Saudi General Sports Authority Issue Apology For 'Indecent' WWE Ad.
Footage went "against community's values."
The Saudi Arabian Sports Authory - who funded WWE's elaborate trip to the country this past Friday - have issued a scarcely believable apology after the company accidentally displayed 'scantily clad' women during the show.
State broadcasters slashed the feed when WWE aired an ad featuring its female stars - though the footage still reached the eyes of the 60,000 people in attendance. The ad in question was the 'Best of Both Worlds' skit promoting future cross-branded Raw and SmackDown events.
After the event, the General Sports Authority released the following apology on their Twitter account (translation courtesy of Reddit user 'compromise'):
The General Sport Authority would like to apologise to the viewers and attendees of last night's WWE event that took place in Jeddah, over the indecent scene involving women that appeared as an ad before a segment. It would like to confirm its total disapproval, in the shadow of its commitment to eliminate anything that goes against the community's values.
The authority has made sure to ban [the] showing of any segment that involves women wrestling or any scenes related to it, and stipulated that to [WWE]. The authority also disapproved any promotional material with pictures of videos showing women in an indecent way, and emphasised on commitment to this rule. It's a commitment that the authority [will] commit to forever in all of its events and programs.
Throughout the broadcast, announcers harped on about just how progressive Saudi Arabia is thanks to their multi-billion dollar Vision 2030 programme, propaganda paid for as part of the regime's propagation of soft diplomacy. The words, unlike the women, are even more nakedly hyperbolic in the wake of the above statement. WWE's decision to partner with the Saudi regime is looking increasingly embarrassing, a venal cash-grab which makes a mockery of any of the company's alleged pledges to social causes, and in particular, their much vaunted 'women's evolution'.
Prior to the event, Paul 'Triple H' Levesque defended the decision to run a show on which women were strictly forbidden, noting that in doing so the company were helping bring about a "significant cultural shift" in the Kingdom.
Well, see above: An 'apology' of this nature by their new wealthy bedfellows puts WWE in an invidious, borderline indefensible position. All that oil money will look lovely to the bottom line, but in smearing the promotion's reputation like this, it probably wasn't worth it.