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

TRAVEL TROUBLES

In fact, almost everything about Crown Jewel 2019 felt better than the previous year: this time it had not been moved to a smaller venue, taking place in the 68,000-capacity stadium where the 2018 show was originally supposed to happen. The critical reviews were much improved too, with particular praise reserved for hometown hero Mansoor’s singles victory over Cesaro. Two high-profile celebrities from other combat sports also had matches on the broadcast: neither MMA star Cain Velasquez nor boxer Tyson Fury had particularly memorable in-ring debuts for WWE, but the presence of both men helped to provide some much-needed positive mainstream media coverage to complement the plaudits the company received for the women’s match. At last it seemed as though the tide was turning for a partnership that had previously been blighted by one setback after another… but then came the journey home.

The details of what happened in the hours after the event ended are still contested, but they revolve around the fact that most of WWE’s talent and staff suffered a lengthy delay in flying back to the US. The plan had been to return immediately after the pay-per-view so that everyone would be back in time for Smackdown in Buffalo, New York, the next evening. Unfortunately their flight was not cleared to take off and they spent the entire night either in the airport terminal or sitting in the plane on the runway, before being taken to a hotel to sleep for a few hours and finally taking off around a day later than planned. As the ordeal unfolded several WWE stars used social media to express their frustration, with some seeming to hint at annoyance about the fact that Vince McMahon and some of the company’s biggest stars had left the country on private planes before the problems started.

A press release from the company blamed the delays on mechanical failures, and their version of events was backed up by the flight’s operators Atlas Air, but soon rumours started flying about other reasons for the drama. Dave Meltzer reported that there had been a disagreement on the day of the show between Vince McMahon and the Saudi authorities about an alleged late payment for the company’s previous show in the country. Then, Meltzer said, when the money had still not been received by show time McMahon had ordered the live feed of the show to be blocked to viewers in the country until the issue was resolved, causing the broadcast to eventually air on a 40-minute tape delay. The theory goes that Prince Mohammed bin Salman was so infuriated by this move that he would not allow the WWE plane to leave the country. An anonymous ex-WWE wrestler confirmed the reports in a statement as part of a lawsuit against the company in 2020 – an account that WWE dismissed as “phony” claims from a “disgruntled former wrestler with no knowledge of the facts.” In August 2021, former WWE wrestler Tucker (real name Levi Cooper) also said that those media reports matched his general understanding of what happened on that night.

Whatever the truth, the delay caused almost all of the main roster to miss Smackdown and forced NXT wrestlers to be drafted into the show in their place at short notice. Despite this, the whole episode apparently did not do any long-term damage to the relationship between WWE and Saudi Arabia, which continued into 2020 with a second Super ShowDown at the end of February. This time there were no travel issues and the event passed largely without incident, the only real controversy after the event being about creative decisions in the two top championship matches: Goldberg defeated red-hot heel character ‘The Fiend’ for the Universal Championship and Brock Lesnar bulldozed through Ricochet in 90 seconds, both of which raised eyebrows among many fans. The event also featured another women’s match, this time between Bayley and Naomi, and a surprise cameo by the Undertaker in the show-opening gauntlet match. Of course, shortly after that event the COVID pandemic brought a halt to all international travel, and the company’s return to Riyadh for Crown Jewel 2021 on 21st October was the first time WWE has made the journey to the Middle East for over a year and a half.

One big question heading into that event was whether the next few years of the partnership between WWE and Saudi Arabia will be as turbulent as these early years have been. There certainly are no signs that either side wishes to back out of the agreement – on the contrary, Vince McMahon announced on Twitter less than a week after the travel fiasco at Crown Jewel 2019 that the scope of the deal had been expanded, with two large-scale events now confirmed to take place in Saudi Arabia every year until at least 2027. Meanwhile Prince Mohammed is pressing ahead with his plans to boost his country’s involvement in sports and entertainment: the first Saudi Arabian Grand Prix took place in December 2021, he has invested over $3 billion in video games companies including Activision Blizzard and Electronic Arts, and in 2020 he even tried to buy Newcastle United Football Club. It is clear that WWE is just one part of a much larger vision for an increasingly outward-looking Saudi Arabian regime, but it is an important part and the alliance has provided no shortage of heated debate. With so much intrigue already generated by the early years of WWE’s most lucrative live events deal in history, it seems destined to remain a fascinating and volatile story for many years to come.

• Crown Jewel
• saudi arabia
• Vince McMahon
• wwe

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