On March 5, the WWE held the Greatest Royal Rumble, the first-ever WWE televised event in Saudi Arabia. Approximately 60,000 fans in the King Abdullah Sports City in Jeddah enjoyed the Greatest Royal Rumble , and the WWE is now set to hold their second Saudi Arabia televised event, Crown Jewel , in the King Fahd International Stadium in Riyadh on November 2. Thus far, only one official match has been booked for the November event: Roman Reigns will defend the WWE Universal Championship against Brock Lesnar and Braun Strowman in a Triple-Threat Match.
These special WWE Network events are part of a 10-year multi-platform partnership between World Wrestling Entertainment and the Saudi General Sports Authority in support of Saudi Vision 2030, a social and economic reform program by Saudi Arabia.
As expected, much of the WWE universe is excited about Crown Jewel , including Chairman of the General Sports Authority in Saudi Arabia and Chairman of the Islamic Solidarity Sports Federation Turki Al-Sheikh. The sports official recently took to Twitter and tweeted a photo of former WWE superstar Hulk Hogan. According to Sportskeeda , Turki Al-Sheikh’s tweet reads, “What is the World Cup that no one talks about this?”
The Twitter translation tool essentially translates the same thing. As the WWE announced, the World Cup will be a tournament that is part of the Crown Jewel event to determine who the best in the world is. No official names have been announced for the tournament as of yet, but Hulk Hogan will likely not be a participant.
The 65-year-old former wrestler is likely too banged up for in-ring action after decades of wrestling, and most notably, he was fired from the WWE in 2015 and removed from their Hall of Fame after his famed sex tape was leaked. The sex tape revealed Hogan saying a flurry of racist comments about African Americans. Since that incident, the WWE has reinstated Hogan into the Hall of Fame, but he has not re-signed with the company.
#UniversalChampion @WWERomanReigns will defend his title against @BrockLesnar AND @BraunStrowman in a #TripleThreat Match at #WWECrownJewel in Saudi Arabia, streaming LIVE on @WWENetwork Nov. 2! pic.twitter.com/X6UkgL7wCC
— WWE Network (@WWENetwork) September 18, 2018
The House of Saud reportedly requested Hulk Hogan, Yokozuna, The Ultimate Warrior, and The Undertaker for the Greatest Royal Rumble . Hogan was not part of that event, and for obvious reasons, neither were The Ultimate Warrior or Yokozuna. It’s one thing to reinstate Hulk Hogan into a hall of fame that doesn’t have an official brick and mortar building — seemingly, every current black WWE superstar supported that move — but the WWE looks to be hesitant on actually re-signing the controversial figure.