Shakedown Smackdown

November 3, 2019 12:56 PM

Last week, WWE presented its second Crown Jewel event in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This was the fourth of 20 planned biannual events in the Kingdom, for which the House of Saud was allegedly ponying up as much as $2 billion. The deal is part of Saudi Vision 2030, a program by Crown Prince Mohammad Bin-Salman to modernize the Saudi economy and improve the repressive regime's public image. That PR effort probably wasn't helped when flight delays held most of the wrestlers on the ground for more than 24 hours... or possibly the wrestlers were hostages in a disagreement between WWE owner Vince McMahon and the Crown Prince over payment.

The wrestlers who were stuck in Saudi Arabia are said to be highly disgruntled, and some wrestling journalists are even speculating that this might be the performers' best chance to collectivize and form a union since Hulk Hogan ratted out Jesse Ventura's efforts in the 1980s. However, the next day's Friday Night Smackdown broadcast featured mostly wrestlers from NXT (WWE's developmental brand slash minor league) "invading" the show, which popped the ratings a bit and may squash any unionizing efforts.

posted by Etrigan (23 comments total)

Nationalize wrestling.

Vince McMahn is a very bad person and he should be tried and then launched into the sun.
posted by Uncle at 1:58 PM on November 3, 2019 [14 favorites]

There should be some roadblocks to repatriating the money from these events, but Saudi would have to be subject to criticism in order for that to even be a possibility.
posted by rhizome at 2:15 PM on November 3, 2019 [2 favorites]

Better yet, ban wrestling for the adolescent mindset and attitude of fakery it creates.

Oh no, people are stage fighting? Better also ban movies and TV shows with stunt performers, and martial-arts exhibitions, and SCA tournaments, etc.

I mean, it's OK to notice that the thread is about pro-wrestling and just think to yourself "Not my cup of tea" and move on without commenting, y'know?
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 2:21 PM on November 3, 2019 [37 favorites]

I was targeted with a Twitter ad from the Riyadh Season festival, a tourism event. Apparently Saudi Arabia is open to American tourists for the first time in a long time / ever?

The fun thing about Twitter ads is you get to reply to them. I pointed out their country executes people like me. And I'm not even a journalist!

We should never, ever legitimize Saudi Arabia's repressive and evil Wahhabi regime. I'm fine being friendly with many Muslim countries. But not their version of it.
posted by Nelson at 2:25 PM on November 3, 2019 [17 favorites]

[My first comment was in response to a smacktalker that has apparently been removed]

I don't know if this will be a spark for unionization, but I hope it's the bullet in the head that kills these Saudi shows. I mean, good f'in luck getting your talent to fly 14 hours to Jeddah when there's no guarantee of a safe return.

Back in the 80s Ventura was quietly trying to form their own union because the rules of kayfabe and behind-the-scenes secrecy were still in effect, but now I wonder if WWE's TV talent could be folded into SAG-AFTRA, and even those contracted with smaller promotions could be covered under Actor's Equity.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 2:28 PM on November 3, 2019 [11 favorites]

Apparently Saudi Arabia is open to American tourists for the first time in a long time / ever?

Yeah, this was in the news a month or two back. Saudi Arabia is now issuing easy tourist visas for the first time ever. They're starting out with 49 eligible countries, trying to expand the national economy in preparation for the decline of the oil industry. Mecca is still off limits aside from muslim pilgrimages.
posted by p3t3 at 2:38 PM on November 3, 2019 [1 favorite]

I wonder if WWE's TV talent could be folded into SAG-AFTRA, and even those contracted with smaller promotions could be covered under Actor's Equity.

It's not full coverage, but EVE has signed a code of conduct agreement with Equity in the UK.
posted by Etrigan at 3:11 PM on November 3, 2019 [2 favorites]

Aside from the rumors that McMahon endangered nearly his entire roster because Saudi Arabia hasn't been paying for the shows as promised, there's also the fact that, until this show, women were banned from competing (or even being there, I think, at the first show), and Sami Zayn, of Syrian heritage is not allowed to be there either.

Outside of a desperate cash grab, there isn't a single valid reason for these shows to exist. Almost as an afterthought to flying to a dictatorship and putting on a show for a royal family that works hard to subjugate their entire population as well as murders their opponents, and I know this'll sound dumb, but look at what it's doing to the product itself:

The shows are being fantasy booked by the Saudis, who clearly have no interest in the current roster, forcing a rehash of tired, broken down wrestlers performing match styles that haven't been interesting in years. Think of how many interesting and skilled wrestlers who've had their pushes killed just to promote some glorified version of smashing old wrestling figures together. Kevin Owens was finally a fucking champion, but they needed to make Goldberg look strong, and Owens was squashed. The Saudis wanted Brock Lesnar to relive a fight in a different organization from 10 years ago, so Kofi Kingston lost on the first episode of the Fox Smackdown in seconds, in literally the dumbest way possible, and has been shuffled back to the midcard so fast his amazing championship run is a distant memory. The list literally goes on, and every time one of these shows comes up, the need to build the show and its arbitrary list of has beens forces the company to radically alter story lines and kill any build to a character that was happening before.

