WWE: Sami Zayn U.S. Title Open Challenge Match Set for 9/12 WWE SmackDown Show, Turki Al-Sheikh on Nick Khan Is Continuing Vince McMahon’s Legacy, Current Talks for “Megastar” To Be Part of WrestleMania 43

Sami Zayn U.S. Title Open Challenge Match Announced for Friday’s WWE SmackDown Show

SmackDown General Manager Nick Aldis announced one new match for the card of tonight’s WWE SmackDown show at the Scope Arena in Norfolk, Virginia.

This new match announced was a Sami Zayn WWE United States Championship Open Challenge match of mystery opponent vs. Sami Zayn (c).

.@RealNickAldis breaks down EVERYTHING you need to know for huge night in Norfolk for #SmackDown!

📺 8ET/7CT on @USANetwork pic.twitter.com/W1KaRa37c3

— WWE (@WWE) September 12, 2025

Current card for September 12th WWE SmackDown show:

• WWE Women’s Championship – Jade Cargill vs. Tiffany Stratton (c)
• Sami Zayn WWE United States Championship Open Challenge match – mystery opponent vs. Sami Zayn (c)
• Drew McInytre vs. Randy Orton
• Brock Lesnar to appear

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Turki Al-Sheikh on Nick Khan Is Continuing Vince McMahon’s Legacy & WrestleMania 43 Announcement Being Leaked

As noted before, WWE held a press conference earlier today in Las Vegas, Nevada to officially announce WrestleMania 43 will be taking place in Saudi Arabia.

Among those in attendance was Saudi Sports promoter Al-Sheikh. During the press conference, Al-Sheikh gave his thoughts about what it means to him for WrestleMania to be held in Saudi Arabia and his belief that WWE President Nick Khan is continuing Vince McMahon’s legacy for WWE.

“First of all, I want to thank the Crown Prince, who supported us… Without him, we can not do anything, and with his support, especially also for WWE, this will happen in our country, and before eight years ago, I meet my father, Vince McMahon, and Triple H, in my home when I was the Minister of Sport in my country, and I say to them, ‘Let’s go and have change into the future doing big project together,’ and I hope we deliver now some of what we say. Before couples of years, my close friends, Nick Khan, became the President of WWE, and now, we are saying to him that, ‘You’re continuing the legacy of Vince McMahon and you delivered for us a very big project and very big surprise will come in this year and next year, inshallah.’ I see WrestleMania in Vegas… It bring 200,000 people to Vegas and bringing $1.5 billion for the city. This is very important for us. For the first time in our region, the big event in the history of entertainment is in our city, in our country, and this is very big to us.”

Al-Sheikh also gave his thoughts about the announcement of WrestleMania 43 being in Saudi Arabia being leaked early on his Snapchat account.

“For two days, one of my office have a mistake and put something in the social media and his social media for two seconds, and he get it out. The people get crazy, and they doesn’t believe it. Now it is truth.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

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Current Talks for “Megastar” To Be Part of WrestleMania 43

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources close to the Saudi Arabia General Entertainment Authority claimed that negotiations for Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson to make an appearance at WrestleMania 43 were at an advance stage. Meltzer reported that those same sources stated that they believed a deal was close to being finalized.

Meltzer reported that the impression from his sources is that the final payment amount WWE will be receiving from the Saudi government for WrestleMania 43 is dependent by whether or not they get The Rock for the main event of the show. Meltzer also reported that the individual payoff for Johnson is likely to be multiple times that of any pro wrestler for any wrestling event in history.

WWE reportedly is currently set to receive more than $100 million for that year’s WrestleMania weekend events.

Meltzer reported that the current goal from the Saudi perspective appears to be a main event match of Johnson vs. Cody Rhodes or Johnson vs. Roman Reigns.