Power Slap’s production staff for its event in Riyadh next week will fly into Bahrain and then take a five-hour bus ride to the Saudi capital because the city’s airport is closed, Ariel Helwani said on Monday’s episode of The Ariel Helwani Show.
“I have confirmed, and I was told this by several people, the airport in Riyadh is closed,” Helwani said.
“I was told that the production staff that is slated to work, they will be flying into Bahrain, unless things change with the airport and the closure, they’ll be flying into Bahrain and then have to drive five hours on a bus from Bahrain to Riyadh,” he added.
“It’s absolutely crazy to have to do this, but the show goes on,” Helwani said.
Ariel Helwani says unless things change with the airport, he was told the production staff scheduled to work the next Power Slap will fly in to Bahrain and drive to Riyadh.#HelwaniShow pic.twitter.com/M0duUbTDOj
— Jed I. Goodman © (@jedigoodman) October 26, 2026
Power Slap 26 is scheduled for Friday, November 6, at SEF Arena in Riyadh, according to the promotion’s website. Helwani said he believed the event was on November 5. Power Slap is co-owned by UFC CEO Dana White.
WWE Crown Jewel takes place the next night, Saturday, November 7, at Riyadh Season Stadium. WWE has not said how its talent and crew will travel to Riyadh, and it has not announced any change to the show. TKO executive chair and CEO Ari Emanuel said last week that Crown Jewel is “still set” and that a TKO team is monitoring the situation daily. TKO owns WWE and the UFC.
Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport has been closed or running limited flights for much of October because of attacks by the Houthis in Yemen, including an October 10 strike that killed 13 people. Reuters reported Monday that the airport partly resumed operations on Sunday, with Terminal 1 handling domestic flights and Terminal 2 handling international flights by national carriers, but that Flightradar24 data showed little traffic and the Houthis said they would keep targeting it. The State Department has ordered non-emergency U.S. government employees and their families to leave Saudi Arabia.
Analysis:
Power Slap’s travel plan is a look at what WWE could be facing. Crown Jewel is one night later in the same city, and WWE brings a much larger group of talent and crew to a stadium show. If the Riyadh airport is still closed or limited that week, the Bahrain route Helwani described is one way in. WWE has not said what its plan is.
