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The aftermath of Crown Jewel has been dominated by reports of many talents being stranded in Saudi Arabia due to an unforeseen delay.
Sportskeeda's Tom Colohue reached out to his sources backstage for clarity regarding the current status of SmackDown show, which will be live in a few hours. Tom was told that the show will go on and that the company is coming up with a script based on the available talents.
Colohue also added that the delay wasn't due to the Saudi Arabian government but because of the travel arrangements that were in place.
Here's what Tom revealed:
I've been reaching out to find what's going on since I first saw mention of WWE talent stuck in Saudi Arabia this morning. What I've heard is that the Smackdown show will go ahead regardless and that a script is being written based on the talent that is known to be available.
What I've been told is that the issue is with the travel arrangements, not the government.
It was reported by Fightful earlier in the day that a majority of the roster that traveled to Saudi Arabia for the Crown Jewel PPV were held up after their flight got delayed.
Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer shared more details on the situation. It has been revealed that 12 Superstars who attended the show left the country and were on their way to Buffalo, New York for SmackDown. Vince McMahon is reportedly back in the United States to possibly oversee the SmackDown episode, which as we stated earlier, will go ahead irrespective of the current situation.
The company will still be without a large chunk of the roster, who are not expected to make it back in time for SmackDown.
The only positive for the WWE in this scenario is that barring Natalya, Lacey Evans, and Lana, the entire SmackDown women's division is at the creative's disposal for the show.
The pressure is now on the company to put together a show with a depleted roster and it will be interesting to see how they respond in these testing times.
