More news regarding Daniel Bryan's decision not to travel to Saudi Arabia for Friday's Crown Jewel event has surfaced.

Bryan was initially set to face AJ Styles for the WWE Championship at the controversial show but has since been replaced by Samoa Joe.

It was long suspected that the 37-year-old would not go. And, on Tuesday, the WWE spun a storyline on SmackDown Live that saw Joe inserted in his place.

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The championship match took place on the weekly show instead, with Styles winning via submission after an entertaining 20-minute bout. But Joe made his return to dish out a whooping on both stars to later hold the belt over his head.

Paige acceded to Styles' request to face Joe at Crown Jewel, confirming Bryan wouldn't be heading to the Middle East. But, according to The Wrestling Observer Newsletter (H/T Wrestle Zone), the recent controversy brought about by the killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi is not the reason the SmackDown star refused to go.

Evidently Bryan, who knew little or nothing about Saudi Arabia until he got there, largely felt he couldn’t go back under those circumstances. It wasn’t so much that the women weren’t allowed to perform, even though he’s married to a woman wrestler and has a sister-in-law who wrestles. But the key was what he learned about the treatment of homosexuals, and also, that they wouldn’t allow Sami Zayn to perform on the show, and he considered that racism.

It was not the current controversy over Khashoggi that evidently made him make his decision, although one would think it made him feel more strongly that his decision wasn’t wrong.

He had asked to lose to The Miz in Australia in the match where the winner would get the title shot. It’s not clear if that was because he knew the title shot was coming in Saudi Arabia, or because he felt that it wasn’t time yet to get his conclusive win which would come across as the blow-off of the program.

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John Cena has also been taken off the show after refusing to take part, with Bobby Lashley scheduled to fight in his stead.

The event has polarized fans, given the state of affairs between the United States and Saudi Arabia for the time being. And it was thought that Vince McMahon would renege on his decision to have Crown Jewel hosted there but things will go on as planned.

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