The controversy around WWE's planned trek to Saudi Arabia for Crown Jewelcontinues to rage, with several reports suggesting there is uneasiness from WWE talents, on and offscreen, about the trip, though reportedly no wrestlers have refused to go. That is apparently not the case for certain members of the WWE crew, even as the promotion is trying to entice them with extra pay. Wrestlevotes Radio on Fightful reports that WWE is offering crew members additional hazard pay for making the trip to Riyadh, with the offer said to be around $3K, according to two WWE employees.Hazard pay is generally offered when workers are forced to perform "hazardous duty or work involving physical hardship." It's believed that WWE doesn't traditionally offer hazard pay, including past Saudi Arabia shows, although past events in the country haven't seen the level of military escalation that's occurred over the last month. It is unclear whether the same offer has been made to the wrestlers performing on the show.While the report makes clear that crew has been given a hazard pay option, it is unclear whether the same offer has been made to the wrestlers performing on the show. At this time, four matches are official for Crown Jewel, including Roman Reigns vs. Sami Zayn for the Men's Crown Jewel Championship, Chelsea Green vs. Liv Morgan for the Women's Crown Jewel Championship, Cody Rhodes vs. Randy Orton in a Last Man Standing Match, and Penta and Je'Von Evans challenging Bron Breakker and Austin Theory for the WWE World Tag Team Championships. It is believed, however, that GUNTHER vs. Finn Balor will be added to the show, and that other talents could be featured as well.
You would think that WWE would run out of ways to surprise people with their putrid handling of Crown Jewel 2026, and yet here they are, at the buzzer, proving how careless and out of touch they are with this hazard pay story. For starters, this is a story that reeks of "we need to leak something out there that proves we aren't heartless for making these people go work in a warzone. I know! Let's say we're offering hazard pay." In theory, it's a decent idea for spin, except that $3K, for a company that rakes in billions in revenue, is pretty cheap. How cheap? It's only barely enough to cover the cost of a casket, which runs an average of $2,000-$5,000, a pretty sick coincidence given the potential danger TKO and WWE are putting their crew in.But here's the ultimate rub: the amount of hazard pay doesn't matter. Hell the fact that they're even offering hazard pay doesn't matter. As I've said before and I'll say again, THIS SHOW SHOULD NOT BE HAPPENING! Yes, it will probably (and hopefully) work out for everyone involved, and this will become another WWE controversy that we all go "oh yeah, remember that?" in a few years. But it doesn't change the fact that the risk is too high. And WWE knows it too; otherwise the rumors of talent and crew being flown into another airport further away and then driving hours to get to Riyadh wouldn't be happening. You know how else they know it? Cause they're making this hazard pay offer, and they're so out of touch that they don't realize that it's both insulting and irrelevant. If WWE/TKO wanted to do right by their talent/crew/employees, they'd have postponed this show or moved it elsewhere. They didn't. Simple as that.
