Andrew Ravens
WWE remains committed to holding WrestleMania 43 in Saudi Arabia next year despite ongoing wars involving Iran, Israel, and Lebanon. WWE President Nick Khan confirmed the company’s position during a TKO town hall on Monday, according to audio obtained by POST Wrestling.
However, he also acknowledged that running WrestleMania in Las Vegas in back-to-back years was a decision that fell squarely on him. “That was ultimately my decision,” Khan said. “Maybe we don’t do that one again in terms of back-to-back, but ultimately it ended up being a successful event.”
Reports indicated that attendance figures for this year’s two-night event were down compared to WrestleMania 41, with the same location being cited as a contributing factor by some observers.
WWE Monitoring Middle East Situation Ahead of Night of Champions
With Night of Champions scheduled for June 27 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Khan told staff that WWE is closely monitoring the regional security situation before fully committing to the event.
“We’re only going if it’s safe or if we’re allowed there,” Khan said. “We are monitoring with our heads of security internally and with our government affairs folks externally, the situation there. If U.S. citizens are allowed in at this moment in time, it is declared and deemed safe, we’ll all be going there.”
Khan confirmed he would be traveling to Riyadh for the event alongside Paul Levesque, whose agreement to work for WWE was recently extended. He also noted that WWE would not be running that week’s Raw and SmackDown events in Saudi Arabia, departing from a practice the company has followed around major Saudi events in the past. Locations for the SmackDown on June 26 and Raw on June 29 have not yet been announced.
“Saudi is deeply desirous of getting WWE back there and getting events restarted, especially those that come from the United States,” Khan added.
