The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia shut down its airspace to civilian flights earlier today due to the ongoing political situation between Iran, Israel and now the United States, raising significant questions on whether WWE's Night of Champions would be in jeopardy due to logistical issues.
Bryan Alvarez of f4wonline.com reported that some WWE staff who were arriving early for the event are now stuck in Qatar, which is a country which borders Saudi Arabia. PWInsider.com meanwhile reported that WWE employees have actually been in Saudi Arabia for a couple of weeks, arriving the week of June 9 and regularly since then. Setup for Night of Champions has been underway for over a week.
However, there are five WWE staff who are indeed stuck in Qatar at the Doha Airport, waiting for a connecting fight to Saudi Arabia after transiting through Qatar, which has also closed their airspace to civilian transport. As of this afternoon, WWE and Saudi Arabia were planning for Smackdown and Night of Champions to proceed as usual, as they would not necessarily be affected by the airspace closures since staff and wrestlers arrive via private, chartered flights.
Fightfulselect.com also reported an interesting piece of information that WWE wrestlers are no longer paid a bonus for participating in any events in Saudi Arabia; instead, any bonuses of the like are built into talent contracts so there are no additional financial incentive to wrestle there.
