By Matthew Klink (@klinkmatt)

September 18, 2018

No matter how you slice it, the WWE has created a horrible PR nightmare for itself with the announcement of the Crown Jewel, a WWE Network Special Event. This will be the second show to be recorded in Saudi Arabia and will feature a monstrous main event: Braun Strowman vs Brock Lesnar vs Roman Reigns for the Universal Championship.

It all sounds good for the WWE…right? I mean, they just posted their largest numbers in revenue since the WWE began and much of that can be attributed to the Greatest Royal Rumble. The first show to ever be recorded in Saudi Arabia made over $40 million, compared the $14 million from WrestleMania. It’s obviously a no-brainer that they would return to record another show and make bank.

However, the way they are doing it…makes no sense.

Consider this: Only five days prior to this event, the WWE is giving the ladies of the WWE their very own Pay-Per-View, WWE Evolution. These are the same ladies who are banned from entering the arena in a country that has yet to screw their heads on straight in regards to equal rights. The women of the WWE locker room had a field day on Twitter, while watching the show, as the WWE earned its way to a record breaking show and left half of their roster back home.

Sure…Saudi Arabia is making changes. But these changes aren’t enough to erase their decades and generations of horrible, prejudice, and sexist decision making. This in the light of today’s global communication and knowledge. Where we all have access to more information than ever before. Where we can all learn about how wrong we have been in the past and can allow ourselves to admit our mistakes and improve.

These changes, that Saudi Arabia is enacting, are so overdue, there is absolutely no need to congratulate them or recognize them as making large steps. They need to catch up. If I was running a company, I would just as soon decide not to do business there until it did catch up. And I’m sure there are businesses who made that decision.

HOWEVER, Not the good ol WWE!

And, I’m not dumb. It’s hard to say ‘no’ to a check that’ll be larger than any revenue turn-in from any other show you’ve ever done. I’m sure if I was offered $40 million to do an exclusive, Saudi Arabia only Podcast and Blog, it would be very hard to say no (fortunately, for the sake of saving face, I know it’ll never happen).

That difficulty, of turning down money, isn’t a new problem and I really don’t damn the WWE for making that decision. If you go back to my former articles about their global expansion, I’m all for it. It helps in so many different ways. Obviously revenue, but it also helps in building a fan base, finding new talent, and creating a more global community.

But the real problem if why it comes only five days after the Women’s Evolution Pay-Per-View?

Was the Crown Jewel decided upon months ago? I’d have to imagine it was, considering the amount of money being moved for these shows. Not only the WWE making record amounts of revenue, but it can’t be easy moving your traveling circus overseas. So then…was the Women’s Evolution created after the Crown Jewel was scheduled? Or did they actually decide to schedule a show, where women would not be allowed to fight and even attend…5 days after Evolution?

I honestly can’t decide what’s worse.

If the Crown Jewel was scheduled first, then the Women’s Evolution loses a lot of its credibility. Granted, it’s still a great decision by the WWE, but were its motivations only for PR sake? Did the WWE, after seeing the backlash from the Greatest Royal Rumble, decide it couldn’t get away with going back to Saudi Arabia with giving the women wrestlers something to do? Or was it purely to ensure we couldn’t get mad at the WWE for going back?

If this is the case, it looks like we’re being bamboozled into giving the WWE a pass to go back to Saudi Arabia. It looks like they wanted us to forgive them first, before they went and made loads of money, while turning their backs to half of the paid staff and talent. It feels like they are attempting to sneak around the social responsibility they have to their employees and fans. I’m not liking it…

However…

The other side of the coin is not much better.

Let’s say the WWE Evolution was created first. That means the WWE decided that the best and only place to schedule the next non-woman-wrestler-event was only 5 days after Evolution. WHAT?!?! Without giving the WWE Universe and the Women’s division an opportunity to digest and celebrate their accomplishments, they will charter flights and head over to the welcoming Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. And what is scheduled to be there? Oh! Well! Only the biggest names on the RAW roster over the past year. All three of those names battling for the Universal Championship. You know…that’s all.

If this was the case, it could be interpreted to look like they have no confidence in their female talent to sell and they desperately needed to get Lesnar, Strowman and Roman Reigns in the ring…as soon as possible. It could also be said that they felt the WWE Universe deserved a huge match like this after, after forcing them to wait almost a month between title defenses.

This is the less likely scenario, in my opinion, but you can see how ugly either decision could have been. However, the third option might bode terribly for the company. Let’s say neither of my proposed scenarios are true and the WWE just happened to schedule these shows back-to-back. Whoops! How blind…how deaf…how dumb could the decision makers be to not see the correlation? To accidentally schedule these shows, side by side?

If this decision was passed and no discussion was made as to how horrible this would look…then anything anyone has said about the lack of care the WWE puts into its creative decision making will only be given more credence.

Look…I know this isn’t a perfect world and this isn’t a perfect company. There are so many decisions, much like Saudi Arabia, that the WWE can’t erase. However, for them to find the time and resources to erase said past decision making…they need money. I don’t deny the fact that the WWE is making the right decision to go back to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to make more money. It means more wrestling for us. It means they can afford to do another Evolution Pay-Per-View. They can give us NXT on a weekly basis. They can take more risks on hiring our favorite wrestlers from around the world.

My problem is how short-sighted this timing is. How either sinister or oblivious this decision was, it has to be recognized. Yes…go make your money. And YES! Absolutely make more decisions like adding the Women’s Evolution to your Pay-Per-View schedule. But don’t minimalize these efforts by making the complete opposite decision (in the realm of social responsibility and equality) just for money…only five days later…

This is pro wrestling and it is silly. But like I’ve preached and begged so many times before…for this business and for this past time to get more respect it has to be better. It has to be more creative, it has to be more diverse, and the decision making has to be smarter than this. To schedule the next show FAR AWAY from the Women’s Evolution was like shooting fish in a barrel, to me. I just want to stop shaking my head as often as I do when it comes to the WWE.

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