WWE hosts first Greatest Royal Rumble in Saudi Arabia

Friday’s event gave Middle Eastern audience a taste of professional wrestling, live sports entertainment

KARACHI: WWE made history on Friday by holding their first ever live event in Saudi Arabia. Held at the King Abdullah Sports City stadium in Jeddah, WWE Greatest Royal Rumble featured seven championship matches, high profile rematches and the largest Royal Rumble match in history with 50 male participants.

The setup of the show had a special couch seating arranged for the Saudi Royal family. Pyro and fireworks were used, despite WWE doing away with them from their usual broadcasts.

The atmosphere of the show, although electric in the beginning, turned out to be quite inconsistent. The live crowd of over 50, 000 (which included men, women and children) mostly only cheered for the top stars’ entrances and a lot of highlights of the show went without a big reaction, contrary to live shows in America where the loud crowd reaction elevates the intensity.

Nevertheless, the show turned out to be entertaining because of the mere fact that it was held in a land that is still opening up to the world. Commentator Corey Graves put it best when he said that the show was a first step in the “progression of Saudi Arabia in cultural diversification.”

John Cena v Triple H. PHOTO: WWE

After the hour-long kickoff where Jerry Lawler, Jim Ross and Booker T discussed the show’s outcomes and rivalries, the national anthem of Saudi Arabia and the United States of America played. The main five-hour show began with John Cena versus Triple H, both of whom came out of defeats at WrestleMania earlier this month. After a slow yet competitive match, Cena came out victorious. He thanked the Middle Eastern country and its people for their hospitality and said he wouldn’t have missed the show for the world.

John Cena PHOTO: WWE

Further, Cedric Alexander defeated Kalisto to retain his Cruiserweight Championship, Jeff Hardy defeated Jinder Mahal to retain his US Title, The Bludgeon Brothers retained their SmackDown Live Tag Team titles against The Usos and Seth Rollins retained his Intercontinental Championship against Samoa Joe, Finn Balor and The Miz, in a fantastic ladder match, which garnered “This is awesome” chants from the Arabian crowd. Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt defeated Cesaro and Sheamus to win the vacant Raw Tag Team titles.

Jeff Hardy. PHOTO: WWE

After a spectacular victory against Cena at WrestleMania, The Undertaker rose again to defeat Rusev in his signature Casket Match.

Undertaker. PHOTO:WWE

Meanwhile AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura’s WWE Championship rematch from WrestleMania ended in double count-out, Lesnar retained his WWE Universal Championship against Roman Reigns in a Steel Cage match in controversial fashion.

AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura.  PHOTO: WWE

One of the segments that will surely be talked about involved the introduction of four Saudi wrestlers who have been selected to train at the WWE Performance Center in the US and be a part of the company. Nassar (from Mecca), Hussein (Medina), Mansoour (Riyadh) and Fisal (Jeddah) came out to a cheering crowd, when they were interrupted by Khosrow and Ariya Daivari. The two brothers came out waving the flag of their homeland Iran and insulted the local wrestlers.

Iran v Saudi Arabia. PHOTO: WWE

In turn, the Iranian brothers got beat up by the four Saudis to a huge pop from the crowd.

Iran v Saudi Arabia PHOTO:WWE

However, it was the eponymous main event of the show that offered memorable moments, despite not being as exciting as it should have been. Braun Strowman, entering at number 41, outlasted 49 superstars to win the match, the glorious trophy and a custom, Saudi themed Greatest Royal Rumble Championship. Not only that, he made record-breaking 13 eliminations in the match, breaking Reigns’ previous record of 12.

Braun Strowman. PHOTO: WWE

Also, the beloved hero of all wrestling fans Daniel Bryan, who started the match as the first entrant, went on to survive for one hour and 16 minutes, lasting the longest in any Royal Rumble match ever. Although he didn’t win, the star made it to the final three and broke Rey Mysterio’s previous 2006 Rumble match record (one hour, two minutes and 12 seconds) before being eliminated by Big Cass, who was then eliminated by the winner Strowman. The night ended in a historic fashion with WWE chairman Vince McMahon and a Saudi representative presenting Strowman the trophy and championship title.

Greatest Royal Rumble definitely made history, giving the Saudi audience a taste of professional wrestling and live sports entertainment. While they were heavily criticised for not featuring female performers, they justified it by saying it would have been against cultural norms. It makes sense as WWE is a global business and they have to respect the host country’s traditions, agreeable or not. Triple H clarified in an interview that they were in talks for having women superstars perform in their future shows. Therefore, it’s safe to say that the women’s revolution in WWE won’t slow down because of this one roadblock.

Strowman with the Saudi trophy PHOTO:WWE

As Triple H hinted, the event marks a first in most likely a line of frequent future visits to Saudi Arabia by WWE. The 10-year deal will not only be massively profitable for the world’s largest wrestling conglomerate but also pave the way for more cultural exchanges in and out of Saudi Arabia.

It’s being reported that WWE made over $100 million just for hosting this one event. The figure may have been exaggerated and the accumulative revenue probably won’t be known until a few months later. But it is an affirmative that the company has surely made massive profits and would be looking to return soon.

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