There have been several debates on whether WWE should be going forward with their Crown Jewel pay-per-view in Saudia Arabia, but even if they do they might be doing it without one of their top stars in John Cena.
The upcoming event might be missing Cena completely, at least according to a report from John Pollock. On Rewind-A-Raw Pollock said he was alerted that WWE creative was told that John Cena is off Crown Jewel completely (via Reddit). Pollock also states that creative has someone in mind to replace him, but they aren’t announcing it just yet, as they are still trying to convince Cena to remain on the show.
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At the moment creative is treating it like he won’t be there though, so unless something changes in that regard you can likely expect some sort of announcement changing things up for his spot in the coming days.
Cena isn’t the only one uncomfortable with the situation according to reports, as Daniel Bryan is also said to be sitting out the show. That would require more reworking than Cena, as Bryan was supposed to have a WWE Championship match with AJ Styles at the show. Cena was taking part in the World Cup tournament.
WWE hasn’t officially announced a decision on the event, but in all likelihood, they will proceed with it. They’ve gotten flack for not at least postponing it from several senators due to the disappearance and suspected death of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
Khashoggi had been critical about the Saudi government and Mohammed bin Salman in the past, and after heading to the consulate to obtain marriage documents he never left and is believed to have been tortured and killed, though that has not been confirmed.
Crown Jewel is the second pay-per-view in WWE’s profitable deal with Saudia Arabia, and pulling out of the deal would be extremely costly to WWE. That’s one of the reasons why they probably will continue with the event, regardless of who isn’t making the trip.
At the moment the Crown Jewel card consists of Triple H and Shawn Michaels vs The Undertaker and Kane, Brock Lesnar vs. Braun Strowman (Universal Championship), AJ Styles vs. Daniel Bryan (WWE Championship), and the WWE World Cup, which includes Cena (now questionable), Kurt Angle, Jeff Hardy, Randy Orton, Seth Rollins, Dolph Ziggler, The Miz, and Rey Mysterio).
WWE Crown Jewel hits the WWE Network on Friday, November 2nd at 12 pm est.
