WWE Needs to Strongly Consider Backing Out of Saudi Arabia
Keep yourself informed. Saudi Arabia does not look to be a good investment for the WWE or anybody right now. Courtesy of the WWE.
By Matthew Klink (@klinkmatt)
October 11, 2018
Look, I realize why you follow us and it’s not to discuss world relations. But this current situation with Saudi Arabia is too close to home for the wrestling community to ignore.
With easily one of the biggest, public facing relationships with the Saudi Arabian government, the WWE now stands on the edge of a potential make or break decision. Something that we’ve hinted as something toeing the line, being morally imperfect and ethically ambiguous, has now taken a giant step over that said line. If this was football, the touchdown counts and the team celebration ensues.
With the BBC, CNN, NPR, The Washington Post and other highly respected news sources reporting evidence from Turkey, that Jamal Khashoggi has indeed been murdered by those connected to the Crown Prince, it is nearing the time for a decision by the WWE. This decision is bigger than losing the loads of money that they’ll leave behind if they leave Saudi Arabia. Its bigger than just the loads of advertisers they’ll lose if they continue down this path. Its bigger than the loads of fans they’ll lose if they truly do not see the writing on the walls…and excuse the bluntness of this statement…or the red handed culprits.
If the Crown Prince, Muhammad bin Salman, is to blame for these acts of cowardice in the face of criticism…then there is decidedly no progress in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. As a “journalist” (teehee) I do have to reinforce the notion of “if” and the fact that there is no clear cut answer to whether or not the Crown Prince is connected, but it definitely doesn’t look good.
While the allegations about the cause for Khashoggi’s murder are still up in the air, others have come forward and told stories have caught fire again, on how the new regime in power is just more of the same. Now that these stories are rolling out, certain critics of the crown and potential victims have stood up and claimed their own heads being targeted. Khaled bin Farhan al-Saud, a Saudi prince living in exile (and reported by Al-Jazeera), was said to have been a target to “disappear him”.
And I’m sure we all remember the Saudi Arabian propaganda video that was played during the Greatest Royal Rumble, showing how progressive the nation had become, because women were now allowed to drive. Before that, however, reported by the Economist “In March a women’s-rights campaigner, Loujain al-Hathloul, was detained in Abu Dhabi, whisked to Saudi Arabia and, later, thrown in jail. In September a Saudi satirist based in London claimed that he was beaten by goons who had been sent from Saudi Arabia.” The smoke and mirrors of allowing women to drive was used to distract from the horror of jailing and attacking those who critiqued or asked questions to the Crown Prince and his regime.
All of these claims and allegations are adding up and it has led to several companies jumping out of Saudi Arabia, as reported by the Washington Post. Even if it is only for the time being, it is important for these companies to make this move in the wake of these allegations, because they are a sign of evil. While we expect to see more companies jumping ship in the next hours and days, will the WWE join them?
With that, the WWE did the very smallest action possible: the WWE has put out a statement saying “They are looking into the situation”.
But what the WWE has already done was questionable. We discussed this a couple of weeks ago with our piece on how the WWE is choosing Dollar signs over the respect of its talent and employees. This is in reference to the choice to work with Saudi Arabia and ignore half of their roster to do so. While the WWE is sure to gain notoriety for hosting an all woman Pay-Per-View, 5 days later they collect tens of millions of dollars to work in a country where women aren’t allowed to wrestle. While I did give high praise for this move initially, the continued work with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia means the WWE can have its cake and eat it too. Meaning receive praise for the women’s movement, while at the same time collecting millions to ignore it.
They aren’t the first company to do this, so its not saying too much or causing an uproar…because that’s considered normal. But maybe this is that opportunity to ‘right the ship’ and put those more important to your business first. If not…and more bad decisions are on the way…maybe its time we all consider different alternatives.
I think its important that we all educate ourselves on this matter, because we don’t want the WWE treating this like one of their bad storylines that they hope we forget. Keep googling, keep posting, keep tagging the WWE. Because they need to know that we see what's going on and we’re embarrassed to say we’re fans of this stuff. Having AJ Styles do a dance competition is one thing to get mad about…this is on a whole other level.
And please! Read the links I’ve posted to get the straight story from Al Jazeera, BBC, NPR, CNN, The Economist, The Washington Post. I can’t urge you enough, to take action and arm yourselves with knowledge! My blog is only a small sample of all of the great (and much better) work out there detailing this matter. I only googled these items and provided short blurbs on the articles written from those publications. My best advice is to follow Al Jazeera and NPR. Do not listen to our dumb President and for the love of all things holy…ignore Fox News and MSNBC!
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