Chief Content Officer Paul Levesque simply said “yes” when asked if WWE was “here to stay” in Saudi Arabia.
He was speaking in an interview recorded on Friday with Nathalie Mamo of the WWE’s Middle Eastern social media team. The interview aired during the Countdown pre-show ahead of the Crown Jewel PLE in Riyadh.
Levesque said:
We love this partnership here. This all stems from His Excellency’s vision to bring the best entertainment from around the world. You know, when we first started here, I think fans were excited, but they didn’t know what to necessarily expect. And over that time, I’ve seen that change exponentially.
We had the first women’s match here in Saudi Arabia. It went from us asking, “Can we bring women here” to them being on billboards all over the city, to the GEA [General Entertainment Authority] and His Excellency calling us and saying, “I don’t feel like there’s enough women on this show. Can we have more women put into the show?”
It speaks to the progress here in Saudi Arabia, but it speaks to the fan base, and it speaks to the power of WWE as a truly global brand.
Levesque promoted the WWE Experience facility in Riyadh and compared the two champion vs. champion matches to Bruno Sammartino facing Harley Race. He also talked about the two championship belts and said they would stay in Saudi.
It was a concept we talked about. If we’re going to do it, we have to make the most impressive, elaborate championships we’ve ever seen, which I believe we have done. The championships will actually stay here in Saudi, so that fans can come here to the experience and see them in the vault, and get a look at the history that they own and that they have created here.
He was asked about his vision for the future of WWE in the region:
One thing about WWE that I know, we never look at what we’ve done before. We always look at how can we make it better. So, no matter what the show is, WrestleMania, the Royal Rumble, SummerSlam, Crown Jewel, we’re always looking at, as soon as it’s over, we’re looking at, okay, how can we make this show bigger for next year?
A simple way to put it is just over-delivering every time we come here and make sure they like it. And making sure that when we leave here, people not only feel like they got to see the greatest show they could, but that they know when we come here again, it’s going to be even better.
Finally, Mamo asked whether WWE was “here to stay in the region”. Levesque’s response was “yes.”
