Reddit user Coldcoffees provided a recap of Wrestling Observer Radio with Dave Meltzer discussing the WWE/Saudi Arabia situation and the travel delay:
Dave says WWE had not been paid for the previous Saudi show [Super Show Down], as of September 30th. WWE then reported hours being Crown Jewel that they got an unspecified 60 million dollar payment.
Dave calls it a really bad situation and doesn’t know what WWE is going to do going forward. He had talent tell him they were never going back to Saudi Arabia, and others saying they couldn’t wait TO LEAVE THE COMPANY.
Dave continually reiterates the two major points: WWE wasn’t paid for the previous Saudi show as of September 30th & they got a mysterious 60 million dollar payment a couple hours before Crown Jewel.
Dave confirms that Crown Jewel was supposed to air live in Saudi Arabia but instead it ending up airing there on a 40 minute delay. Basically sounds like Vince pulled the plug until he and the Saudis came to an agreement, which they did mid-show.
None of the talent was harmed but there was talent there that felt like they were hostages, even though they were allowed to leave.
Dave just keeps saying over and over that it’s a really bad, really tense situation. He says the talent needs to unionize, but then points out that Smackdown is a great example of a WWE response if that were to happen: they’d just call up NXT and have a hot show.
Bryan tries to suggest Vince left before he knew all the problems talent would face. Dave says we don’t know that. He’d like to believe that, but he just knows a lot of people were mad. One person there told Dave they felt like they were pawns in a dick waving contest.
Dave says Lesnar and Heyman were not originally scheduled to be on last Friday’s Smackdown but they added them because of the rest of the talent being delayed. Says Brock/Heyman jumping to Raw was going to happen next Tuesday as a big kickoff for the new FS1 news show.
There is also a Twitter thread regarding WWE executives selling stock and if it had something to do with knowledge that there were issues between the company and Saudi Arabia:
— rovert (@SoDuTw) 3 November 2019
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lc2VBdH35Uw
