WWE: A women’s match at Super Showdown doesn’t fix anything
Alexa Bliss and Natalya may be allowed to wrestle at WWE Super Showdown. While definitely progressive, it does not make up for the issues at the show’s core.
It’s now been confirmed that WWE flew in two surprising names for Friday’s Super Showdown event in Saudi Arabia: Natalya and Alexa Bliss. The reason? In hopes that the Saudi government will allow the two women to have a match during the show.
This match would be a huge milestone. The two previous Saudi Arabian shows, Greatest Royal Rumble and Crown Jewel, were – by necessity – all-male. For WWE to be able to put on a women’s match in Riyadh would be akin to an event in 2018 where Bliss, along with Sasha Banks, held the first women’s match ever in Abu Dhabi. That match prompted chants of “This is hope” from the crowd and Sasha gave a tearful post-match interview about the importance of the match.
So, for the women in attendance and watching the event in KSA and for the men that support their fight for equality, I do hope this match can take place. Entertainment holds a special power – as we all know – and seeing Nattie and Alexa in the ring in Riyadh could help to inspire some of those watching.
But I want the WWE to know that even if this match happens, it does not fix anything about their partnership with the Saudi government.
The deal has long been controversial. Critics have cited the Saudi regime’s continuing abysmal record with human rights, including their laws regarding women and their outlawing of homosexuality.
Just before 2018’s Crown Jewel event, news broke of the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a journalist critical of the Saudi Arabian government. It was eventually revealed that the government was allegedly behind his assassination and there continue to be allegations that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and his family were involved.
Mohammed bin Salman, by the way, is the Saudi royal who is funding the WWE events. Events which have featured propaganda promoting Saudi Arabia as “socially progressive” and fueled anti-Iran sentiments via in-ring segments.
Just this April, this same Saudi regime held a massive public execution (warning: contains potentially triggering content). 37 men were beheaded. Many of their supposed “confessions” came after alleged hours of torture. Some of them were charged with attending or spreading information about peaceful protests. Five of those men were were executed for the “crime” of homosexuality. At least one of the bodies was then publicly displayed on a pole in a public square.
The issue is not that WWE is holding shows in Saudi Arabia. WWE has held shows in other countries with less severe, but similar attitudes towards women’s and LGBTQ+ rights, as well as freedom of speech. I do not believe the people of a country – many of whom likely do not share the views of their government – should suffer because of the people in charge. They deserve the same kinds of joy, escape and even empowerment that I find in something like professional wrestling.
The issue is that WWE partners with bin Salman’s government, takes money from them, while claiming to be a progressive company in its own right. Yes, the act of having a women’s match in KSA is huge, but it pales in comparison to promoting laws that do not even allow women to attend the show without an approved male chaperone. Yes, we should celebrate this kind of breakthrough on one level but still condemn that the show it may occur at is state-funded propaganda.
Personally, I will not be watching Super Showdown. Just as I have not watched Greatest Royal Rumble or Crown Jewel. Just as I will not be watching any of the shows created under this “business partnership.” I urge you all to make your own choices on your own comfort levels about watching, I make no judgment either way. But I do want to impress upon everyone, especially the WWE, that a single women’s match should not obscure the greater problems at work here.
Next. WWE NXT: The Street Profits need some tweaking in their gimmick. dark
On a related note: Sami Zayn, who will once again not be participating in the KSA show, will be holding a fundraiser for his Sami for Syria charity starting at 2 PM on Friday, June 7, 2019. Check out his Twitter for more information.