Dave Meltzer Says CM Punk & Kevin Owens Were Never Scheduled for Crown Jewel

WWE Crown Jewel is taking place this Saturday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. There has been a ton of speculation regarding Saturday’s event regarding whether it’ll take place or whether any of the WWE Superstars want to go. As of right now, the answers to these questions are “Yes” & “They better”.

Dave Meltzer took some time on Wrestling Observer Radio to address rumors of certain wrestlers refusing to go, specifically CM Punk & Kevin Owens. There’s been rumors that the reason Punk & Owens’ No Holds Barred match is happening on this week’s SmackDown is because they didn’t want to go work Crown Jewel, but Meltzer (h/t F4Wonline.com) insisted that’s not the case.

Dave Meltzer on CM Punk, Kevin Owens & Crown Jewel:

“There are stories around that some guys refused to go, and nobody refused to go. They think because the Punk match with Owens is on SmackDown that those two guys refused to go, and that is absolutely not true.”

“I got the original card. The only change is that the tag team title match was gonna be a six-man with Oba (Femi), Penta and Je’Von Evans against Bron Breakker, Austin Theory and Bronson Reed. They decided to make it a tag match. I wouldn’t be surprised if Oba and Bronson Reed end up interfering in that tag title match to set up the trios match at a point in the future. I’m not saying for sure that’ll happen. But that is the only change to the card from the card that was originally made a long time ago. So this was always the deal.”

It should be noted that Punk was on the original Crown Jewel poster, but in fairness wrestling event posters aren’t always the most accurate. Meltzer went on to say that there is talent not wanting to go, stating, “Now, if you have read that there’s talent that doesn’t want to go, of course there is, and that’s obviously accurate. I’ve heard from people too, and Sean (Ross) Sapp reported that the people they’ve talked to say they don’t want to go. Of course they don’t.”

Meltzer concluded the topic with, “Look, Roman’s going, and if Roman’s going, ain’t nobody saying no.”