WWE’s relationship with the Saudi’s continues as they announced their sole 2025 PLE during Backlash.
During the Backlash PLE last weekend, WWE announced that Night of Champions 2025 will air on June 28th from the Kingdom Arena in Ryadh, Saudi Arabia. This will be the second Saudi-based Night of Champions after the first one in 2023 and will be the first WWE event from the 26k arena after hosting multiple boxing and MMA cards since 2024.
The PLE will air on Peacock in the United States and Netflix in most countries worldwide (with the legacy WWE Network and other legacy rights holders like Abema airing in non-Netflix countries). Although the start time hasn’t been announced as of this writing, it’s possible to estimate a 1 PM EST/6 PM GMT start time.
In addition to the PLE, the June 27th SmackDown will emanate from the same venue, which would be SD’s first airing in Ryadh. Although the episode will air live on Netflix in most countries as is the case for Night of Champions (estimated for 1 PM EST/6 PM GMT), the show will air on a tape delay in the United States due to their pre-existing deal with USA Network.
This PLE will be the ONLY time WWE goes to Saudi Arabia in 2025 as the country will have the 2026 Royal Rumble in the place of its traditional fall PLE. Because of this, there will be three Saudi PLE’s in 2026.
Below is the press release:
WWE® RETURNS TO RIYADH FOR NIGHT OF CHAMPIONS AT KINGDOM ARENA ON SATURDAY, JUNE 28
Friday Night SmackDown also heading to Kingdom Arena on Friday, June 27
May 12, 2025 – The General Entertainment Authority, in cooperation with WWE, part of TKO Group Holdings (NYSE: TKO), has announced that Night of Champions will be held at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Saturday, June 28, 2025.
Additionally, Friday Night SmackDown will emanate from Kingdom Arena the night before on Friday, June 27. This marks the first time SmackDown will be held in Saudi Arabia’s capital.
Friday Night SmackDown airs on USA Network and Night of Champions will stream on Peacock in the United States. Both will stream live in Saudi Arabia, and in most markets around the world, on Netflix. Information regarding general ticket onsale and further event updates will be available in the coming weeks.
About Riyadh Season
Saudi Arabia’s capital embraces one of the world’s biggest entertainment events every year during winter. Since the launch of the Riyadh Season in 2019, the festival has welcomed visitors from all over the world to experience thousands of concerts, sporting activities, and other unique cultural events. For more information, please visit https://riyadhseason.com/en-US.
About WWE
WWE® is the global leader in sports entertainment. The company creates and delivers original content 52 weeks a year to a global audience. WWE is committed to family-friendly entertainment on its television programming, premium live events, digital media, and publishing platforms. WWE’s TV-PG programming can be seen in more than 1 billion households worldwide in more than 20 languages through world-class distribution partners including NBCUniversal, The CW and Netflix. In the United States, NBCUniversal’s streaming service, Peacock, is the exclusive home to all premium live events, a variety of original programming and a massive video-on-demand library. Netflix is the exclusive home for WWE programming around the world, other than select international markets. WWE is part of TKO Group Holdings (NYSE: TKO). Additional information on WWE can be found at wwe.com and corporate.wwe.com.
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