The Saudi Arabia card is haunting everyone

We are officially three weeks out from Night of Champions in Riyadh, and the air in the locker room feels like a middle school dance where nobody wants to make the first move. WWE is heading back to Saudi Arabia on June 27, and let’s be real: the booking team is currently sweating through their shirts trying to figure out who needs to betray whom before the flight takes off.

History tells us this show usually serves as a massive platform for spectacle, but the creative department is acting twitchy. You look at the current roster dynamics, and there is a lot of dead weight in the babyface division. We are stuck in that weird mid-year purgatory where the faces are getting stale and the heels are running out of bodies to destroy.

The smell of betrayal in the air

If you have been reading the recent breakdowns of potential heel turns, you know the writing is on the wall for at least two mid-carders. It is standard operating procedure for the company to shake the tree right before a big overseas payday. Nothing juices a crowd in Riyadh quite like a sudden steel chair to the back of a beloved tag team partner during a mandatory title defense.

The issue is that we have seen these sudden shifts too many times. Remember when the company forced a turn just for the sake of setting up a match at a stadium show, only for the crowd to be confused because they still wanted to cheer the guy? That is booking malpractice. You don't just flip a switch because the calendar says it is time for a premium live event.

The booking math doesn't always add up

Let’s talk about the logic here. If you turn a guy mid-June, you have roughly 21 days to make that heel persona stick before the bell rings in the Kingdom. That is barely enough time to update a theme song, let alone build a legitimate grudge that justifies a title match. Last year’s build-up to the Riyadh show felt like a rush job, and this year is trending in the exact same direction.

The creative team needs to stop treating character development like an afterthought. You can’t just have someone walk out, hit a finisher on their best friend, and expect the audience to buy, hook, line, and sinker, that they are the new leader of the pack. It feels unearned. It feels desperate. When you compare this to the golden eras where feuds brewed for months, this speed-run style of storytelling is starting to show its cracks.

What to expect in the next 20 days

Expect a massive disruption in the tag team title scene. There is a glaring lack of depth in the division, and the easiest way out is a breakup story. It’s cheap, it’s lazy, and you can bet your bottom dollar it is coming. I’d bet on a split happening during a live taping in the next two weeks.

We are looking at a situation where talent is being sacrificed for a short-term pop on the international stage. It is frustrating to watch when you know these guys are capable of better. If the company wants to keep the momentum high, they need to quit the impulsive turns and let the stories breathe. But hey, I’m just a fan at the bar, not the guy holding the pen for the script. Expect the usual shenanigans.