WWE Roundtable: Examining the Saudi Arabia situation

This is when Josiah entered the conversation to deliver his thoughts on everything previously touched on that he missed in the conversation thus far.

Josiah: I’ll chime in with my overall thoughts first and then with responses to the more recent conversation.

I believe strongly that this deal was a terrible idea from the beginning, knowing the attitude towards women there. The Greatest Royal Rumble was an extended propaganda machine for the Saudi government. A government [who allegedly] condones the murder of journalists (and even orders it), as seen in recent months. While Crown Jewel did not have the same propaganda, I do think it was largely because of the backlash WWE was facing due to what happened with Khashoggi. If that didn’t happen, I expect we would have seen more of the same.

While we can try to hope for the best with WWE enacting real change there, I think WWE’s motivation is absolutely clear. They aren’t there for change. They are there for money. If we look at the quarterly financials, whenever they were in Saudi Arabia, they had a massive increase of income under their “other” category. Well over $50 million. That alone indicates why they are doing this. In fact, I think they were frustrated by the backlash and we got to see that with Stephanie McMahon making a dismemberment joke on Raw a few weeks after the show.

While this deal offers a short term financial boon to the company as a whole, I can’t help but think that it will hurt them in the long run. Much like how they persist in driving off the audience with the third hour of Raw (which always tanks), they choose the short term gain instead of the long term positive. One can only choose the short term so many times before it beings to hurt everything overall and we are starting to see this with the decline in Network numbers and house show attendance. So, while WWE will be raking in the money short term, in the long term, there is no question this hurts their business.

After Crown Jewel, the Network numbers went down and we saw a decline in ratings for Raw. While the Saudi deal cannot account for all of the decline, to say that it played no role would also be incorrect. There are people who walked away from the product because of it. While uninspired Creative and lackluster shows have contributed to the decline too, this situation surrounding the Saudi deal cannot have helped.

As for holding governments accountable – Canada has sold arms to Saudi Arabia too and I am horrified by it. We have a federal election coming up in the fall and I can’t help but think that I cannot vote for any party that would continue the arms deal. We did enact some sanctions due to the Khashoggi story, but it wasn’t nearly enough.

With businesses cutting ties, I think it is entirely appropriate for WWE to pull out of this deal. They are making more than enough money through their deal with Fox that keeping this one seems to be an exercise of them digging their heels in while chanting “Money” at investors. I do not think the company will really achieve anything in terms of real change, though that is my cynicism coming out. I share some of that British cynicism that Laura and Tom talked about, as I don’t trust any massive corporation to do the right thing unless forced to with revenue loss.

So, as for a solution, I just don’t know. My heart says they have to pull out of this deal. I know pragmatically speaking that they won’t unless they come under immense pressure or the government rules that all business dealings with the Saudi government must end.

Could we see a women’s wrestling match in Saudi Arabia? Sure. I suspect that is more than possible. Will that enact actual change? No. It’s just wrestling. True, real, cultural change can only begin at the grass roots level, in the hearts of the people themselves. How do we do that? I know a corporation putting on an entertainment show will have little effect. The hearts of the people have to be won, and I don’t think WWE could do something like that.

Phil: Right, Josiah and the issue is for the most part, you’re not looking to change the hearts and minds of the public in Saudi Arabia. The government and their stranglehold on the people of that country is the real problem. In order to reach the people, the government has to approve of the message. As of now, they don’t seem to be keen on creating lasting change either. Judging by the use of propaganda, it seems like they’re more interested in WWE helping them to push their message.