Below are various news and notes from today’s WWE “press conference” announcing that WrestleMania 43 will be held in Saudi Arabia:

• WWE’s announcement today was not exactly a press conference and did not include anyone from the local Las Vegas media nor were there any fans in attendance. The event was live from Vegas and talent that were on stage were flown in specifically for the announcement with some not even staying for AAA Worlds Collide in the same city.
• PWInsider.com reports that John Gaburick, an Executive Vice President with WWE and works as a “liaison” between the company and Saudi Arabia, was said to be instrumental in putting this deal together. Gaburick actually spends much of his time overseas in Saudi Arabia representing WWE. Triple H also called out Nick Khan as being a critical piece in negotiations.
• There were rumors earlier this week that WWE would split WrestleMania 43 between Saudi Arabia and Nashville, TN but those ended up being only rumors.
• As expected, WWE is getting paid a “mind-blowing amount of money” for WrestleMania according to pwinsider.com. As per a separate report from f4wonline.com, it is believed that the company will pocket over $100 million for the show as well as other events before and after.
• No official date or time was announced for WrestleMania 43, just the location was.
• While not confirmed by WWE, it is expected that both Smackdown before WrestleMania and Raw following it will emanate from Saudi Arabia as well. The WWE Hall of Fame would also take place there though it is not known if an NXT show will be part of the package but with the weekend still 1.5 years away, there is plenty of time to plan all that out.