With two weeks to go to Crown Jewel, U.S. Department of State orders non-essential employees to leave Saudi

The U.S. Department of State has ordered all non-essential diplomats and family members to depart Saudi Arabia as attacks from the Houthi group remain ongoing.

The news from the Kingdom, where WWE are set to stage Crown Jewel on November 7, continues to get worse by the day, with serious questions about the feasibility of putting on a large-scale event in Riyadh while there are ongoing attacks and threats.

The DoS warning also said that operations at Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport, where the WWE charter flight is supposed to land, remains suspended.

WWE collects a $50 million paycheck every time they go to Saudi Arabia for one of the “B events,” which is more than what WrestleMania usually pulls in terms of revenue. Failure to hold this event will therefore result in a $50 million hole in TKO’s Q4 2026 earnings, something which they are trying to avoid while also pleasing Turki Al-Sheikh, the Saudi chairman of the General Entertainment Authority, who recently posted on X that they will know who their real friends are during these difficult times for the Kingdom.

Al-Sheikh is also a partner in Zuffa Boxing, another branch of TKO Group.