Middle East Misadventures – WWE’s Troubled History With Saudi Arabia

MAKING MONEY AND MAKING HISTORY

A quick look at the financial side of the deal might help to explain why the company embraced its new partners so wholeheartedly: according to an analysis of WWE’s quarterly reports by Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics, the Saudi government pays the company about $50 million for each event, meaning that they have earned about $300 million for the six shows that have happened so far. That is more than the combined ticket revenue from every Wrestlemania ever, and almost certainly more than AEW will make from their entire four-year TV deal with WarnerMedia. In short, the value of the Saudi partnership is simply astronomical for WWE, and company executives must have felt in 2018 that the benefits of the deal far outweighed any negative publicity they would receive. Perhaps that calculation changed somewhat after the murder at the Istanbul consulate, but ultimately Vince McMahon and his team stood firm and chose to ride out the criticism. Crown Jewel would go ahead as planned.

Well, not quite. The second major WWE event in Saudi Arabia was – like its predecessor – causing some other headaches too, albeit none of them as serious as the Khashoggi issue. In early October the event was moved from a 68,000-seat football stadium in Riyadh to the King Saud University Stadium, which could only hold 25,000 (eventually the attendance was reportedly around 16,000). The same arguments about the absence of women wrestlers that had been raised at April’s event were once again gaining some traction, not least because there had been further controversy around the subject immediately after Greatest Royal Rumble: the Saudi General Sports Authority issued an apology to viewers for “an indecent scene involving women” that aired during the broadcast – apparently a video package including women wrestlers in ring gear, during which state television briefly cut off the live feed to domestic viewers. This only served to bring more attention to the issue, and by October some fans were even asking if WWE Evolution – the company’s first all-female pay-per-view which took place just a few days prior to the male roster flying to Riyadh – was being held as a direct response to criticisms about the Saudi project. The charge seemed harsh considering the increased focus that had been given to the women’s division in the months and years leading to the event, but Triple H felt sufficiently stung by the criticism that he made a point of publicly making it clear that the timing of the two events was not related.

Meanwhile the return of two WWE legends at the show was causing quite a stir: Hulk Hogan, whose relationship with WWE had been terminated in 2015 after audio footage emerged of him uttering racial slurs, had recently been brought back into the fold and was announced as the host of Crown Jewel – a decision that was far from universally popular. But perhaps most notably, more than eight years after his memorable retirement match at Wrestlemania XXVI, Shawn Michaels had agreed to return to the ring for a tag match with Triple H against the Undertaker and Kane. The reactions to this news were mixed: plenty of fans were excited to see the Heartbreak Kid back inside a wrestling ring, but to others it seemed a shame to tarnish such a perfect end to his career by adding this unexpected footnote. Inevitably some pundits speculated that he had been persuaded to go ahead with the match by a massive payday, but Michaels later denied that this was his motivation, claiming on Edge and Christian’s podcast that he saw the event as a one-off opportunity to deliver his “greatest hits” alongside other legends with whom he was very familiar. Unfortunately for everyone involved the match would turn out to be one of the most shambolic of any of their careers.

The crowd was fired up to see four icons in the main event of the show, especially after an unpopular end to the night’s 8-man tournament moments earlier, in which Shane McMahon had been crowned the winner of WWE’s ‘World Cup’. The high-profile tag team showdown was booked to run for almost half an hour, but it wasn’t long after the opening bell that things started to unravel: on a spill over the top rope to the floor Triple H tore his pectoral muscle and, despite his best efforts, was unable to do very much for the rest of the match. This left Michaels to carry the load in his first match for almost a decade, but even for one of the greatest of all time ring rust was a factor. Several spots were blown, and at one point while delivering some punches on the top turnbuckle, HBK grabbed a handful of Kane’s wig and accidentally removed his attached mask. By the time DX scored the pinfall to end the night, all four men knew it had been a bad night at the office. “It totally blew,” reflected Michaels later. “It’s like a bad comedy movie,” said Triple H of how it felt to watch the match back. Undertaker also concurred: “It was a total train wreck,” he said. “It was a disaster.” For an event that seemed to have been cursed from the moment it was announced, this somehow seemed like an appropriate ending.

Unfortunately for Undertaker, it wouldn’t be the last time he featured in a poorly-received main event in Saudi Arabia. The next WWE show in the country was a return to Jeddah in June 2019 for ‘Super ShowDown’ and for the first time ever the Deadman was set to face Goldberg, who had returned to the ring for a programme with Brock Lesnar in 2016 and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2018. Still, the match against ‘Taker would be his first in over two years and, disastrously, it would be the second consecutive main event of a WWE Saudi show that was derailed by an early injury. This time the problem arose when Goldberg headbutted the steel ring post by accident, giving himself a head wound and concussion. This left him disoriented for the rest of the match, and the consequences were almost tragic – while performing his trademark jackhammer move, Goldberg came within centimetres of dropping Undertaker on his head in a nasty near-miss. There were several other botches too, and the end came after a choke slam for which Goldberg barely managed to leap into the air. Afterwards the former WCW champion called it “a perfect storm of crappiness”.

Still, if the worst thing that happened at Super ShowDown was that its main event failed to deliver then presumably WWE must have considered the experience to be a considerable improvement on all the problems that plagued Crown Jewel the previous autumn. In fact, the company came close to a major PR victory at the show: Natalya and Alexa Bliss flew with the crew to Jeddah amidst high hopes that they would be permitted to stage the first ever women’s match in Saudi Arabia, only for government officials to nix the plan prior to the big night. Fortunately the company would have more luck when they again pushed for a women’s match upon their return to the kingdom for the fourth major event of their partnership on 31st October 2019. At a press conference on the eve of the show WWE announced that Natalya would face Lacey Evans in a historic contest the following night. Stephanie McMahon explained that both women would wear full bodysuits rather than their usual attire, out of respect for their hosts’ culture. Nonetheless, she seemed genuinely delighted about the news.

“As a woman, as a mother, as just a person, I couldn’t be more proud,” she told TMZ. “I am ecstatic, I am thrilled, I am many different adjectives to describe how I feel right now.”

The following night when the match took place it was warmly received by the live crowd (aside from one plastic bottle thrown at Natalya during her entrance) and really did have the feel of an important moment. It was also a vindication of sorts for WWE officials who had responded to previous criticism by promising that they were pushing for change with their Saudi partners. Eventually they got their way and produced a moment that is surely the high point of the company’s work in the country so far.

• Crown Jewel
• saudi arabia
• Vince McMahon
• wwe

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