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WWE Announces Return To Saudi Arabia Despite Initial Safety Concerns, Date Revealed

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• WWE Announces Return To Saudi Arabia Despite Initial Safety Concerns, Date Revealed

In March, reports came out that WWE was reconsidering its plans for upcoming events in Saudi Arabia, including the Night of Champions PLE scheduled for this June due to safety concerns.

However, the event will go ahead as scheduled, as WWE has officially announced the Night of Champions 2026 premium live event for Saturday, June 27, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

This is going to be the second Saudi PLE of 2026. The first one was Royal Rumble 2026. After Night of Champions, one more Saudi Arabia PLE will take place in 2026, likely Crown Jewel.

• Viewership For WrestleMania 42’s First Hour On ESPN Revealed

The first hour of WrestleMania 42 – Night 1 aired on ESPN 2 and drew 1.62 million viewers. This number doesn’t include those who watched on ESPN Unlimited. The following two matches were featured during this hour:

– LA Knight and The Usos def. World Tag Team Champions The Vision (Logan Paul and Austin Theory) and IShowSpeed

– Jacob Fatu def. Drew McIntyre in an Unsanctioned Match

The first hour of WrestleMania 42 – Night 2 aired on ESPN and drew 1.82 million viewers. This number doesn’t include those who watched on ESPN Unlimited. The following two matches were featured during this hour:

– Oba Femi def. Brock Lesnar

– Penta (c) def. Rey Mysterio, Rusev, JD McDonagh, Dragon Lee, and Je’Von Evans in a Ladder Match to retain the Intercontinental Championship

NOTE: These numbers don’t represent the complete viewership for WrestleMania 42, as international fans (non-U.S. fans who watch on Netflix) and ESPN Unlimited viewers weren’t counted. Just the ESPN 2 and ESPN viewership for the first hour in the United States.

Ryan Glasspiegel of Front Office Sports reported the following:

“These were the TV ratings for the WrestleMania simulcasts on ESPN2 (Saturday) and ESPN (Sunday). Note these numbers do not include everyone who was watching on the ESPN Unlimited streams, which had the whole shows both nights.

Sat ESPN2 – 1.62M viewers

Sun ESPN – 1.82M

The one hour countdown did 676k Saturday on ESPN2 and 750K Sunday on ESPN.

In a release this morning, WWE said that this was the most-viewed telecast of the year on ESPN2 and that it was the biggest of the weekend on ESPN.

Night 2 on ESPN was the biggest linear TV audience for WWE since SmackDown left FOX in 2024.

This is a pretty good number for WWE/ESPN all things considered.

1) Up against NBA/NHL playoffs

2) It doesn’t count the viewers on the app. The hardcore viewers would all be watching there so they don’t have to switch over when simulcast ends.

The key numbers, which we don’t know, are a) how many people watched on the app each night and b) how many ESPN Unlimited signups did WrestleMania drive?”

Also Read: Original Location For WrestleMania 43 Revealed

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