WWE Postpones On-Sale Date For Crown Jewel As Saudi Government Acknowledges Journalist’s Death

– WWE has postponed the ticket on-sale date for WWE Crown Jewel, right as the Saudi Arabian government has acknowledged the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Tickets for the event were set to go on sale today, but as Pro Wrestling Sheet reports that has been delayed. WWE.com now lists the on-sale date as November 2nd, the same date as the show itself.

The change comes as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has acknowledged via state-run television that Khashoggi died in the Saudi embassy in Turkey. Officials have suspected such for some time, though the statement does not state that Khashoggi died following a kidnapping, torture, and interrogation as Turkish officials have claimed to have evidence of.

Instead, the report claims that Khashoggi met with fifteen men who had traveled to Turkey to meet with him, claiming that he had expressed an interest in returning to Saudi Arabia. They claim that discussions went south and a fight eventually broke out, which led to Khashoggi’s death and the men’s “attempt to conceal and cover what happened.”

The government has fired Maj. Gen. Ahmed al-Asiri as the deputy of intelligence services and Saud al-Qahtani, an advisor to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. An investigation in Saudi Arabia is ongoing, with eighteen men detained thus far.

WWE has been under pressure from fans and US officials to cancel or postpone Crown Jewel, but has been resistant to doing so. Their initial statement simply read that “We are currently monitoring the situation.”