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What's the story?
On a recent edition of the Wrestling Observer Radio, it was noted that the WWE's Greatest Royal Rumble PPV is likely to have a 1-hour intermission.
Additionally, the aforementioned speculation has been consolidated by Chris Jericho's recent interview with CBS Sports, wherein Jericho noted that a prayer intermission did transpire back in WWE’s 2015 house show in Jeddah.
In case you didn't know…
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is an Islamic country, whose citizens are renowned for their strong beliefs in Islamic religious practices.
The general guidelines of Islam state that a true Muslim ought to pray i.e. offer "Namaz" 5 times a day. One ought to note the vast majority of workplaces in Islamic nations allow breaks for their employees, so as to allow them to offer Namaz.
The heart of the matter
Veteran professional wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer asserted that as regards wrestling events in Saudi Arabia, an intermission for prayer would indeed be the tradition and norm.
Furthermore, addressing WWE’s live event in August of 2015 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Chris Jericho explained that although his match was scheduled to begin at 5:45pm local time, he was instructed to be done with it by 5:55pm at the latest, since the fans would be leaving to offer Namaz.
Jericho had this to say about the occasion:
"Last time we were there, the show started at 5pm and we had to stop at 6 so the entire audience - who were all made up of males, by the way, there were no women allowed in the show - could go out and pray at 6pm. So that was kind of weird."
What's next?
The WWE's Greatest Royal Rumble PPV takes place tonight (April 27th, 2018) at the King Abdullah International Stadium in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
The 1-hour Kickoff pre-show is set to begin at 11am ET in the States, whereas the PPV main card will start at 12pm ET and run until 5pm ET - with the event all-in-all set to last for 6 hours.
Author's take
It’s great to see the WWE travel to different parts of the world, and adapt its shows accordingly. It’ll indeed be intriguing to see how the WWE handles the 1-hour intermission during a pay-per-view presentation.
