Arguably the biggest story over the past week has been that of John Cena and Daniel Bryan refusing to take part in WWE’s Crown Jewel event, coming up this Friday (see the story here).

Amidst all the controversy surrounding the show due to its location in Saudi Arabia, both guys informed the company they would not be participating, however they continued to be advertised for Crown Jewel as late as last night. Of course, Monday Night RAW gave us the official word that Cena is out, as he was replaced by Bobby Lashley in the World Cup (check that out here) as we had heard would happen earlier in the day.

As for Bryan’s status, things have been much more murky with no word regarding whether or not he would no longer be making the trip to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia for his scheduled match against AJ Styles for the WWE Championship. With tonight’s SmackDown Live being the last WWE programming for the main roster before Friday, we now have gotten more information.

According to PWInsider, they have confirmed that Daniel Bryan is officially out of Crown Jewel, noting that “Bryan has made it clear he would not be traveling to the event”. Additionally, the company still had a plan for Styles vs. Bryan to take place, which would have seen the match taped at the Performance Center in Orlando and then aired on the broadcast. However, it’s being said that while production plans were being made the idea was scrapped.

At this time, it’s still not known how WWE will address the situation in storyline, but it’s expected to take place tonight on SmackDown Live.

EA’s Take: I’m willing to bet that plans to tape the match at the Performance Center fell apart because of Bryan. If I’m Daniel Bryan and I’m refusing to go to Saudi Arabia, I don’t think taping my match and having it air as a part of the broadcast is much better. You would still be on the show, you just wouldn’t physically be in the country, so that doesn’t make much sense. I am at a loss as to how they address this on television, but after the way they handled Cena last night, it may not be the most creative of ideas.

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