WWE Roundtable: Examining the Saudi Arabia situation

WWE’s deal with Saudi Arabia has left a sour taste in the mouths of many and stirred much controversy.

Whether it be because of Saudi Arabia’s refusal to allow women to wrestle in their country or the controversies surrounding the mysterious death of journalist Jamal Ahmad Khashoggi, WWE’s decision to continue doing business with them as evoked heavy debate from all angles.

To put this very complex situation into perspective, some of us at Daily DDT decided to examine the situation thoroughly for a Roundtable conversation.

For your convenience as readers, this Saudi Arabia conversation has been split up into different sections to make for an easier read; page by page.

I served as a moderator for this discussion while Laura Mauro, Tom Colohue, Kevin Parvizi, Josiah MacDonald and Phil Lindsay served as active participants.

As moderator, I first posed a question to our table: How do you feel about WWE dealing with the Saudi Arabian government despite its controversy?

Laura Mauro was the first to chime in.

Laura: My heart voice says f*ck WWE and f*ck their money grubbing ethical black hole of a corporate structure. My head voice says, well, if we’re stuck with this Faustian bargain, is it a more productive use of our time to demand WWE do better? Because if WWE want to enact change, they have to be the agents of change. They can’t just sit around waiting for the Saudi Arabian government to decide ‘okay, I guess women are all right now.’ They have to push for it. And I know Rome wasn’t built in a day, but I’d have some faith in WWE at least if they actively demonstrated that they are trying to make a change. As an aside, if they just go ahead with the same old sh*t and then throw us an Evolution 2 as a way of shutting us up, I will go nuclear. Because their consistent lack of attention to the women’s division speaks far louder than a token PPV event ever will.