Former WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns originally didn’t want to travel to make the return to Saudi Arabia.
Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful is reporting Reigns had informed Vince McMahon and WWE officials that he didn’t want to return to the country before revealing that he had been diagnosed with leukemia. He joins the likes of John Cena and Daniel Bryan as stars who didn’t want to make the trip as well.
Reigns had to relinquish the Universal Title. Thus, despite being advertised, he wasn’t able to face Brock Lesnar and Braun Strowman in a triple threat match at this show. The Crown Jewel pay-per-view event went down on November 2, 2018, at King Saud University Stadium in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
This was a controversial event due to the public backlash over the fact that the WWE moved forward with the show after it was reported the Saudi Arabian government ordered the murder of Jamal journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
At the time of this report, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan came out by stating that the killing of Khashoggi was planned and he called it a “brutal” murder.
