WWE Rumors: 3 surprising top WWE stars set to appear for Saudi Arabia show
What's the story?
Last November for Crown Jewel in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, WWE faced a major problem - Saudi Arabia was in the midst of a major scandal after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
As a result of the bad PR, multiple superstars including Daniel Bryan and John Cena, who were advertised for big matches, pulled out and refused to do so. This time, there's not just two, but three superstars who are surprisingly advertised for the Super ShowDown event on June 7th.
In case you didn't know...
The Saudi Arabia show in Riyadh last November was essentially a PR nightmare for WWE as a whole. They had just come off their historic first-ever All Women's PPV Evolution on October 28th, immediately followed by Crown Jewel - a show where women weren't allowed to wrestle thanks to Saudi Arabia's draconian laws.
To add to that, there was massive external pressure on WWE to cancel the show after relations between the United States and Saudi Arabia began to get tense. In a controversial decision, WWE decided to go ahead with the show anyway. Interestingly enough, they never once mentioned "Riyadh" or "Saudi Arabia" during the show. They just referred to it as "Crown Jewel".
The heart of the matter
As we mentioned, Daniel Bryan is one of the names who refused to go in November despite being booked in a WWE Championship match. PWInsider confirmed that there was no heat on him for it, which is probably why he won the WWE title very soon after anyway. He is advertised for Super ShowDown this time.
As for the other two superstars - the first is Roman Reigns, who allegedly also refused to perform before the issue of his leukaemia came up. He is advertised to be facing Shane McMahon at the event.
The third superstar is Sami Zayn. The issue in this case goes back to the Greatest Royal Rumble. He was reportedly asked not to come because he is a Syrian-Muslim by descent, which made it an extremely difficult decision to make. He's advertised for the "50-man" battle royale.
What's next?
It's going to be interesting to see if Sami Zayn does end up in Saudi Arabia. Reigns and Bryan deciding to wrestle doesn't come as a surprise, because WWE hasn't really had any controversy with regards to the event in Jeddah this time around.