How Did WWE's Wrestlers Cope With Saudi Arabia's Crippling 100 Degree Heat?
Super ShowDown was almost a literal meltdown.
WWE's Super ShowDown 2019 pay-per-view was a weird, weird wrestling show for many reasons, one of them being the promotion's constant need to point out the stifling heat inside Jeddah's King Abdullah International Stadium.
Barely a break passed without Michael Cole & co. letting us know that the air temperature around ringside was hovering above the 100 degrees fahrenheit mark, and the impact it was having on WWE was apparent every time cameras cut to a sweltering Corey Graves, who seemed to be progressively undressing himself throughout the night.
Fightful.com have now published a new report on the backstage situation in Jeddah, and it includes a few notes on the temperature. Per Sean Ross Sapp, foul-tasting "hydration salt drinks" were handed out in order to stave off the effects of dehydration, and the stadium's conditions were so awful that many referred to them as "miserable and borderline unworkable."
This would go some way towards explaining why so many of Super ShowDown's matches felt like they were being performed at 40-50%. The heat also had a visible impact on several wrestlers' performances, with Goldberg coated in sweat even as he left his locker-room, and Shane McMahon turning to gloop within seconds of his bout against Roman Reigns.