Matt Hardy Says Talent Might Feel Pressure To Go To Saudi Arabia For WWE Crown Jewel

Matt Hardy says it’s a “fair assessment” to think that WWE talent might feel pressured to go to Saudi Arabia for WWE Crown Jewel this weekend. Crown Jewel takes place tomorrow in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, a situation that has received a lot of discussion online due to security concerns amid the war with Iran. It was reported earlier this week that some top talent made it clear to WWE that they didn’t want to be booked on the show.

Hardy, who competed at both 2018’s Greatest Royal Rumble and Super ShowDown 2019 during his time in WWE, spoke exclusively with Casino.org US for an interview and during the conversation, he was asked whether wrestlers in WWE might feel under pressure to go in order to protect their position on the card. Hardy said that was a distinct possibility and he could understand why their might be concern about going there.

“Yeah, there could be,” he said. “That’s obviously a fair assessment. I think any time there’s an active war going on, it can be a scary situation. And I would imagine if they have still continued to greenlight it, TKO and the powers that be, they feel like it’s going to be as safe as it can possibly be.”

He added, “With that being said, yeah, I could understand why someone would be nervous and would be a little concerned about going and travelling there.”

WWE is reportedly sending a minimal crew, with a major part of the show being remotely engineered from WWE Headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut. It was reported today that the commentary team will also call the show remotely from Stamford.

WWE Crown Jewel takes place on Saturday and airs live on ESPN Unlimited in the US, plus Netflix internationally.