Nick Khan says WWE has already worked out the creative for WrestleMania 43, seven months out from the first WrestleMania held outside North America.
Khan was asked about the Riyadh show on The Varsity with John Ourand, in a conversation that had started on WWE’s Netflix deal and how the company now sees itself as a global product rather than an American one shipping content abroad.
“It’s never been outside of the US or Canada. It’s going to be in Riyadh. It’s going to be a significant show,” Khan said.
He then said the plans are set, with one caveat.
“We’re already across the creative. Of course, that’s subject to any injury,” he said, before repeating it. “We’re already across the creative.”
Seven months is early by WWE’s own standards. The company has historically finalised WrestleMania matches across the Royal Rumble and the six weeks after it, and Khan is describing a card that is broadly settled before the Rumble has been held. The injury caveat is the only thing he put on it.
The rest of his answer was about the fans who will not be travelling. WWE has two nights booked at the Theater at Madison Square Garden.
“WrestleMania Saturday will have a watchalong party followed by either NXT or AAA. And the next day, MSG Theater, a watchalong party followed by either NXT or AAA, whichever one didn’t go on the Saturday night,” Khan said. “So we’re also going to do viewing parties and all of these things from the US and other countries.”
His summary was short. “We think, ultimately, the fans will go home happy.”
That plan is only possible because of what WWE has bought. AAA is the Mexican promotion the company acquired last year, and pairing it with NXT gives WWE two touring brands to put into the MSG Theater across a weekend when the main roster is on the other side of the world. WrestleMania weekend in a host city normally carries NXT Stand and Deliver and a run of independent shows around it. This version moves the weekend itself to New York while the show it is built around happens in Riyadh.
WrestleMania 43 was announced for Riyadh by Triple H and Turki Alalshikh on September 12, 2025 and is set for April 2027. WWE has not announced dates.
The company has run shows in Saudi Arabia since 2018, starting with the Greatest Royal Rumble, and has held Crown Jewel, Elimination Chamber and other events there in the years since. The 2026 Royal Rumble was in Riyadh, where Gunther ended AJ Styles’ in-ring career. WrestleMania is the last of the company’s tentpole events to make the trip, and the first one Khan has framed as a test of whether the audience follows.
Alalshikh is the chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority and the man behind Riyadh Season, and has been WWE’s counterpart on the Saudi shows throughout. He has since extended into boxing promotion and into other combat sports, and WrestleMania is the largest event he has landed for Riyadh Season to date.
Khan’s argument through the interview was that WWE no longer thinks of itself as an American company with an international audience. The Netflix deal put Raw in front of subscribers in most of the world on the same day, and the AAA purchase gave the company a promotion outside the United States rather than a touring schedule that visits one.
