John Cena isn't the only WWE superstar who is refusing to work the upcoming Crown Jewel PPV in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Less than 24 hours after Cena was officially pulled from the card, pro wrestling website PWInsider has confirmed that SmackDown Live's Daniel Bryan will also be skipping Friday's event.
PWInsider reports that Bryan "made it clear he would not be traveling to the event and WWE began making alternative plans last week." Bryan was slated to take on WWE Champion AJ Styles, and the two are still on track to face off on tonight's episode of SmackDown Live, so it will be interesting to see how WWE goes about removing Bryan from the storyline as they head to Riyadh.
Per PWInsder, no final decision had been made as of last night.
"They could run an angle to take Bryan out of the match and have AJ Styles face someone else at Crown Jewel (we've heard Rusev's name mentioned as a possible replacement) or simply tape the Styles vs. Bryan match at tonight's taping to insert into the Crown Jewel broadcast. The company could also change direction and have the match on Smackdown tonight in order to close out the storyline and move Styles on to another challenger. They have several options open to them as of this writing and we are told no final decision had been made as of last night."
The news isn't a total surprise, as both Cena and Bryan have reportedly expressed issues with the Crown Jewel PPV because of the controversy surrounding the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi on October 2 at the Saudi consulate in Turkey.
The Crown Jewel PPV will air this Friday at 11am ET on the WWE Network.