In the month of October, WWE has been having a bad month. last month, WWE announced and confirmed they would be returning to Saudi Arabia for Crown Jewel, a event in which will be held in Riyadh on November 2. however, in the days after the event was announced, it had been marred with the bigger Saudi Arabia controversy where the Government of that country is facing backlash for the disappearance/murder of Jamal Khashoggi which caused outrage and fans calling for the event to be canceled, the backlash was already bad enough for the Saudi government that several international companies has either severed ties or about to sever ties with them. WWE of course had to keep quiet about it by not mentioning the country on the company's website related to the event or mention the country on WWE TV. however in the weeks since the controversy first came out, WWE claimed they were "Monitoring the situation". The event also has a match where recently elected Knox County, Tennessee Mayor Glenn "Kane" Jacobs will wrestle with his storyline half brother The Undertaker to take on the team of Degeneration X, the team of HHH (who is now a behind the scenes guy at WWE due to marrying Vince McMahon's daughter Stephanie) and the Heartbreak Kid Shawn Michaels (who is wrestling for the first time since 2010, where he retired from in ring action after losing to The Undertaker at WrestleMania 26).
But Today, WWE confirmed the event was still on and still happening in Saudi Arabia after rumors first emerged nearly 2 weeks ago that the event would be moved to a new venue in a different country. in fact, there's rumors that John Cena and Daniel Bryan don't want to wrestle at that event. Cena is schedule to face one of the 7 other man in the WWE "World Cup" Tournament, while Bryan is slated to challenge WWE Champion AJ Styles for the WWE Championship at that event. to add insult to injury with Crown Jewel, is their World Cup tournament is full of a 8 man field which is only filled with US wrestlers.
WWE's first event in Saudi Arabia back in April, called "The Greatest Royal Rumble" was just as controversial as women wrestlers and talent were left behind to stay in the US while the male performers got to work in Saudi Arabia, this lead to WWE creating and announcing a all women's event called Evolution, named after their self proclaimed "Women's Evolution" which really began in 2015 as WWE stepped up their women's wrestling division in the wake of the #GiveDivasAChance outrage after a woman's tag team match ended very quickly and fans weren't happy about, plus not to mention WWE was dealing with losing one of their top women's wrestler at the time, AJ Lee, who retired due to injuries and the toxic environment between WWE & her in relation of her husband CM Punk's departure with the company a year earlier. Evolution will be held on Sunday and is main event by MMA fighter turned wrestler Ronda Rousey defending her WWE Raw Women's Championship against Nikki Bella.
Meanwhile, on top of that, WWE had to deal with a heartbreaking situation as well, as their top wrestler has revealed he is battling Leukemia (a form of cancer that affects blood). On Monday, WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns (real name Joe Anoa'i, a member of a famous Samoan wrestling, which includes the Wild Samoans, Yokozuna, Rikishi & his sons Jimmy and Jey Uso, Samu (who also announced he's battling stage 4 liver cancer this week too), Eddie Fatu aka Umaga (who passed away in late 2009), Rosey (Roman's brother, who passed away last year) and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson) announced that he had Leukemia for 11 years and it quickly went to remission after he was diagnosed with this form of Cancer in 2008, after his football career ended. he revealed that the disease had returned and that he will leave the WWE and that he has to vacate the Universal Championship. the emotional announcement happened in the opening segment of WWE's flagship show Monday Night Raw as he made the announcement in the ring, which was very emotional as fans who normally boo him (nevermind the fact he's the top babyface of the company) would stop booing him and instead gave him "Thank You Roman" chants by the end of his emotional speech, in which he declared that he wasn't retiring, and that when he beats Leukemia's a**, he was gonna return to the company. he was then greeted at the stage area by his stablemates from the stable "The Shield" Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins, for a comforting hug and they did the trademark Shield fist bump pose.
The heartbreaking announcement left the wrestling world stunt as sometimes, real life gets in the way of the WWE storylines and predertmined matches. Reigns was informed of the cancer sometime late last week, as he last competed in the WWE on October 15 (a week before his heartbreaking announcement), where he teamed with his Shield stablemates Rollins and Ambrose to take on the team of Braun Strowman, Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre in a 6 man tag team match, which the Shield won. He was slated to defend his Universal Championship against Strowman and Brock Lesnar, the former champion in a triple threat match at the controversial event Crown Jewel. However, with Reigns vacating it, Lesnar and Strowman will battle for the vacated belt in a one on one match at the event instead.
