Only two years after Saudi Arabia signed a contract of 10 years with WWE, an increasing number of wrestlers denied to visit Riyadh. In 2018, superstars like John Cena, Kevin Owens and Daniel Bryan refused to fly to Saudi, over the Kingdom's declining human rights records citing Jamal Khashoggi's assassination. In January 2020, several other WWE superstars cast doubt over visiting Saudi, following the heightened tensions in Middle East due to assassination of Qassem Soleimani.