Posted on 5/13/123 by Colin Vassallo
The announcement of the Undisputed WWE
Tag Team title match between Kevin Owens
and Sami Zayn against Roman Reigns and
Solo Sikoa at the upcoming Night of
Champions premium live event in Saudi
Arabia caught a lot of fans by surprise.
Sami Zayn, who is of Syrian descent and
a Muslim, was previously banned from
entering Saudi Arabia as the country did
not have any diplomatic relationship
with Syria. Zayn later did not want to
entertain the idea of going to Saudi for
any WWE shows.
His tag team partner Kevin Owens also
refused to go to Saudi in the past, in
part due to his friendship with Zayn.
Owens only participated in one Saudi
event, the first one titled The Greatest
Royal Rumble, and never went again. When
the Khashoggi murder took place in 2018,
many WWE Superstars, including John Cena
and Daniel Bryan at the time, refused to
travel to the show and were replaced as
well.
But just a few days ago, Saudi Arabia
and Syria announced that they have
resumed the work of diplomatic missions
in both countries. This is after more
than 10 years since Saudi cut ties with
Syria over the Syrian government’s
handling of its civil war. That might
have helped sway Zayn’s decision to go
over and do the show.
“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia decided to
resume the work of its diplomatic
mission in the Syrian Arab Republic,”
the state-run Saudi Press Agency
reported Tuesday according to CNN. The
announcement came two days after Syria
was readmitted into the Arab League.