What REALLY Happened To WWE In Saudi Arabia?

With rumours swirling, WWE issued an official statement again blaming the issue on problems with the plane.

"The WWE roster is delayed in its return from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, following a historic performance at yesterday’s record-breaking WWE Crown Jewel event. More than 175 Superstars, production crew and employees boarded a 747 charter flight back to the United States on Thursday. After the door closed, due to several aircraft problems including mechanical issues, all passengers sat on the tarmac for more than six hours. With SmackDown set to emanate live from Buffalo, N.Y., several Superstars felt so strongly that they arranged for their own separate charter in order to make it back to the U.S. for the show. Due to unforeseen issues, that charter will not land until after the live broadcast on FOX. The remainder of WWE’s Superstars, staff and crew will depart on a charter set to depart Saudi Arabia later tonight."

This was followed by Atlas Air releasing something similar.

"A chartered WWE passenger flight operated by Atlas Air is currently delayed in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia due to a mechanical issue. The flight was scheduled to depart at 0300 local time on November 1. Our top priority is always to ensure our passengers arrive safely and on time at their destination. The aircraft is being repaired and will be inspected and certified before returning to service to transport our passengers to their final destination. We regret that operational disruptions delayed the flight and apologize to our passengers who were inconvenienced."

Some 24 hours after they were originally scheduled to leave Saudi Arabia, the remainder of WWE's staff and talent departed for the United States. SmackDown had gone ahead as planned - albeit with a hastily cobbled together NXT invasion angle that had, mercifully, been a massive success - and WWE would have likely assumed that the story would then begin to bury itself over the weekend.

Had that been the last we'd heard of the situation then it might have been, but WWE bizarrely chose that gap between SmackDown and Raw to announce they had extended their business arrangement with the Saudi General Sports Authority. Issuing a press release stating that they were upping their commitment in the country from 1 show a year to 2. This, despite them having already done 2 shows in both 2018 and 2019.

Come Monday Night Raw a meeting was called by Vince McMahon and senior members of the crew to address the problems.