What REALLY Happened To WWE In Saudi Arabia?

Crown Jewel 2019
WWE

Virtually the entire WWE roster, production crew and company staff, including Vince McMahon, Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan and the show's special guest Tyson Fury, depart to the city of Riyadh in Saudi Arabia. They spend a number of days fulfilling media opportunities and conducting further business meetings with the Saudi General Sports Authority. Nothing about this is at all out of the ordinary and is, indeed, what happens every time they head over.

However, WWE can't take their entire roster on these shows. Finn Balor's recent return to NXT is as much about establishing the "developmental" brand in its own TV slot as it is preventing him promoting LGBT rights in a country that counts fines, public whippings, beatings, vigilante attacks, chemical castrations, prison time, capital punishment and torture amongst its punishments for homosexuality.

Daniel Bryan's run with the WWE Championship ended weeks prior to one of the shows, on account of his refusal to work the events in light of the country's appalling human rights record. Sami Zayn, being of Syrian descent, is not allowed to appear and Kevin Owens has backed out of any appearances in support of his friend's situation. John Cena also refuses to work the events.

Aleister Black, interestingly, is deemed unsuitable by the Sports Authority on account of his tattoos being offensive to the country's values, as to is every woman on the roster on account of them having a vagina. This time around, Natalya and Lacey Evans were permitted 7 minutes to put on the first-ever woman's match in the country, provided they dressed in total bodysuits with 3XL t-shirts over the top.

Long-term readers/viewers of the website/channel will already know that we've skipped a major step in all of this, and that's the alleged state-sponsored murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. An event that forced the international community to impose trade sanctions and withdraw military support for the country, but wasn't deemed sufficient by WWE to postpone D-X vs The Brothers of Destruction, or crowning Shane McMahon the Best Wrestler In The World. Anyway, I digress.

Despite the reports of financial tension between WWE and their Saudi hosts, this year's Crown Jewel went ahead and was largely quite well received. The news cycle had since moved past the obvious controversies of last year, the card wasn't filled with aging stars shamelessly coming out of retirement, and even the debuting Cain Valasquez and Tyson Fury managed to fit in relatively well.

The only slight hitch was that despite advertising that the show would air live on Saudi Arabian TV, it actually aired on an unannounced 40-minute delay instead. This didn't seem overly unusual, but it also began filtering through at the same time WWE quietly announced they'd received an unspecified $60m payment from the SGSA.

Still though, things looked fairly well settled as the stars boarded their chartered Atlas Air flight back to the United States. With SmackDown scheduled to be filmed a mere 30 hours after the finish of Crown Jewel, the itinerary was tight but just about doable. This is, of course, where the story really begins to pick up...

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Managing Editor
Managing Editor

WhatCulture's Managing Editor and Chief Reporter | Previously seen in Vice, Esquire, FourFourTwo, Sabotage Times, Loaded, The Set Pieces, and Mundial Magazine