11 months ago
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WWE
Following the 2019 WWE Crown Jewel event in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, an incident saw a chartered flight for talent heading back to the USA delayed extensively. It caused major last-minute changes to the production of "WWE SmackDown" and left a host of talent shaken up. Former WWE star Dax Harwood once said he'd fear for his life if he spoke about what really went down. Now Mansoor, a Saudi-born wrestler who departed WWE late last year, recalled the experience during "Keepin' it 100."
Crown Jewel 2019 marked Mansoor's first major WWE appearance as he wrestled against Cesaro, and it may not have gone according to plan. During the interview, he explained why the match had a little more riding on it than it would have seemed.
"While I was at the show, people kept telling me, 'Hey this match you have, it's really important, don't screw it up,'" said Mansoor, "There was a lot riding on this match, and I didn't know until after; apparently, there was a dispute between WWE and the Saudi Sports Authority regarding the TV rights to showing the show... Vince himself said that this has to be a WrestleMania-level match."
Mansoor noted that WWE was operating on the idea that if his match went well, the Saudi Arabian Sports Authority may have been more amenable to its desired terms. While he never explicitly said why the plane was grounded for so long, it was implied that the contract dispute was central to the issue. In any case, Mansoor said the official reason for the delayed flight was a mechanical failure. However, when pushed on what he thought of the situation in reality, he played coy and joked as to why he would keep his lips sealed.
"My opinion is that, allegedly, the Saudi government can do whatever the hell it wants," he laughed, "Listen, I gotta go back and make a ton of money touring the Middle East, so I'm choosing my words carefully."
