Following Thursday’s Crown Jewel event in Saudi Arabia, talent was detained from leaving the country on their charter flight.
The news of the delay was first reported by Sean Ross Sapp at Fightful.
Most of the talent was on the charter flight and informed of the delay with no specifics known at this time regarding the cause. Beyond the inconvenience of being stuck, there is a sensitive time element with Friday Night SmackDown taking place from Buffalo, New York tonight.
Dave Meltzer reported early Friday morning:
Some notes since nobody can say anything. WWE had a problem in Saudi Arabia. Talent was not allowed to leave on their flight and most are still there. 20 people, 12 of which were talent, have left but the rest are still there. It’s a 14-hour flight, Smackdown starts in 17 hours. The last we heard the rest of the talent wasn’t going to be able to leave for a lot longer than three hours.
Additionally, Meltzer reported on Wrestling Observer Radio that 12 performers have been able to leave the country, which we were also informed of.
The key people that worked Crown Jewel and are scheduled for SmackDown with previously announced matches/segments are Roman Reigns, King Corbin, Bray Wyatt, New Day, and The Revival.
There were several that had left the country prior, including Vince McMahon, Brock Lesnar, and Hulk Hogan who were not on the company’s charter flight.
