The most important wrestler is missing from WWE’s Saudi Arabia card, and it’s weird

The WWE crew has arrived in Saudi Arabia ahead of Saturday’s (Feb. 19) Elimination Chamber event. For the second time in a row, WWE has booked a card in Saudi Arabia that has potential to deliver a quality show.

This is one of the biggest events on the calendar for WWE in terms of the revenue it generates for the company. In exchange for a huge sum of money from the Saudi government, all WWE has to do is load up a wrestling card with a bunch of their top stars, find a way to ship the gigantic Elimination Chamber to Saudi Arabia, help spread the Saudi government’s propaganda to distract people from their horrific human rights abuses, and maybe leave the mid-carders stranded in a potential hostage situation while the top guys comfortably return home on Vince McMahon’s private jet.

As far as loading up the card with most of WWE’s top stars is concerned, all you have to do is look at the full lineup of eight matches. You’ll see names like Brock Lesnar, Becky Lynch, Ronda Rousey, Roman Reigns, Bobby Lashley, Goldberg, Bianca Belair, Charlotte Flair, Rey Mysterio, Ivar, Seth Rollins, and more.

It’s an impressive list of wrestlers, for sure, but there is one glaring name who is currently missing from the card. Some folks may think I’m talking about Edge or Randy Orton, but all you have to do is glance at the big photo at the top of this post to know it’s Mansoor.

Mansoor has been an integral component of every WWE show in Saudi Arabia going back to Super ShowDown 2019, when he won a 50 man Battle Royal. Mansoor would go on to defeat Cesaro at Crown Jewel 2019, Dolph Ziggler at Super ShowDown 2020, and Mustafa Ali at Crown Jewel 2021.

Mansoor is the local favorite who is Undertaker-at-WrestleMania level invincible on his home turf in Saudi Arabia. If he was booked in a Universal championship match against Roman Reigns, Mansoor would become the new head of the table.If he was locked inside the WWE Championship Elimination Chamber match, Mansoor would slay The Beast. This man cannot be stopped on these shows.

Yet he’s missing from Elimination Chamber 2022, and it’s weird. Sure, I don’t blink at all when Mansoor never appears on SmackDown television, but I expect WWE to dust him off in the weeks leading into these events. There’s only one episode of SmackDown television to go before this pay-per-view premium live event, and I have chosen to not read or remember the spoilers I wrote for tomorrow’s (Feb. 18) taped episode. Perhaps Mansoor shows up there, gets added to the event, and all my head-scratching will prove foolish.

There’s also the possibility that Mansoor is simply booked in an impromptu match on the actual card itself in Jeddah on Saturday.

For now, I’m choosing to believe that Mansoor was originally scheduled to be Shane McMahon’s opponent at Elimination Chamber to follow up on Mansoor taking a dump in his locker room years ago. Shane O’Mac may have very well screwed Mansoor out of a big payday by making an ass out of himself backstage at Royal Rumble and being ‘let go’ by WWE.

Let me know in the comments below if you think we’ll see Mansoor compete (and win, of course) at Elimination Chamber. In the meantime, I’m gonna go back to the rules of this Drew McIntyre vs. Madcap Moss Falls Count Anywhere match and try to figure out why WWE booked a match at a Saudi Arabian Elimination Chamber event where Drew can legally use his sword to do unspeakably terrible things to this man.