WWE Pressing Ahead With Saudi Arabia Shows In 2019
"It's all about the mon-ay! It's all about the mon-ay!"
Per this week's edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, WWE has pencilled in the months of May and November to once more run incredibly lucrative shows in Saudi Arabia.
This is perhaps more interesting than it is newsworthy; WWE no-sold the Greatest Backlash to proceed with Crown Jewel in November, pushing against not inconsiderable mainstream pressure in the process - and now that the intensity surrounding the death of Jamal Khashoggi has died down (if you think that wording is in poor taste, reminder that Stephanie McMahon used the word "dismemberment" on RAW about a week later), WWE is hardly going to turn down this unreal amount of riyal.
The month of May could act as a sort of sad spoiler warning for Daniel Bryan's thus-far incredible run with the WWE Championship; having refused to work Crown Jewel on ethical grounds, this new ethics-driven character can't possibly appear on a further show, and given how star-laden these affairs are, under the pretence that they matter in canon, the WWE Championship will surely be defended.
Both Greatest Royal Rumble and Crown Jewel received much artistic and moral criticism. Unlike some, they will live on as spectacles both appalling and involuntarily hilarious. We're in for more bad taste banter - perhaps Stephanie McMahon can follow in her brother's footsteps and tower over her Women's roster on both the entrance ramp and the squared circle alike.
Wait...