Nick Khan: WWE believes fans will travel to Saudi Arabia for WrestleMania

WWE isn’t concerned about the logistical issues presented by bringing WrestleMania to Saudi Arabia.

Last month, it was confirmed that Saudi Arabia will host WrestleMania 43 in 2027 with the event being held in Riyadh. It’s the first time WrestleMania will take place outside of the United States or Canada. That means an earlier start time for the two-night broadcast and a longer trip for most fans who usually travel to the show, but Nick Khan believes viewership will be strong and fans will still travel.

Khan was in Saudi Arabia on Thursday for a panel at Joy Forum 2025. He spoke about the decision to take WrestleMania outside of North America for the first time.

“It was a natural next step for us,” the WWE president said. “I think at WWE, we realized a number of years ago — you can’t simply pipe American product out globally and hope to be a global product. You actually have to have boots on the ground. So if you look at what we’ve done with our Premium Live Events — formerly known as pay-per-views — over the last few years, about half of those now take place outside of the United States.

“We’re in the eighth year of a long-term partnership with Turki Alalshikh and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia… We’re bringing Royal Rumble here at the end of January [2026]. It’s the first time Royal Rumble, which is our second or third biggest event, will take place outside of the United States or Canada. And WrestleMania 2027, as you just mentioned, will be here in April of that year, first time ever WrestleMania, as you also said, outside of the US or Canada. We’re excited. We think viewership is going to be strong. We think people will come to the Kingdom to see our show, and we’re going to put on a spectacle.”

WWE is believed to be receiving a lucrative amount of money to hold WrestleMania in Saudi Arabia. The controversial business relationship between the promotion and the Saudi government began in 2018 and continues to expand.

When asked why Saudi Arabia specifically was chosen as the location for the first non-North American WrestleMania, Khan pointed to that strong partnership as the reason.

“So when Turki expressed interest in having it here, we got together for a couple of different meetings, worked out the deal in short order and then had the good fortune of announcing it the day before Canelo vs. Crawford, our first [boxing] fight together in Las Vegas,” Khan said.

It was noted at Joy Forum that hosting WrestleMania is something that Saudi officials first mentioned as a goal seven years ago.