Saudi Arabia to enhance current WWE deal to bring a major premium live event to the country

Turki Alalshikh, the Chairman of the General Entertainment Authority in Saudi Arabia, has told ESPN‘s Mike Coppinger that an enhancement to the current 10-year deal with WWE will be announced soon at the King and Queen of the Ring tournament.

The enhancement will include to bring one of the big five premium live events to the country, most specifically the Royal Rumble or WrestleMania.

In addition, Alalshikh also said that Riyadh Season will sponsor the UFC 306 pay-per-view from the state-of-the-art location of The Sphere in Las Vegas, the first sponsorship of its kind from Saudi.

Saudi Arabia will also host Tyson Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk for the Undisputed Heavyweight title in Riyadh a week before King and Queen of the Ring.

“We will do big things with the UFC and TKO,” Alalshikh said.

The Saudi deal with the UFC was facilitated by former TKO Executive Chairman Vince McMahon.

The current WWE deal sees Saudi pay around $50 million per show.

Colin Vassallo has been editor of Wrestling-Online since 1996