Royal Rumble 2026 took place at Riyadh Season Stadium in Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah Financial District. The event made history as the first edition of the event ever held outside North America. Despite the monumental achievement, the PLE faced criticism from the WWE Universe for having empty stands. However, Logan Paul, who was the 20th entrant in the main event, has a different take on this issue.
Organizers said around 25,000 tickets were sold. This would make it one of WWE’s biggest international crowds. But fans watching the show on Netflix noticed that the stadium looked surprisingly empty in several shots, especially early in the broadcast. Social media quickly filled with videos and pictures showing rows of seats that appeared to be unoccupied.
PWInsider mentioned that the visuals may not have told the full story. The issue reportedly came from a new production idea that didn’t work as planned. WWE had installed special LED lighting rigs around the seating sections. The goal was to create cool visual effects and display graphics and logos around the crowd.
However, on camera, those bright LED lights ended up overpowering the audience. The lighting made them harder to see, creating the illusion that large parts of the stadium were empty, even if they weren’t.
Logan Paul Comments On Why WWE Royal Rumble Crowd Appeared Empty
During his recent episode of the IMPAULSIVE podcast with the Bella sisters, Logan Paul explained that the problem was how the lighting looked on camera.
“Because the white light drew your attention to something that is bright and isn’t filling space within that whiteness. But people are in darker clothing. And if there’s a light that’s like lighting up, and that’s what they were there for, to make the stands look cool and do logos and stuff, but if the lights are lighting up, the people are not going to be seen because all the attention is with the bright light,” he said.
Brie Bella also backed Paul by revealing that the crowd was so loud. Moreover, some photos and videos taken by people inside the stadium also showed that when the lights were turned off, the arena looked much fuller than it did on the live broadcast.
Read More: WWE Addresses Controversial Royal Rumble Production Error — Report
