TKO CEO Ari Emanuel Confirms 'Daily Monitoring' as Crown Jewel Decision Looms

The clock is ticking for WWE to make a decision on relocating next month's Crown Jewel Premium Live Event, which, as of now, will take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
A number of travel warnings have been issued in recent weeks with ongoing military conflicts in the region, but the CEO of WWE's parent company, TKO, says all their upcoming events are currently moving forward as scheduled.
During an interview with Fox News, Ari Emanuel noted that TKO is continuously monitoring the situation in the Middle East and indicated that contingency plans are being ironed out.

WWE Crown Jewel in Saudi Arabia is still a go... for right now
“Right now, everything is still set. This weekend coming up in Abu Dhabi, we have a UFC fight. We have in the middle of November a Frieze art show. So far so good. Nothing’s been canceled," Emanuel told Fox News. “We have a whole team kind of working on this, and if [hosting the show in Saudi Arabia] doesn’t happen, where we can move it. It’s a daily monitoring.”
Crown Jewel was scheduled for a return to Saudi Arabia after the event was held in Perth, Australia last year. The show was highlighted by Bronson Reed defeating Roman Reigns in an Australian Street Fight, and then-World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins finally getting a win over Cody Rhodes, who was the WWE Champion at the time.
As of this writing, only two matches have been booked for the show this year, and they are the third annual battles for the Men's and Women's Crown Jewel Championships.

World Heavyweight Champion Roman Reigns is set to go one-on-one with his former Bloodline brother and reigning Undisputed WWE Champion Sami Zayn, while Women's World Champion Liv Morgan is scheduled to face WWE Women's Champion Chelsea Green.
Green does have a couple of hurdles she'll need to clear in order to make it to Crown Jewel, starting tonight on Friday Night SmackDown. Chelsea will defend her title against Roxanne Perez after The Judgment Day helped The Prodigy pick up a non-title win over Green earlier this month on WWE Raw.
If Chelsea is successful against Perez later tonight in Ontario, she'll then turn her attention to Nikki Bella. The WWE Hall of Famer talked her way into a championship match last week, which will take place on the October 30 edition of the Blue Brand.

Rick Ucchino is the Assistant Editor & Content Coordinator for The Takedown on SI. He also works full-time for 700WLW Radio in Cincinnati, Ohio as a local news and sports anchor, in addition to his time covering the Cincinnati Bengals for Sirius XM. Rick has been on the professional wrestling beat since 2019, having provided coverage for a number of outlets, including Fightful, SB Nation’s Cageside Seats and the Bleav Podcast Network. With an educational background in theater, creative writing and journalism, Rick focuses primarily on the storytelling aspect of pro wrestling, but he’s no stranger to the squared circle himself. He had the privilege of training with former WWE & WCW cruiserweight Jimmy Wang Yang for nearly two years and retired early due to back issues with a perfect 1-0 record in singles competition. Rick is a married father of two incredibly adorable children, who are budding pro wrestling fans themselves. Much to the chagrin of their mother. You can reach Rick at rwucchino@gmail.com
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