Eric Bischoff Predicts The Rock Will Be Part Of WWE’s Saudi WrestleMania Due To His Own Experiences With Saudi Arabia Requests

Eric Bischoff believes The Rock could be a major part of WWE’s planned WrestleMania event in Saudi Arabia.

While discussing reports surrounding future WrestleMania plans on 83 Weeks, Bischoff reflected on his brief time working with WWE in 2019 and recalled how much attention was placed on Saudi Arabia’s preferences when planning events.

“One of the things I kept hearing was that Saudis had their own ideas about who should be on the card based on the Saudi audience preferences.”

Bischoff said WWE would spend significant time discussing potential attractions for Saudi events, often focusing on names that resonated with that audience.

“We’d throw these names out, what if this and what if that? And we’d spend hours talking about what Saudi could look like.”

According to Bischoff, many of the names being discussed during that period were not current stars.

“One of them, Yokozuna.”

Bischoff used that example to explain how different the Saudi audience’s interests appeared to be compared to WWE’s domestic audience at the time.

“What does that tell you? That the Saudi audience, at least at that time, wasn’t watching the current product. They were watching stuff that was quite old.”

He continued by noting that many of the attractions discussed were older stars, legends, or performers who were no longer active.

“A lot of the talent… their idea of marquee matchups were guys that were either dead or no longer in the business or capable of.”

While acknowledging that audience preferences may have changed since then, Bischoff believes nostalgia remains a major factor in Saudi Arabia.

“If that same kind of vintage hangover, we’ll call it legacy hangover, is still part of the audience composition in terms of what they want to see, then obviously bringing Rock back…”

Bischoff also mentioned John Cena as another star who could appeal to that audience, even outside of a wrestling role.

“John Cena in some kind of non-wrestling related role is probably going to check those nostalgia boxes.”

Based on those experiences and observations, Bischoff believes The Rock is likely to be involved if WWE moves forward with a WrestleMania event in Saudi Arabia.

“I do see Rock on the card in Saudi for WrestleMania.”