The Weird Reason Aleister Black Isn’t Going To Saudi Arabia
Equivalent to or perhaps exceeds the last ridiculous news story you read.
Dave Meltzer, in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter, has elaborated on Aleister Black’s exclusion from the upcoming Super Show-Down in Saudi Arabia.
So John Cena refused to work last year’s Crown Jewel in fear of Hollywood backlash. Daniel Bryan objected on moral grounds. Sami Zayn was injured, but the very person he is disqualified him, too. The various women are, of course, a subspecies!
Aleister Black, meanwhile, has…
…tattoos.
WWE intends to “respect local customs”, which is a euphemism for “they’re paying us so much money you guys”, but this apparently is not reciprocal. Black’s tattoos are considered either by WWE preemptively, or by the Saudi General Sports Authority themselves (this was not clarified) to be religious in nature.
Black, speaking to the UK’s Daily Star last year, refused to be drawn on the meaning of his tattoos, but did reveal that his most striking body art symbolises a folkloric figure named Lilith, who was the “first woman to ever rebel against paradise. The reason she is there [is] for equality, equality for every man and woman.”
Oh boy.
Reports of several other WWE Superstars daubing their foreheads with upside-down crosses remain unconfirmed at time of writing.