Major details about WWE’s Royal Rumble 2026 deal with Saudi Arabia revealed – Reports

Royal Rumble is one of the most anticipated WWE Premium Live Events. This year’s edition of the PLE, scheduled to take place at the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana, is three weeks from now. In the meantime, the Stamford-based company has already revealed the location for next year’s Royal Rumble.

Earlier this week, the global juggernaut announced that next year’s Royal Rumble will take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The historic event will see the Premium Live Event move out of North America for the first time.

In the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer noted that Saudi Arabia was willing to pay over $55 million in return for hosting rights of a major WWE Premium Live Event, and both parties agreed on the 2026 Royal Rumble. The wrestling journalist further reported that with several major boxing matches taking place in Saudi, one can expect the wrestling promotion to tread a similar route.

Ex-WWE employee wants a face-off between former World Champions during this year’s Men’s Royal Rumble Match

A couple of months ago, former WWE employee Tommy Carlucci expressed his desire to see John Cena and The Rock to end the Royal Rumble Match.

Speaking during an earlier episode of The Coach & Bro Show, Carlucci noted if he were to write the 2025 Men’s Royal Rumble match, he would make John Cena come out first, with The Rock making a surprising entry later and go face-to-face with The Cenation Leader:

“I want to see The Rock and Cena at the end of the Royal Rumble. If I was writing the Royal Rumble, I’d make John Cena [come] first… and then pull out the surprise when the Final Boss comes out at like #25. They go face-to-face again… Let’s go back to Miami, the two WrestleManias that we built a year apart. It’s all come to this – ‘It’s my last time.’ ‘I’m the Final Boss.’ ‘F*** you.’ Who’s going to win? That’s how I’d end that show.” [23:30 onwards]

You can check out Tommy Carlucci’s comments in the video below:

John Cena announced his participation in the upcoming Royal Rumble Match on Monday Night RAW’s Netflix Premiere. Although The Rock did not reveal any future plans, he also made an appearance at the show. It will be interesting to see if the two Hollywood stars cross paths one more time during the 16-time World Champion’s much-awaited Farewell Tour.