The Riyadh event stays on the schedule, but most WWE staff are staying home while announcers call it from company headquarters.
WWE's Crown Jewel premium live event will go ahead this weekend in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, despite earlier doubts tied to the conflict in the Middle East. The company is making major adjustments to pull it off, with most of its workers staying home rather than traveling to the show.
According to Mike Johnson of PWInsider, WWE will broadcast the event remotely from its Stamford headquarters, with much of the production and engineering also handled from afar rather than on site in Saudi Arabia.
The card itself has been trimmed down, featuring only four matches, smaller than the usual premium live event lineup. The top two bouts are both champion versus champion matchups. On the men's side, WWE Champion Sami Zayn faces World Heavyweight Champion Roman Reigns. The women's division also has its own champion versus champion headliner, though full details on that matchup were not specified.
The scaled-back approach marks a departure from WWE's typical presentation for its Saudi Arabia shows, which usually involve the full roster and production crew traveling overseas. Fans can expect the broadcast itself to look largely the same despite the behind the scenes changes, with the matches still taking place live in Riyadh on Saturday.