Night of Champions (2026)
WWE pay-per-view and livestreaming event
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The 2026 Night of Champions, also promoted as Night of Champions: Riyadh, is an upcoming professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by the American company WWE. It will be the 12th Night of Champions and will take place on Saturday, June 27, 2026, at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia for the second consecutive year. It will be held for wrestlers from the Raw and SmackDown brand divisions and will be the 15th event WWE will hold in Saudi Arabia as part of its 10-year partnership in support of Saudi Vision 2030. This will also be the first Night of Champions to livestream on the ESPN streaming service in the United States. Night of Champions is characterized by featuring championship matches.
| Night of Champions | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Promotional poster featuring various WWE wrestlers | |||
| Promotion | WWE | ||
| Brand(s) | Raw SmackDown | ||
| Date | June 27, 2026 | ||
| City | Riyadh, Saudi Arabia | ||
| Venue | Kingdom Arena | ||
| WWE event chronology | |||
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| Night of Champions chronology | |||
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| WWE in Saudi Arabia chronology | |||
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Production
Background
Night of Champions is an annual pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the American company WWE since 2007.[1] It continued annually until 2015, but was discontinued until it was reinstated in 2023, which was the first to be broadcast via WWE's livestreaming platforms, but an event was not held in 2024. The event is characterized by having championship matches. In early 2018, WWE began a 10-year strategic multiplatform partnership with the Ministry of Sport (formerly General Sports Authority) in support of Saudi Vision 2030, Saudi Arabia's social and economic reform program.[2][3] The 2023 Night of Champions was the first Night of Champions held in Saudi Arabia, which was in Jeddah, and it was the ninth event under this partnership.[4]
On March 17, 2026, POST Wrestling reported that Night of Champions was internally scheduled for Saturday, June 27 in Saudi Arabia. The event's status was initially subject to speculation due to the 2026 Iranian strikes on Saudi Arabia;[5] notably, Formula 1 had cancelled the 2026 Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grands Prix due to the strikes.[6] However, on April 23, WWE officially confirmed that the event would proceed as planned on June 27 at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This marks the second consecutive year the venue will host the event and the 15th event under the Saudi Arabian partnership.[7]
In addition to airing on traditional pay-per-view worldwide, Night of Champions will be available to livestream on ESPN's direct-to-consumer streaming service in the United States, Netflix in most international markets, SuperSport in Sub-Saharan Africa, and Abema in Japan.[8] This marks the first Night of Champions to livestream on ESPN in the United States.
Storylines
The event will include matches that result from scripted storylines. Results will be predetermined by WWE's writers on the Raw and SmackDown brands,[9][10] while storylines will be produced on WWE's weekly television shows, Monday Night Raw and Friday Night SmackDown.[11]