WWE Reaffirms Relationship with Saudi Arabia

McMahon will still do the Saudi propaganda shows after all
Photo Credit: WWE.com

After the events of the last few days, one would think that maybe WWE would rethink its relationship with Saudi Arabia, wherein the House of Saud pays the company money to do shows in its authoritarian theocracy while saying kind things about the nation who murdered a journalist and is upholding genocidal policies against a neighboring nation. If late payments and holding talent hostage were the issue, one would think that Vince McMahon would reconsider the deal, or more likely, that the Royal Family would pull the money after McMahon showed great insolence by daring he be paid for his services. However, yesterday, all concerns about whether this deal would go on were allayed, as WWE announced this via its Public Relations account on Twitter:

Following the historic #CrownJewel event in Riyadh, @WWE and the Saudi General Entertainment Authority (GEA) have expanded their live event partnership through 2027 to include a second annual large-scale event. https://t.co/0CA75bROtI

— WWE Public Relations (@WWEPR) November 4, 2019

Yes, a reaffirmation of the relationship is exactly what is needed at this time. Normally, if an entity holds your labor hostage because of a payment dispute, you might not want to do business with them anymore. Oh no, not with late stage capitalism, what is needed is for the beatings to continue until the morale improves. When you're McMahon, who sees labor as fungible to the nth degree, the Saudi Princes could have kidnapped Buddy Murphy and conscripted him into their war efforts against Yemen and you'd still be eager to continue working with them as long as the checks clear.

What's even funnier is none of the above is new information. The original deal was set through 2027, and unless they want to pretend Greatest Royal Rumble in 2018 and Super Showdown in 2019 were held in Parts Unknown, they already had two big shows in the place where women still are treated like third-class citizens behind men and livestock, whether or not they're allowed to drive yet. The same patented McMahon cowardice that has made him put all his best segments during Monday Night Football-competing episodes of RAW at halftime has been turned up to 11 in announcing this with no real concessions given from the Saudi Royal Family.

While most of the roster is pissed about this, I can tell you at least two wrestlers are going to bat for management over this. The first is AJ Styles, who insisted that the problems were mechanical and even said to his wife "Nobody has threatened to kill us" in response to not being able to go home on time. Honestly, if I had to console my wife by telling her I wasn't in danger of being murdered, I'd probably not want to defend anyone who put me in that situation, but then again, I'm not a homophobic flat-earther carny.

The second, and most vehement, defender is Seth Rollins, who allegedly held a talent-only meeting to tell them to stay off social media, and then got right onto social media to blast Dave Meltzer for reporting that meeting which was leaked to him by his sources in the company.

And lastly, @davemeltzerWON, you’re at best a purveyor of misinformation or at worst an outright, vindictive liar. I hope it’s the former. #rahrah

— Seth Rollins (@WWERollins) November 5, 2019

When WWE wrestlers went after Meltzer for going on about Peyton Royce and her various states of attractiveness, one could possibly understand it because it came off as incredibly sexist analysis, even if he probably didn't mean it as such. To attack him for passing along what was leaked to him, especially in the face of actual wrestlers from the company passing along accounts that go against the company line, is punching down for no reason. Wrestlers continue to have an adversarial relationship with the journalist class that Donald Trump, who has received several million in donations from WWE and members of its leadership, could only dream of having. Whether or not you think Meltzer is a good journalist or even a journalist at all is irrelevant. He's now got Paul Levesque's personal mouthpiece bashing him for doing what people who subscribe to Meltzer's newsletter pay him for.

It just goes to show how much like an authoritarian state WWE is in its makeup and execution. In fact, it shouldn't be surprising that it has such an eager and subservient relationship with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia because they're insanely similar to each other in how they're run. The main difference is in WWE women have a slightly better go of it. The fact that this situation could arise and WWE still could be eager to work with this regime shows that WWE is a company drunk on capitalism in the worst way. The only way things will change is if the wrestlers unionize or if everyone made a concerted effort to cancel the WWE Network and stop watching on USA or FOX. The fact that both of these scenarios feel as likely as one another is incredibly sad.