Monday afternoon it was reported by Robbie Fox of Barstool Sports that two major superstars – John Cena and Daniel Bryan – are now outright “refusing” to work the upcoming WWE Crown Jewel event in Saudi Arabia.

John Pollock of POST Wrestling later corroborated that story on his Rewind-a-Raw audio show, stating that the WWE creative team was informed of Cena being off the show on Monday. Officials are still reportedly working on trying to convince the 16-time champion to change his mind, but at this point the creative team is proceeding ahead as if he will not be there, and they do have a replacement in mind.

On Monday night’s posts-Raw edition of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer also verified reports about John Cena being off WWE Crown Jewel. He also noted that the show, for the first time, is “very much in jeopardy” at this point.

Meltzer noted that Vince McMahon is still adamant about doing the show, and there is only a short list of people that could change his mind – believed to be President Trump himself or key government officials – but at this point there is serious pressure from external sources for WWE to not go to Saudi Arabia next week.