The Crown Jewel saga rolls on and on, with Robbie Fox of Barstool Sports reporting that WWE are “frantically” looking for a new venue in the event that they need to pull out of Saudi Arabia.
WWE are expected to make a decision on whether to continue with the controversial show once an internal investigation by Turkish officials into the murder of Jamal Khashoggi is complete. That may well be as early as Wednesday.
As we reported earlier, the situation with Crown Jewel is up in the air, with John Cena and Daniel Bryan both apparently refusing to work the show and significant pressure being exerted on the company to back out of their deal with the nation.
UPDATE: WWE is currently in the process of frantically scouting locations to move Crown Jewel to. This is NOT definite confirmation that it's out of Saudi Arabia, but the location and date are unquestionably in major jeopardy right now.
— Robbie Fox (@RobbieBarstool) October 23, 2018
In addition to a potential location change, there is a chance the date of Crown Jewel will also be moved if WWE are unable to find an alternative at such short notice.
What that means for the already-announced matches, including the Universal Title match for the vacant belt, the World Cup tournament and the return of Shawn Michaels is unclear. However, if WWE does move out of Saudi Arabia then it will be forced to pay Brock Lesnar and Shawn Michaels’ inflated fees themselves if they still want them to wrestle.
Alternative options are for WWE to shift the matches to Survivor Series or to a date on their upcoming UK tour, though the latter seems unlikely.
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