WWE Crown Jewel Decision To Potentially Be Made By Wednesday

Amidst all the positivity surrounding WWE Evolution and the tragedy surrounding Roman Reigns‘ leukemia revelation, WWE still dealing with the controversy of Saudi Arabia and their major Crown Jewel event. There have been a lot of reports that talent does not feel comfortable going over to Saudi Arabia in light of all of the controversy currently surrounding the government and the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. As recently as yesterday, it was rumored that John Cena will not be going to the event. There have been lots of calls for WWE to change the location but so far it’s been business as usual as far as promotion for the event with the only caveat being Talent refusing to say the words Saudi Arabia on television when referring to the event. Now, according to a report by TheWrap.com, a decision from WWE could come down as soon as tomorrow regarding the location of the major event. It appears WWE is just waiting for Turkey to release their investigation findings.

As of Monday, WWE was waiting for Turkey to announce details from its investigation into the killing of the Washington Post columnist before it makes a final call about whether to hold the event in Saudi Arabia, the insider said.

The report is expected on Tuesday.

Due to time zone differences, WWE will likely not have a decision before Tuesday night’s “SmackDown” episode. But the brass are expected to make a call on Wednesday.

WWE could stay the course, despite inevitable criticism, or scramble to move the event to a new location. A third option, of course, is to cancel or postpone “Crown Jewel.”

CNBC also reported on the Crown Jewel controversy. Reporting that 11 days after the October 11th release of the simple statement of monitoring the situation, WWE released a statement that Crown Jewel is still on as scheduled in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

World Wrestling Entertainment continues to say it is “monitoring” the growing scandal surrounding murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi, but has announced no plans to cancel or change its upcoming “Crown Jewel” pay-per-view event in Saudi Arabia.

“We are currently monitoring the situation,” the WWE said at the time. That Oct. 11 statement came less than a week after Turkish officials first alleged that Khashoggi, a self-exiled critic of the royal family, had been killed by a Saudi-backed hit team inside the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul.

Eleven days later, WWE spokesman Brad Klein told CNBC: “Yes, that statement still stands.”

It will be interesting to see where the pieces fall into play. Stay tuned to WrestleZone for more as it becomes available.