WWEs big Saudi Arabia showcase turned into a mess today as international SmackDown viewers were hit with a brutal 30-minute outage and now, more details have surfaced about the chaos behind the scenes.
Fightful Select reports that about ten minutes into the broadcast, during Randy Orton and Cody Rhodes promo battle, international feeds froze and even the screens inside the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh went black.
With thousands in the arena confused and fans around the world stuck with blank screens, the WWE Superstars scrambled to kill time. Orton took the lead, mingling with the crowd and soaking in the moment while his entrance music played repeatedly.
Roughly 25 minutes into the blackout, Cody Rhodes re-emerged to entertain the live crowd. Thats when Carmelo Hayes, dressed in street clothes, was brought out to confront Rhodes only to get flattened with a Cross Rhodes as part of the unplanned filler.
It was also noted that while the outage ruined the international feed, the episode is still expected to air as normal in the United States. No word yet on what exactly caused the technical meltdown.
This whole mess adds fuel to concerns about WWEs live event partnership with Netflix, especially after previous streaming issues during the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson fight. Fans were already frustrated now theyve got even more reason to question the setup.
Whats your take should WWE rethink this Netflix deal for live events, or was this just a one-off glitch? Vent in the comments.
