World news doesn’t always have an impact on professional wrestling, but there are times when that isn’t the case. WWE is preparing to head to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia for Night of Champions on Saturday, June 28. However, Israel and Iran were locked in an escalating war up until the day of this writing. With the situation being tenuous at best, WWE should make the right call and not do Night of Champions. Unfortunately, this is a company that doesn’t make such calls and would rather take the negative PR hit instead.
This entire conversation begins and ends with the latest on the conflict between Israel and Iran. The conflict started on June 13 when Israel launched attacks on Iran, killing multiple Iranian officials. In response, Iran fired attacks back at Israel in the hours that followed. The United States took offensive action against Iran on Saturday, June 21. Before the end of Monday, June 23, US President Donald Trump took to social media to declare a ceasefire had been declared.
That’s a high-level understanding of what occurred in a matter of days in the Middle East. However, the hours and days that follow are critical to ensuring that some sort of “peace” is obtained. Why is this important? Because WWE is heading over to Saudi Arabia to put on a PLE.
The situation in the area is already impacting the PLE. Fightful Select has reported several updates about the travel situation. According to the reports, talent who were scheduled to go to the event “had not been updated on any changes.” The plan was for the talent to travel on a chartered plane that would have them there by Friday as SmackDown was scheduled to happen in Saudi Arabia.
However, multiple reports came out in the hours after that WWE staff were stuck in Qatar thanks to that country closing airspace to flights as a precaution due to the conflict going on in the area. Former WWE personality Jonathan Coachman took to social media to speak on the matter based on conversations he had with people in the know.
“Just communicated with close friend stuck in Middle East cause flight back home through Qatar was cancelled,” Coachman tweeted. “Support WWE staff stranded in Qatar. But a lot of you still have no issue with sending full talent over there for a wrestling show. SMH (Shaking My Head).”
Emergency take on wrestlers to the Middle East: just communicated with close friend stuck in Middle East cause flight back home through Qatar was cancelled. Support WWE staff stranded in Qatar. But a lot of you still have no issue with sending full talent over there for a… pic.twitter.com/5UKpRF9hbl
— The Coach (@Thecoachrules) June 23, 2025
Mike Johnson of PWInsider offered up additional reporting on the matter.
“There are five WWE staffers currently stuck in Qatar at Doha Airport,” Johnson reported. “PWInsider is told that they were waiting for a connecting flight to Saudi Arabia after landing in Qatar.”
WWE should make the right call to cancel Night of Champions
That leads to the debate of whether WWE should cancel the event. Yes, the company would be hit with massive losses to make refunds for a week’s worth of events planned leading into the PLE and the showcase itself. But at this point, those losses do not exceed potentially putting talent and staffers in danger with a volatile situation.
The chances of Saudi Arabia being attacked are low, but that doesn’t justify the plan to go on with the event at all costs. If anything is true about conflict, anything can happen. The sudden nature of Israel’s surprise attack to start the war, and the United States’s follow-up attack shows how quickly situations can change. A global organization like the WWE should not put its talent and staff in a precarious position like that, just to facilitate business.
People have long criticized WWE for its partnership with Saudi Arabia. There are more than enough reasons to balk at the business arrangement that sees WWE going over to the country multiple times a year. This situation gives more ammunition to use against the biggest company in the business.
Since WrestleMania 41, WWE has stepped on a lot of rakes, making many puzzling public relations mistakes. This will be, but doesn’t have to be, another one of them. All WWE has to do is pull the plug on the show, release a statement about wanting to be considerate of world affairs, and make plans to make the situation right with those who were impacted. Instead, WWE will double down at the opportunity to “own” its naysayers. Hopefully, things will go off without a hitch.