10 WWE In Saudi Arabia Moments That Were Actually Good
1. History Made
One of the biggest criticisms levelled at WWE's involvement with the Saudi regime has been its treatment of women. For decades, women in Saudi Arabia faced countless restrictions on their freedoms including their rights to drive, to divorce, and to live alone. Whilst recent progress has been made in all of these areas, the country still has a long way to go.
Discrepancies between men's and women's rights could also be seen in sports. Saudi Arabia has no national women's soccer team, sent just two women to the most recent Olympics, and didn't allow women to enter sports stadiums at all until 2018. These same restrictions hit WWE when they first began running shows in The Kingdom, illustrated when the country's governing body on sports labelled a a promotional video featuring female wrestlers as "indecent".
Things took a huge step in the right direction when, at Crown Jewel 2019, Natalya fought Lacey Evans in the first ever women's wrestling match in Saudi Arabian history. It was a basic match with no story and both competitors wore full bodysuits, but this was still an enormous positive. Whilst there is still a lot to do, this match is a small victory in the fight for gender equality in Saudi Arabia and that is definitely worth celebrating.