WWE Night Of Champions 2025 "Never In Doubt" As Wrestlers Leave For Saudi Arabia (WWE News)

WWE's latest trip to Saudi Arabia was never in any doubt.

Jun 26, 2025 June 26th, 2025

While fans speculated as to whether WWE Night of Champions would, or should, take place in Saudi Arabia this Saturday, the PLE and its location were reportedly never in any doubt.

Via Fightful Select, WWE's flight to Saudi Arabia took off at approximately 5pm ET yesterday, complete with a set of producers and the SmackDown team. In addition to that, a number of WWE personnel had been in the Kingdom for several weeks, and another group arrived earlier this week after being briefly delayed in Qatar.

This report notes how the Saudi Arabian Government, which includes the General Sports Authority, never once doubted that Night of Champions was going to take place from the Kingdom this Saturday as scheduled.

Of course, there had been plenty of debate and discussion amongst fans and those in the industry as to whether WWE would push forward with Night of Champions at Riyadh's Kingdom Arena in the aftermath of the United States bombing several Iranian nuclear sites last weekend, which has itself been followed by conflicting reports of a ceasefire between Iran and Israel.

As expected, though, WWE Night of Champions will take place in Riyadh as originally planned.

WWE Night of Champions 2025

Away from the controversy of this latest WWE trip to Saudi Arabia, the Night of Champions card is a fairly intriguing one.

Of course, the main event of the PLE will see long-time rivals John Cena and CM Punk go one-on-one for the first time since 2013, with the Second City Saint the next in line to try and put a halt to Cena's promise to ruin wrestling by retiring with the WWE Championship.

Away from that WWE Championship match, the Queen and King of the Ring tournaments come to a head, with Asuka vs. Jade Cargill, and Cody Rhodes vs. Randy Orton the final of those tourneys, with each winner earning themselves a guaranteed title shot at SummerSlam.

Rounding out the card, Jacob Fatu puts his United States Championship on the line against his former running buddy Solo Sikoa, Rhea Ripley and Raquel Rodriguez go at it in a street fight, and Karrion Kross gets a first PLE singles match in forever as he looks to take down Sami Zayn.

For more details on this latest PLE, be sure to check out our full preview of WWE Night of Champions 2025.

Andrew Pollard

Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks/Saints, Jamie Hayter, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.

See more from Andrew