWE wants them to think, as WWE needs bodies tuning into USA Network/Netflix, logging into social media or YouTube, attending events in-person, or buying merchandise to truly survive. In particular, fans have the true power to screw the WWE out of the latter 5 years of their 10-year deal simply by boycotting RAW on Netflix. We’ve already gone from 4 million to 2.5 million in a matter of 5 months, think about how much lower that could go to change Netflix’s mind about paying out the rest of that $5 billion deal with the 5-year opt-out clause in place.
Personally, I’d air on the side of caution with things just too warm in Iran and Israel right now… But I no longer have to answer to shareholders as career-driven corporate employees do. It’s funny how the upper management of a corporation work as a team to come to decisions collectively (i.e. make as much money as possible, so do that Saudi WWE event!), but the wrestlers NEVER work together for their own safety or collective benefit.
Until wrestlers work together and let TKO/WWE treat them individually, I hope they enjoy being told where to work, even if near a warzone, while also worrying if they might get randomly terminated as well. You are all bricks in the wall, numbers on an Income Statement.
Enjoy WWE Night of Champions 2025, marks!
I’ll pass on this event, please and thank you, out of concern for the safety of the wrestlers despite the “travel advisories” out there. Saudi Arabia is surrounded by “do not travel” level 4 countries, by the way, while being a level 2 themselves to “express caution”. You should NEVER have to express any forms of caution when traveling.
TKO Corporation can suck it.