Stephanie McMahon, WWE’s Chief Branding Officer (and on-air commissioner of WWE RAW), used the term “dismemberment is a bit of a corporate liability” while involved in an angle with Baron Corbin and Braun Strowman last night on RAW to describe what could happen to Corbin after granting Strowman the ability to pick the stipulation of their match at TLC in December.
This is not even a month removed after WWE went to Saudi Arabia for their controversial Crown Jewel event and not even two months removed when Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was strangled and dismembered at a Turkish consulate in Istanbul on October 1. In addition to that, the CIA just concluded this past weekend that the Saudi crown prince ordered Khashoggi’s assassination.
So are we all supposed to be okay with Stephanie making jokes about "dismemberment" being a "corporate liability" live on Raw tonight just weeks after the dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi was a p.r. nightmare for WWE and other U.S.-based corporations taking Saudi money? #Raw
— Wade Keller (@thewadekeller) November 20, 2018
Stephanie McMahon talking about dismemberment after what happened with Khashoggi and the Saudi Arabia show.
Dean Ambrose insinuating that Roman Reigns deserved to get cancer.
Beyond tasteless. Awful. #RAW
— Chris Walder (@WalderSports) November 20, 2018
Wade Keller, editor and founder of the Pro Wrestling Torch had this to say on his Monday VIP Hotline after RAW (transcription credit should go to @DominicDeAngelo at WrestleZone)
“So Stephanie, as a McMahon, in a corporate, [a] high-level corporate executive, said that, and we’re supposed to believe (A) she didn’t make that connection or she mindlessly read a script in which case it’s not on Stephanie (well it’s on her for being mindless, memorizing her script and not thinking of it – I don’t buy that) or she did it on purpose knowing what she was saying and then there’s plausible deniability, you know that they can lean on. I mean, my jaw just dropped that they said that. I think it is just so revealing of something, and I mean I’m not even sure there is words to describe what it reveals, but I mean real life character comes up here.”
Vince McMahon is no stranger to incorporating his real life headaches into on-air storylines. The creation of Irwin R. Shyster was a speculated shot to WWE’s (then WWF) trouble with the IRS at the time and in 2009 Vince took to RAW directly to address his RAW arena situation with Stan Kroenke and the Pepsi Center in 2009.
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What do you think? Was Stephanie’s quote a little too on the nose to be coincidental? And was this phrasing flying a little too close to the sun all things considered? Sound off below.
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