Next year’s WWE Royal Rumble will reportedly be an afternoon event for viewers in North America.
Fightful Select wrote Wednesday that next month’s Royal Rumble event is currently scheduled for a 2 p.m. ET start time on Saturday, January 31.
The upcoming Rumble is scheduled to go down in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, marking the first-ever time the WWE Premium Live Event (PLE) has taken place outside of North America. The show will have a local start time of 10 p.m.
While it was somewhat expected that an event in Riyadh would, for timezone reasons, take place mid-day for Americans, it hasn’t always been that way for live events in the country.
Notably, a Canelo Alvarez Cinco de Mayo fight in Saudi Arabia this year against William Scull took place during late-night U.S. hours, meaning it took place in Riyadh at a local time of 6 a.m.
Afternoon PLE/PPVs have become more frequent in pro wrestling as of late. AEW presented a trio of afternoon PPVs over the summer, including All In: Texas and All Out. WWE has seen a few irregular start times this year, including when they visited France and Australia for PLEs.
