The big wrestling controversy over the past few weeks has been WWE deciding to move forward with the plans for the Crown Jewel event in Saudi Arabia. Even though the company has received criticism from fans and the mainstream media, it was decided that the show will be going on as planned.
Dave Meltzer provided some more details on the situation in the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter (subscribe here).
According to Meltzer, Vince was never going to cancel the show himself. It ended up coming down to if they would be told by people higher up in the government that they couldn’t do the show. This was apparently a strong concern at one point. Top WWE officials were told last week that there was less than a 50 percent chance that the event would take place in Saudi Arabia.
If Vince wasn’t allowed to do the event, he was reportedly trying to gain assurance that he could still do the show in a few weeks after the controversy had blown over.
Vince ultimately didn’t want to risk WWE’s 9-year deal with Saudi Arabia, which is said to be worth around $400 million.
Vince reportedly found out on October 24th that the decision would ultimately be up to him if the show went on. As we know now, he chose to move forward with it.
On a related note, here are some backstage details on Daniel Bryan refusing to appear at the event.