WWE Disrespects Women By Returning To Saudi Arabia 5 Days After Evolution
By Johnny Catch
The sports entertainment giant’s decision to return to The Kingdom less than a week after WWE Evolution, their first ever all-Women’s event, shows that they prioritize profit over progress.
As PWInsider reported and later confirmed, WWE is returning to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) for a show on Friday November 2nd. The timing is extraordinary as it will follow WWE’s first ever all Women’s multi-brand show Evolution that takes place less than a week earlier on Sunday October 28th.
To say this scheduling is problematic is an understatement. When WWE signed a 10 year contract with the General Sports Authority – an official arm of the Saudi Government, who through the Saudi Press Agency announced the deal in March – it was mostly financial outlets like Forbes that picked up on it.
As WWE got closer to hosting the first event of the new deal in the form of The Greatest Royal Rumble, it was only then that other outlets began highlighting the absence of Women working the show in almost every capacity, not to mention the general segregation and treatment of Saudi-born women living under that nation’s patriarchal monarchy.
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David Bixenspan and Karim Zidan writing for Deadspin expertly highlighted how this deal was part of Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman’s strategic economic reform plan Vision 2030, which would present to the world the appearance of modernization and social progress. The article also highlights Saudi Arabia’s ongoing political and civil liberties violations, human rights atrocities and the yoke of The Kingdom’s male guardianship.
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WWE have tried to claim their international visits can be used as an opportunity for cultural change, pointing to their past show in Abu Dhabi which featured Sasha Banks versus Alexa Bliss in a pioneering women’s match (something actually achieved by Impact Wrestling‘s Madison Rayne, Sarita, Angelina Love and Velvet Sky several years earlier). But the United Arab Emirates has enough differences to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia that on closer inspection the impact of Banks vs Bliss in Abu Dhabi only really exists inside a vacuum.
When it was first rumored WWE would put on an All Women’s event with all the bells and whistles of a landmark marquee show, it was seen as an opportunity to redress the WWE Women’s mandated exclusion from the Greatest Royal Rumble. The WWE Evolution PPV will no doubt be reviewed as a positive for women and women’s wrestling in general, as will the imminent Mae Young Classic returning for its sophomore outing.
Meanwhile as detailed by Amnesty International, the Saudi Government has had 3 women’s rights defenders imprisoned for more than 100 days, and there are also plans to execute Israa al-Ghomgham, a woman whose only crime was being part of an anti-government protest.
MEMO via Al-Khaleej Online also recently reported Mohammad Bin Salman “… has threatened to target women and children in Yemen” and wants Yemen’s “… children, women and even their men to shiver whenever the name of Saudi Arabia is mentioned”. I’m guessing the Crown Prince must have missed WWE’s Be A STAR rally in Jeddah held just days before the GRR.
WWE’s decision to return to Saudi Arabia so soon after Evolution illuminates how superficial their commitment to this women’s revolution really is. Clearly it would seem profit takes priority over their claims of progress. WWE has chosen what they believe to be best for business, and in doing so joins much of the world in ignoring Saudi’s “horrific human rights record”.
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WWE revisiting this systemically misogynist nation a mere handful of days after a show designed to empower seems at best tone-deaf, and at worst a disrespectful slap to the face of their Women. WWE could not even give their historic, landmark event a week to enjoy its likely success before their deal with the oppressive Saudi Government would cast a large, dark shadow.
The WWE Superstars and the WWE Universe deserve better.