One-Hour Intermission For Prayer During Friday's WWE Greatest Royal Rumble Event In Saudi Arabia?
It looks like there may be a one-hour intermission for Islamic prayer at WWE's Greatest Royal Rumble event in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia tomorrow. As noted, the show begins at 11am EST with the one-hour Kickoff pre-show and we will have live coverage here on the site. The WWE Network currently has the GRR main show running from 12pm EST until 5pm EST, making it a six-hour event with the Kickoff.
Dave Meltzer noted on Wrestling Observer Radio that an intermission for prayer would be tradition when it comes to wrestling shows being held in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Chris Jericho recently spoke with CBS Sports to promote Friday's 50-man Royal Rumble match and confirmed that the show was stopped for prayer back in August 2015 when WWE last ran in Jeddah. Jericho's match was scheduled for 5:45pm local time but he was told to be finished by 5:55pm at the latest because the audience would be leaving to pray.
"Last time we were there, the show started at 5 pm and we had to stop at 6 pm so the entire audience ? who were all made up of males, by the way, there were no women allowed in the show ? could go out and pray at 6 pm," Jericho said. "So that was kind of weird."
The Kickoff is scheduled to begin at 6pm local time in Saudi Arabia, which means the matches might not begin until after prayer, based on what Jericho said above, but they may have another prayer towards the end of the show. IslamicFinder.org currently lists Friday's prayer times for Jeddah at 4:51am, 5:54am, 12:21pm, 3:44pm, 6:47pm, 7:52pm and 1:29am.