WWE Roundtable: Examining the Saudi Arabia situation

This is when I chimed in one last time to ask if anyone had any final thoughts they wanted to say before we put a lid on this conversation. They had this to say:

Tom: If I could add a question: What would people consider adequate progress to justify this deal, or is there no amount of progress that could?

Laura: I think the problem is that it’s more complex than just the show itself. WWE could put on, essentially, an identical type of show to the ones they run in the US and on the surface, it would certainly look like progress. But then you’ve got the “real world” politics chugging away in the background – the human rights abuses, the homophobia, the sexism, the attacks on Yemen. It’s really difficult to gauge progress in those terms, I think.

Sorry, I feel like I’ve dominated this conversation a lot!

Kevin: Nah, don’t apologize. You’re awesome and I agree with your final thoughts.

Laura: Thank you!

Josiah: I agree with Laura. They could largely run a similar show as a US show to demonstrate “progress,” but in reality, the shadow of everything else hangs over the show.

Phil: I would agree the content of the show is the least of their problems. They could allow women to wrestle, but the venture is still marred by the action and allegations surrounding Mohammed Bin Salman. If WWE has made up their minds, that doesn’t bother them. There isn’t much that can be done. Hopefully, they don’t stay in the deal until something undeniably bad happens with the name attached to it, but that feels like the likely end result at this point.

Big thanks to Laura, Tom, Kevin, Josiah and Phil for taking time out of their busy lives to have such a civil discussion on such a complicated subject.

And thank you, gentle reader, for reading all of it.