10 Most Disgusting Promotional Tactics For WWE In Saudi Arabia

As part of WWE’s efforts to inflate the importance of its Saudi shows - which exist, again, to gloss over the regime's reputation - the company turned to a tried-and-true WrestleMania tactic: bringing in celebrities to compete in high-profile matches.

Crown Jewel 2019 saw two highly regarded athletes with minimal-to-no wrestling experience step between the ropes in separate matches. Cain Velasquez, who defeated Brock Lesnar for the UFC Championship several years prior, fought Lesnar in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it match where the post-match angle lasted longer. Also, boxer Tyson Fury battled to a count-out win over Braun Strowman in a match that was more entertainment show than wrestling match.

Normally, this wouldn’t be a huge deal, but of the eight matches on the card, they were two of the most heavily promoted bouts. And they weren’t the only gimmick matches on the card! Crown Jewel that year boasted the 10-man Team Hogan versus Team Flair tag match, the Tag Team World Cup elimination match and the so-poor-the-first-time-we-had-to-run-it-back Fiend versus Seth Rollins Falls Count Anywhere match for the Universal Championship.

Neither match was highly regarded, and both were more about the freak show factor than anything else. Fury was reportedly paid $15 million for his lone match, while Velasquez signed a “lucrative” multi-year deal that WWE terminated in the early days of the pandemic. This was nothing more than trying to raise the profile of a paid show to make it feel bigger than it really was.