After today’s statement by WWE that in their Third Quarter Financial Report that the company is still going to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia next Friday for their Crown Jewel event (check that out here), there’s still the looming reports that WWE Superstars John Cena and Daniel Bryan have refused to make the trip (see the original story here).

According to multiple reports, the WWE creative team was informed on Monday that Cena needed to be replaced (find that here), as he is scheduled to take part in the World Cup tournament at Crown Jewel. Meanwhile, Bryan is set to challenge AJ Styles for the WWE Championship.

In an update to the story, Robbie Fox of Barstool Sports (who broke the original story) is reporting that Cena is still currently off of the show:

Still awaiting confirmation on Bryan, but John Cena is still 100% off the show.

As reported by @iamjohnpollock, the WWE were hopeful they’d come to terms with Cena, but there’s been zero change on John’s end.

— Robbie Fox (@RobbieBarstool) October 25, 2018

In Fox’s tweet he mentions a report by Post Wrestling’s John Pollock, who also adds that there is already a replacement for Cena in mind, but currently no information on who that is.

Additionally, it’s being speculated that the company could run some kind of an angle this coming Monday on RAW to explain why Cena is being replaced in the World Cup. At the same time, there’s belief that it’s not out of the question for WWE to simply replace Cena and not address why. Of course, both are pure speculation at this point.

Now a number of outlets have attempted to get a comment on this story from WWE, Pro Wrestling Sheet was successful. Although, the company merely issued a reiteration of the same statement they previously put out when reports of Superstars not wanting to make the trip started coming out:

“As always, we maintain an open line of communication with our performers and will address each situation accordingly.”

Quote c/o ProWrestlingSheet

EA’s Take: I think WWE needs to do whatever the hell they can to get Cena and Bryan to appear. If you run an angle to explain either of them not being there, people are going to crap all over it now that this has all gotten out, but it’s still a no win situation. To be quite honest, I don’t really care who WWE does business with because I don’t try to hold companies up to some standard of excellence like they’re not above the mighty dollar. However after all of this, even I think they need to look into any way they can to get out of this deal once Crown Jewel is over. Not sure that will happen though due to the McMahons’ relationship with the leader of this country.

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