10 Most Disgusting Promotional Tactics For WWE In Saudi Arabia
WWE's lucrative partnership has led to some truly embarrassing, despicable moments.
When WWE announced in 2018 a 10-year, $500-million partnership with Saudi Arabia to hold premium live events in the kingdom, the deal was met with criticism out of the gate both for its largesse and the connotations such an agreement carried.
Saudi Arabia has faced condemnation on the global stage for its poor human rights record, particularly involving women and the LGBTQ+ community. But WWE, a company that had launched a “women’s revolution” just three years prior and boasted an anti-bullying campaign, saw no problem engaging in what has been widely viewed as sportswashing – using sports to cover up a nation’s bad reputation and present the country in a positive light.
But it was much worse than even the most cynical wrestling fan could imagine at the outset.
What almost immediately followed was a series of horrendous situations that revealed WWE’s commitment to the almighty dollar and their willingness to sacrifice any semblance of a moral compass. They went along with the kingdom’s PR campaign to sanitize its reputation, even overlooking murder.
Some wrestlers refused to participate in the shows as a result of some of these events, while women weren’t allowed to wrestle at all for the first several shows. The PLEs themselves could be seen as glorified house shows with some of the worst matches in recent memory and overblown gimmicks to inflate the significance of the events.
This year’s Crown Jewel event features yet another Saudi-specific gimmick that adds to the pile and serves as a reminder that WWE will go to great lengths to keep their wealthy benefactor nation happy. And if this all sounds a bit harsh, just remember: WWE held a Saudi PLE just weeks after the kingdom’s government orchestrated the murder of a Saudi journalist living in America.
Let’s take a look at some of the worst gimmicks, matches and moments from WWE’s lucrative partnership with Saudi Arabia.
10. A ‘WrestleMania-Sized Show’
Based solely on the grandeur and promotion of the Saudi PLEs, one would be fooled into thinking they’re among some of the most significant events on WWE’s calendar.
And while the shows have evolved over time to become regular, in-universe events, they initially started out as glorified house shows taking place inside a stadium with all the bells and whistles, and enough pyro to make the largest U.S. Independence Day celebration look like a backyard sparkler show.
Michael Cole routinely told fans that these shows were “WrestleMania-sized,” boasting that it was a major happening. And while the first Saudi PLE (Greatest Royal Rumble) kicked off with John Cena versus Triple H and featured Undertaker and Brock Lesnar, nothing of true, lasting significance happened.
In fact, the early shows relied on part-timers and gimmick matches/tournaments to mask how uneventful they were. Several will be highlighted in due course, but others that missed the cut include a 51-man battle royal, Team Hogan versus Team Flair and the WWE Tag Team World Cup.
All of this was in service of overinflating the significance of these shows. If you fill a stadium, build a big enough stage, shoot off enough pyro and push enough big names into the ring, it has to be worth $50 million, right?