WWE has to visit the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia twice a year as part of the contract signed between the two parties. The company in general organizes WrestleMania-alike mega shows in the Saudi country and they might just want to continue to do so in the near future despite the coronavirus pandemic going on.
During WWE’s Annual Shareholder’s Meeting Conference Call, Vince McMahon was asked if they do have some plans to conduct another event in Saudi Arabia in 2020. He sounded pretty positive about doing one later this year that wouldn’t hamper the deal with the country’s sports authority.
WWE To Visit Saudi Arabia By The End Of 2020 Amid Controversy?
McMahon noted that there’s a bright possibility available to visit Saudi Arabia as they are doing far better than the United States as far as the coronavirus situation is concerned. So they WWE could certainly host another extravaganza in KSA before the end of 2020, going by their original schedule.
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This is what Vince had to offer on revisiting Saudi Arabia in 2020,
“Oh, that’s a possibility. Obviously, Saudi has been going through what we in America have been going through. As far as COVID’S concerned. Right now, I think they’re doing a little bit better than we are [in the U.S.], considerably better. So there’s a possibility that we’ll still get a show in before the end of the year, as was scheduled. But we’re not certain because, you know, who can be certain about what COVID-19 is going to do.” (Courtesy of Wrestlenomics)
It seems that a global pandemic isn’t enough to stop WWE from doing shows in Saudi Arabia even when the superstars might not be excited about it. The company’s deal with the country has always received a lot of criticism from fans and people in the media. Yet they hosted Crown Jewel in 2018 right after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi that was a big issue around the United States.
Following the Crown Jewel 2019 event, many WWE Superstars were unable to leave Saudi Arabia in a situation that was internally dunned as “mechanical failures” in the charter plane.
However, the story later unfolded in the next few months, reporting a financial dispute between the two parties emerged. A number of shareholders also filed a class-action lawsuit against the company. But the issues were later sorted out and the deal remained intact.
