Professional wrestling promotion WWE has announced that it will be bringing WrestleMania 43, the 2027 edition of its showpiece annual tentpole event, to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The promotion’s most-prominent and most-watched annual ‘premium live event (PLE), a two-night spectacle, will be hosted in partnership with Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority (GEA), led by combat sports power broker Turki Alalshikh.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
WWE and the GEA will promote the event as part of Saudi Arabia’s annual Riyadh Season sports and culture festival, which has seen several major combat sports events flock to the city in recent years.
This includes MMA promotion UFC, which, like WWE, is part of the TKO Sports business unit, and has turned its focus on Saudi Arabia in the past two years since the pair’s major merger.
Though the venue is yet to be announced, the still under construction King Fahd Sports City Stadium could be in line to host the event after its expansion (due to be completed in 2026), with an expected seated capacity of 70,200 for soccer alone, total wrestling capacity at the venue (which hosted WWE Crown Jewel in 2019) would exceed that even further owing to the ability to place seats on the turf.
This would be only the third time the event has left the US, and the first outside North America (Canada has twice hosted the spectacle.
US Tariffs are shifting - will you react or anticipate?
Don’t let policy changes catch you off guard. Stay proactive with real-time data and expert analysis.
By GlobalDataWWE first began promoting events in Saudi Arabia in 2014 with a series of low-profile house shows in the country, repeated in 2015 and 2016.
In 2018, the pair’s affiliation was ramped up when WWE and the Saudi Ministry of Sport agreed on a 10-year partnership that would go on to see several PLEs staged in the country each year.
With the 2026 edition of the Royal Rumble also set to be held in Riyadh, WrestleMania 43 in 2027 is currently set to be the 15th PLE staged in Saudi Arabia since that 2018 agreement, expanded in 2019 to two per year, which is more than any other country outside the US in that timeframe by a significant margin.
WWE’s growing focus on the Saudi market, however, has attracted scrutiny.
GlobalData Sport lead analyst Conrad Wiacek commented: “WWE taking its showpiece event to Saudi Arabia for the first ever WrestleMania outside of North America signifies the priority of TKO and the wider Endevour group when it comes to monetizing their asset.
“Following on from TKO President Mark Shapiro, who last week suggested that WWE tickets were underpriced under former leadership – who he said priced tickets for families rather than for revenue optimization – and added that the company should compete more with UFC, WWE taking $250m from Saudi Arabia shows the priorities for the business.
“While WWE and TKO are under no obligation to maintain the status quo with regard to the promotion's core audience, this decision speaks to a wider trend across the sports industry of ravenous revenue maximization, even if it alienates a company’s core fanbase. While this will please their shareholders and investors, WWE must be careful not to move too far away from their audience too quickly, lest they lose ground in the US to competitors in the highly competitive entertainment market.”
WrestleMania 42 in 2026 is set to be hosted in Las Vegas at the city’s Allegiant Stadium, which also hosted WrestleMania 41 earlier in 2025.
That edition of Wrestlemania quickly became WWE’s biggest ever, shattering a slew of records.
The two-night event generated the largest gate for any event in WWE history, drawing 124,693 attendees across April 19 and 20, while it was also the most-viewed WrestleMania of all time, up 114% from the record set last year at WrestleMania XL.
In terms of merchandise, sold in partnership with e-commerce and merchandise giant Fanatics, sales onsite increased by over 45% compared to the previous record set by WrestleMania XL in 2024, making WrestleMania 41 the highest-grossing event of all time. Additionally, e-commerce sales were up 86% compared to last year’s record.
In terms of sponsorship, the event featured a record 28 partners, and it set an all-time event record for revenue.
WrestleMania 41 was also the most viewed WWE event of all time on social media, generating 1.1 billion views throughout the weekend, with WWE's YouTube channel seeing its most-viewed day ever on April 20.
On Location, the exclusive hospitality experiences partner for WWE, also saw a 75% increase in hospitality sales and packages. Such travel packages may become a focus for Wrestlemania 43, given it is the first such event outside the US.
