A Deal with a Real Devil

McMahon has made a deal with a genocidal nation for all that cash
Photo Credit: WWE.com

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a bad, bad place. It would be enough to note that it is a theocratic monarchy in an age when both of those things have been confirmed as bad. Whenever church and state mix, the former always gets misinterpreted in order to pervert the latter. In this case, Islam is a religion when interpreted by people more in touch with harmonious living between God and people tends to result in a society that can be described as positive. Obviously, as with any religion, it's not perfect. Christianity, for example, will still treat women as 1a to men's 1 in terms of primacy, just as Islam will. That being said, when it is perverted to ends that most theocratic autocracies bring it, it can be made brutal enough that women go from 1a to ∞th place. For example, crown prince Mohammad bin Salman decided that he would magnanimously give women the right to drive after years of prohibition. He expected to be greeted with applause as if it was some great leap forward when in fact women have been allowed to drive in most other countries for decades.

No, as if the misogynist and antisemitic interpretation of Islam as rule wasn't bad enough, the Saudi government is currently committing genocide against an entire neighboring nation. Yemen ousted the Saudi-backed president in favor of one that isn't a puppet of the regime who not only provided most of the 9/11 hijackers but threatened to do another one to Canada when America's neighbors to the north lightly criticized them. In response, the Saudis organized a "military intervention" and then proceeded to do things like bomb funerals and blockade all food imports going into the country. Of course, no one cares when brown people die in the American media, but when one of their own gets murdered, they tend to raise holy hell, even if that member was also in fact brown-skinned. So people only started realizing Saudi Arabia was bad when Jamal Khashoggi, a journalist for the Washington Post was murdered and dismembered visiting the Saudi embassy in Turkey so he could get paperwork that would allow him to get married, all for the offense of printing opinions in opposition and criticism of bin Salman, his father, and their regime.

So, what does any of this have to do with professional wrestling? In the last year, WWE has already run two shows in the country as part of a ten-year contract to provide entertainment to the Saudi people and also help promote the regime to the rest of the world to help soften its image. The third show, Super Showdown, will take place on June 7, a week from this Friday. The first show, Greatest Royal Rumble, was pretty much a display of Saudi jingoism, replete with Shawn and Ariya Daivari playing up their Iranian heritage to get massive heel heat from the crowd. For those not in the know, Saudi Arabia and Iran are at odds because Sunni Muslims (Saudis) and Shia Muslims (Iranians) apparently don't get along. The second show, Crown Jewel, was when the company started getting more massive blowback, thanks to its proximity to the Khashoggi murder. WWE still went on with the show though, although you could tell they were feeling some heat, heat that is still radiating today.

WWE will go to great lengths to hide the fact that it's going to Saudi Arabia, as much as it can without cancelling the deal. Calling the show "Super Showdown" for example, is the same exact name as the big show they promoted in Australia last year. They are going to great lengths to tell you the show is in Jeddah, but they do not say the words "Saudi Arabia" at all in promotion of the show. However, Vince McMahon is still cashing those checks from bin Salman. WWE is a company that wants it both ways. On one face is Vince McMahon, who is a ruthless capitalist who will take any booking and accept any payment possible as long as it adds more numbers to his bank account. The other face, containing Paul "Triple H" Levesque and Stephanie McMahon, also is ruthlessly capitalistic, but it is also more sensitive to public relations. While I'm almost certain Vince believes that "any attention is good attention," the Levesque branch of the family sees PR as a kind of currency, or at the very least a measure of resistance against making money. That resistance is inversely proportional to how lucrative the company is, as in the better the PR, the more money they can bring in.

The Saudi Arabia deal is the greatest test this paradigm can face, and my god, they are trying. They really are. I have no doubt in my mind that both McMahons and Levesque want this deal to stay afloat. That is why WWE has gone full chickenshit on how to promote it. Much in the same way that RAW will be written in a way that the only good stuff that happens during football season is during the pre-game and at halftime of the Monday Night game, the are going all in on promoting this show without ever mentioning the two most important words as to why it shouldn't exist. It's a coward's play, plain and simple. Vince is often portrayed as this mighty warrior with gigantic grapefruits who never backs down from a challenge, and yet he will snivel and kowtow to anyone who holds money in his balance, a pathetic creature if ever one was to exist.

However, the way WWE is acting, you'd think this deal was beneficial to them, and honestly, I'm not sure that's the case. Yeah, the Saudi government is giving them loads of money, which I suppose is the benefit that people in the business look for. However, the people requesting these shows have no idea what WWE is nowadays. The fact that it prohibits women from performing already cuts out the portion of the roster with the most cultural zeitgeist. The people in the Saudi administration have repeatedly asked for wrestlers from long-gone eras, which explains why Undertaker and Goldberg are headlining this show, why Hiroki Sumi was included in the GRR (corroborating rumors that the Royal Family requested Yokozuna, who has been dead for almost 20 years, to appear), and why Shawn Michaels came out of retirement for the last show. The travel from the States or even Western Europe to Saudi Arabia can be brutal on a roster that already works in excess of 200 days a year taking repetitive and destructive bumps. Nothing can be gained out of this deal except money, but time and time again, WWE has shown that money at the cost of its roster and its product is a trade they're willing to make time and time again.

Besides, even if the money wasn't that good, this deal would have a better than average shot at going on as planned because it's all part of the current political landscape. Donald Trump, who is not only the President but also a WWE Hall of Famer, has made himself buddy-buddy with the House of Saud, even more than past Presidents like Barack Obama, who should have known better. He's selling the Saudis weapons and even gave them manpower from the US Military, resulting in the first but not last blunder in his tenure as Commander-in-Chief. The United States is complicit in this genocide and this theocracy and this murder of a US-based journalist, and Vince adheres to the right-wing notion of what this country is anyway. The right wing, especially in this country, is an inscestuous network of gladhanding, money-hiding, and favor-granting. Maybe that's the reason why Vince and WWE were able to get such a great deal from the Saudi government. I doubt this deal goes away, but that doesn't mean anyone should stop screaming about how awful it is. Sometimes, activism requires waving your sword in the face of impossible odds, even if it consumes you.

Anyway, if you are looking for wrestling to watch during that time, might I suggest Pro Wrestling EVE? The United Kingdom's premiere all-women wrestling promotion will be live-streaming content all during the Super Showdown event:

The stream will be happening on our facebook page at https://t.co/n8ChMkW8Sa

Head there, click 'Like' and 'Get Notifications' if you haven't done so already!

Click "groups" if you wish to join our EVE group too 💪🍏#SuperSheDown#WWEalternative#WWESSD#SuperShowdown #RAW

— EVE - Riot Grrrls of Wrestling (@ProWrestlingEVE) May 28, 2019

While I'm not as high on the British scene as most, I will say that the women seem to have a stronger crop of wrestlers than the men, and that even if you end up NOT enjoying it, well, it's free. No cost to you but your time. Either way, you're watching wrestling from a female-forward promotion that doesn't take Saudi blood money. I'd say it's well worth the effort.