WWE’s involvement in Saudi Arabia has raised more than a few eyebrows from fans, but the promotion has tried to spin it as a way of them slowly introducing change for the better in the country. Per a report from Fightful.com’s Sean Ross Sapp, the company is pushing for women to appear at one of their upcoming show’s in the country.
Recently, UFC’s parent company, Endeavor, returned a $400 million investment from the Saudi Arabian government in light of the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The news was first reported by the New York Times, and, as my colleague Raphael Garcia wrote, it may create more pressure on WWE to terminate their agreement with Saudi Arabia, too.
Of course, nobody expects WWE to do this after signing a 10-year deal with Saudi Arabia’s General Sport Authority. There hasn’t been as much blowback from the fans – or the United States government – as one would anticipate, and the deal is a lucrative one for the world’s largest wrestling promotion, which has goals of becoming an even bigger global entity in 2019 and beyond.
WWE’s executives have tried to spin their deal with Saudi Arabia as a positive, reasoning that they can help create meaningful change in the country over this period of time. Critics familiar with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s regime, such as Karim Zidan in a piece written for Deadspin, point out that this is merely playing into the country’s propaganda.
This debate has become slightly more interesting in light of a recent exclusive report from Fightful.com’s Sean Ross Sapp, who relays news of an internal push within WWE to get women featured on one of the upcoming shows in Saudi Arabia.
Sapp wrote:
"“there’s a major pitch by several names of influence within the company to get an all-women’s match on an upcoming Saudi Arabia show.”"
The promotion ran two shows – The Greatest Royal Rumble and Crown Jewel – in the country last year in their inaugural year of the deal, so it stands to reason that two more shows will be forthcoming. Around the time of Crown Jewel, WWE had a second all-women’s Pay Per View in Evolution, and perhaps an Evolution 2 would be in the works. But it seems like WWE is also willing to try and get Saudi Arabia to book women on the show, even though the General Sport Authority issued an apology after The Greatest Royal Rumble when women were displayed on the titantron.
It is an incredibly interesting – and delicate – situation, and it is completely unclear if something as unprecedented as women wrestling in Saudi Arabia would be able to take place.
Many wrestling fans would prefer if WWE would avoid working with the Crown Prince’s regime entirely, and important WWE Superstars Daniel Bryan and John Cena did not appear at Crown Jewel because of the atrocities committed by the Saudi Arabian government. Per Fightful, Roman Reigns, another important wrestler in the company, expressed these same serious concerns following The Greatest Royal Rumble.
Stay tuned for more details, potentially reported by Sapp on the subscription-based Fightful Select service, because this is an interesting request from WWE. It’s unlikely to amount to anything, but anything related to WWE’s continued involvement in Saudi Arabia is a situation to monitor.