WWE Roundtable: Examining the Saudi Arabia situation

Phil: It’s hard for me to understand why WWE won’t pull out of the deal with Saudi Arabia. Yes, they are making an obscene amount of money, but the whole venture has been a PR disaster. To Kevin’s point, this idea that an American corporation can – or even realistically wants to – create change is dubious. Especially when signs point to the fact they aren’t highlighting their involvement in the country anymore. They’re intentionally taking Saudi Arabia off of announcement and last year, they stopped saying it on television.

For example, “WWE is returning to Jeddah.” So, clearly, they’re feeling the pressure from all of this bad press. It just doesn’t seem worth all the trouble.

And Tom makes a valid point. Why are we holding them to a higher standard than our government? Well, this is entertainment so there is a bit of a difference. We can vote on representative and hope they effect change in areas such as foreign policy, but we arguably have a more direct effect on the output of a company like WWE as customers. I honestly believe if enough fans saw the shows in Saudi Arabia as a deal breaker, then it would force them to address it. They’re not losing enough money to care.

I have a hard time coming up with a real solution because it’s so hard to get passed my frustration with WWE. I keeping thinking this is so clearly bad, why don’t they see that? However, there is room for a solution where they can make money and do something positive here. I’m just not sure how they can or if they really want to. They have to see this is hurting the company, so it’s tough for me to see talk of change as anything but an attempt to spin this.

Laura: I wonder how many fans are aware of US/UK government dealings in Saudi? Our media is suspiciously hush hush on it all.

Phil: That’s a good question. I wouldn’t assume a majority of wrestling fans are well versed on politics or foreign affairs. I know for sure when I voiced disapproval last year, a lot of fans I interacted with didn’t understand why it was such a big deal. Wrestling as a whole doesn’t have the most progressive fanbase and that’s part of why WWE can get away with this without upsetting as many people as you would think.

Tom: We have to remember that we may be the more informed group of fans, whereas I don’t believe that’s the majority. WWE aims for a casual audience that don’t necessarily look too deeply at anything

Phil: True.