A new trend developed this week surrounding WWE’s upcoming Crown Jewel pay-per-view event. While the huge event will see the in-ring return of Shawn Michaels and some of the biggest names of professional wrestling will be on the card, if you’ve only just begun watching World Wrestling Entertainment’s television product then you have no clue where the event is taking place. While every other type of event has its location advertised so people know to purchase tickets, the company has apparently mandated that the words “Saudi Arabia” are not to be mentioned while on the air or over social media.
It’s a completely ridiculous response to the criticism they’ve received over not just doing business with the Saudi Arabia government, but also using their programming to promote the country as being progressive. The WWE’s attitude is essentially that of a five-year-old, one that is just going to ignore a problem as if it doesn’t exist. In their minds, if they don’t mention that Crown Jewel is taking place in Saudi Arabia then everyone will just forget and it won’t be an issue going forward.
Not only is it a childish attitude, it highlights the disdain the company has for its audience. Not unlike how they drop storylines without mentioning it in hopes that people will just forget what was going on, they’re hoping their audience’s forgetfulness will get them out of hot water. They knew exactly what the risks of doing business with a government like Saudi Arabia were, and yet they decided the lucrative amount of money was worth it. Just own up to being a business first.
Regardless of whether one thinks the show should be canceled, moved to another location, or if it should just go on as planned, any other response on television other than WWE just pretending the problem doesn’t exist would be better. They could even do the show while acknowledging the current situation by saying that they have “contractual obligations in place and that they’ll reevaluate their current Saudi Arabia deal after all the facts come out surrounding the current situation.”
One can argue that politics have no place in entertainment (although they’d be greatly missing the entire history of art in general), but even then, WWE has never been afraid about inserting politics in the past. This is the company that so proudly used the post-9/11 SmackDown in its SmackDown 1000 highlight packages, promoted an entire WrestleMania surrounding Middle East conflicts, and most recently tried to affiliate Rusev with Putin in order to get him over as a heel.
Their current PR messaging, which says they are “currently monitoring the situation” is disingenuous at best. It’d be one thing if WWE was actually struggling with what they’re going to do and reevaluating Crown Jewel, but instead it’s been reported by Dave Meltzer that the company will only not go on with the show unless President Donald Trump says not to. Considering Vince McMahon is a notoriously stubborn individual (something that has often worked in his favor at times), it’s not hard to believe that he’s dead set on just running the show.
Either way, WWE fans deserve better than to be treated like an ignorant child. By just pretending that Saudi Arabia doesn’t exist, WWE is just making themselves look bad in the process. No other multi-billion dollar company would handle a PR disaster this poorly, but this seems to be yet another chapter in how they struggle with criticism.
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