Needless to say, WWE is not having a good month in general.
Also, my thoughts and prayers and well wishes goes out to Roman and his family, i hope you give Leukemia the biggest spear of your life Roman.
Story on Crown Jewel still being on after the recent Saudi political international incident:
https://www.cbssports.com/wwe/news/wwe-confirms-crown-jewel-event-in-saudi-arabia-will-go-on-as-scheduled-on-nov-2/
Story on Roman Reigns' Leukemia announcement:
http://www.espn.com/wwe/story/_/id/25057234/roman-reigns-reveals-return-leukemia-wwe-raw
But Today, WWE confirmed the event was still on and still happening in Saudi Arabia after rumors first emerged nearly 2 weeks ago that the event would be moved to a new venue in a different country. in fact, there's rumors that John Cena and Daniel Bryan don't want to wrestle at that event. Cena is schedule to face one of the 7 other man in the WWE "World Cup" Tournament, while Bryan is slated to challenge WWE Champion AJ Styles for the WWE Championship at that event. to add insult to injury with Crown Jewel, is their World Cup tournament is full of a 8 man field which is only filled with US wrestlers.
WWE's first event in Saudi Arabia back in April, called "The Greatest Royal Rumble" was just as controversial as women wrestlers and talent were left behind to stay in the US while the male performers got to work in Saudi Arabia, this lead to WWE creating and announcing a all women's event called Evolution, named after their self proclaimed "Women's Evolution" which really began in 2015 as WWE stepped up their women's wrestling division in the wake of the #GiveDivasAChance outrage after a woman's tag team match ended very quickly and fans weren't happy about, plus not to mention WWE was dealing with losing one of their top women's wrestler at the time, AJ Lee, who retired due to injuries and the toxic environment between WWE & her in relation of her husband CM Punk's departure with the company a year earlier. Evolution will be held on Sunday and is main event by MMA fighter turned wrestler Ronda Rousey defending her WWE Raw Women's Championship against Nikki Bella.
Meanwhile, on top of that, WWE had to deal with a heartbreaking situation as well, as their top wrestler has revealed he is battling Leukemia (a form of cancer that affects blood). On Monday, WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns (real name Joe Anoa'i, a member of a famous Samoan wrestling, which includes the Wild Samoans, Yokozuna, Rikishi & his sons Jimmy and Jey Uso, Samu (who also announced he's battling stage 4 liver cancer this week too), Eddie Fatu aka Umaga (who passed away in late 2009), Rosey (Roman's brother, who passed away last year) and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson) announced that he had Leukemia for 11 years and it quickly went to remission after he was diagnosed with this form of Cancer in 2008, after his football career ended. he revealed that the disease had returned and that he will leave the WWE and that he has to vacate the Universal Championship. the emotional announcement happened in the opening segment of WWE's flagship show Monday Night Raw as he made the announcement in the ring, which was very emotional as fans who normally boo him (nevermind the fact he's the top babyface of the company) would stop booing him and instead gave him "Thank You Roman" chants by the end of his emotional speech, in which he declared that he wasn't retiring, and that when he beats Leukemia's a**, he was gonna return to the company. he was then greeted at the stage area by his stablemates from the stable "The Shield" Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins, for a comforting hug and they did the trademark Shield fist bump pose.
The heartbreaking announcement left the wrestling world stunt as sometimes, real life gets in the way of the WWE storylines and predertmined matches. Reigns was informed of the cancer sometime late last week, as he last competed in the WWE on October 15 (a week before his heartbreaking announcement), where he teamed with his Shield stablemates Rollins and Ambrose to take on the team of Braun Strowman, Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre in a 6 man tag team match, which the Shield won. He was slated to defend his Universal Championship against Strowman and Brock Lesnar, the former champion in a triple threat match at the controversial event Crown Jewel. However, with Reigns vacating it, Lesnar and Strowman will battle for the vacated belt in a one on one match at the event instead.
Needless to say, WWE is not having a good month in general.
Also, my thoughts and prayers and well wishes goes out to Roman and his family, i hope you give Leukemia the biggest spear of your life Roman.
Story on Crown Jewel still being on after the recent Saudi political international incident:
https://www.cbssports.com/wwe/news/wwe-confirms-crown-jewel-event-in-saudi-arabia-will-go-on-as-scheduled-on-nov-2/
Story on Roman Reigns' Leukemia announcement:
http://www.espn.com/wwe/story/_/id/25057234/roman-reigns-reveals-return-leukemia-wwe-raw