The UFC is not known for being a morally righteous company. From President Dana White using gay slurs while verbally attacking reporters to the company unabashedly using criminal activities to promote their fights, there’s no shortage of instances to choose from where the Ultimate Fighting Championship doesn’t look good. However, compared to the WWE, the company looks like respectable businessmen when it comes to how they chose to deal with the current Saudi Arabia situation.
This morning World Wrestling Entertainment chose to go ahead with their planned WWE Crown Jewel pay-per-view event in Saudi Arabia. Simply doing an event with the nation would be questionable at the moment after the country admitted to murdering a journalist that was critical of their government, but the WWE’s Saudi deal goes past that as it’s being directly funded by the government as part of their Saudi Vision 2030 movement. Even beyond that, the professional wrestling has been coopted into spreading propaganda about the country’s “progressive” movement as they stressed this multiple times during their Greatest Royal Rumble event earlier this year (which no women were allowed to compete at due to Saudi Arabian law).
Meanwhile, the UFC’s parent company, Endeavor, will no longer be doing business with the Saudi government according to a report earlier this month by The Hollywood Reporter. The deal was expected to bring in a $400 million investment for the company. However, now the deal (which would have seen the Saudi government gain a 5-10% portion of Endeavor) is being terminated due to the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. Previously, Endeavor co-CEO Ari Emanuel told French reporters that the company was “concerned” about the deal. “On the face of it, it’s upsetting,” said Emanuel.
While the company behind the UFC are recognizing how much of a tragedy, and attack on freedom of speech, the murder of Khashoggi is, Vince McMahon didn’t do the same during today’s WWE financial call. When asked about the situation he said, “We’re not going to talk a lot about that it’s a very sensitive subject.” Choosing to deflect rather than personally condemn such a crime is only something a coward would do, and that’s exactly what the WWE chose to do with money on the line.
WWE’s official statement was slightly better, as they do admit that a “heinous crime” was committed, they also doubled down on the deal by keeping Crown Jewel in Saudi Arabia. It’s half admitting there’s a problem while still profiting from the situation. They cited “contractual obligations” to the government as why it’s still happening, which shows that in this situation they put money over human rights violations.
It’s not a surprising move, but it’s nonetheless despicable.
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