Hell, Hogan and Flair and the most recent, with Hogan as the fucking babyface? I can't imagine that even WWE would be that tone deaf if they weren't promised $50 million/show for it. This is one of the reasons I haven't watched in a long time, and just read the recaps. On the other hand, it sounds like the Smackdown episode was legitimately great (aside from another Sami Zayn squash), and the NXT wrestlers put on a fantastic show, even with rumors that their last minute chartered plane landed minutes before the show started, and that they got a police escort to the stadium to get there in time.
posted by Ghidorah at 3:45 PM on November 3, 2019 [43 favorites]

I cannot favorite Ghidorah's fantastic comment enough.

I was one of the first people to subscribe to the WWE network and I cancelled early this year because of these Saudi Arabia shows, because of peak McMahon interference in storylines, and because I'm tired of seeing performers my own damn age getting air time over their younger, stronger, counterparts.
posted by kimberussell at 4:35 PM on November 3, 2019 [6 favorites]

I dunno if gymnasts who put on a soap opera are the real problem here, or if the real problem is a murderous dictator.
posted by clawsoon at 5:18 PM on November 3, 2019 [15 favorites]

There were giant ads for tourism to Saudi Arabia playing on billboards in London a month ago. I hadn't realized that it was a new thing. I'm not planning to go, seeing as how some of my daily activities are punishable by death there.

Saudi Arabia is also $3.4B in arrears on payments for Canadian-made military equipment, which raises a number of WTAFs.
posted by heatherlogan at 5:49 PM on November 3, 2019 [1 favorite]

clawsoon, the problem is the murderous dictator, and the out of touch billionaire willing to accept blood money to pad his wealth, while being willing to endanger the lives of the workers who he exploited to create his fortune, while still refusing to call them employees or grant them health insurance to cover the injuries they sustain in the course of earning him more money. In short, yes, murderous dictator bad, but somehow McMahon is even worse.
posted by Ghidorah at 6:44 PM on November 3, 2019 [3 favorites]

Bin-Salman is also using the Joshua-Ruiz rematch to plug Vision 2030. I'm feeling an echo of The Rumble in the Jungle in Mobutu's Zaire, or the Thrilla in Manila in Ferdinand Marcos' Philippines. Why do dictators feel that hosting fights will burnish their reputation, I wonder?
posted by clawsoon at 8:37 PM on November 3, 2019 [5 favorites]

For Vince McMahon, one guy paying $50 million to see a show is just as good as a million guys paying $50 each, and it's a lot easier to figure out what the one guy wants to see.
posted by Pickman's Next Top Model at 11:03 PM on November 3, 2019 [2 favorites]

Why do dictators feel that hosting fights will burnish their reputation, I wonder?

Because sportswashing seems to work. Now everyone's talking about the WWE. No one cares about Prince Bonesaw having Khashoggi dissolved in acid.
posted by Dark Messiah at 8:00 AM on November 4, 2019 [1 favorite]

I'm also in the the "had a WWE Network subscription, cancelled it this year" boat. Playing in SA is unconscionable, and there are plenty of alternatives at this point, many of which are more interesting anyhow.
posted by Ipsifendus at 12:43 PM on November 4, 2019 [4 favorites]

I've had mad respect for Daniel Bryan and others who have refused to go. And props to the bravery of Natalia and Lacy for going out there with no real guarantee that a nutjob fanatic wouldn't do something (before/after the event, if not during). I wish McMahon would take this easy out as a chance to cancel the rest of the deal.

And this is straying from the point of the post but you want to talk about image? The Lashley/Lana segments on RAW recently have been killing me and I really thought we were beyond that sort of thing. I don't love the things the WWE is doing recently in a seemingly desperate flailing for ratings or cash.
posted by jermsplan at 7:31 PM on November 4, 2019

Ha hah hah Vince has learned NOTHING:

“Following the historic Crown Jewel event in Riyadh, WWE (NYSE: WWE) and the Saudi General Entertainment Authority (GEA) have expanded their live event partnership through 2027 to include a second annual large-scale event.”
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 4:48 AM on November 5, 2019

expanded their live event partnership through 2027 to include a second annual large-scale event.

So the 10-year deal that started in 2018 with the Greatest Royal Rumble in April and Crown Jewel in November has been expanded to run through 2027 and include two events per year.
posted by Etrigan at 6:31 AM on November 5, 2019

For Vince McMahon, one guy paying $50 million to see a show is just as good as a million guys paying $50 each, and it's a lot easier to figure out what the one guy wants to see.

This is in fact the primary thesis of Capital in the 21st Century.
posted by PMdixon at 7:04 AM on November 5, 2019 [2 favorites]

So the 10-year deal that started in 2018 with the Greatest Royal Rumble in April and Crown Jewel in November has been expanded to run through 2027 and include two events per year.

So if I read this right, they expanded a 10-year deal into a 9-year deal?

What are the chances of Vince being abandoned by all of his wrestlers?
posted by rhizome at 7:52 AM on November 5, 2019

So if I read this right, they expanded a 10-year deal into a 9-year deal?

If the first year is 2018, then the tenth year would be 2027.

What are the chances of Vince being abandoned by all of his wrestlers?

Low. WWE is still the biggest game in town, and even if they wanted to cripple it, 90 percent of the roster would take a significant pay cut, especially if everyone quit.
posted by Etrigan at 7:55 AM on November 5, 2019 [1 favorite]

Again, with the rumors and all, but there was a meeting before Raw with all of the wrestlers and McMahon, and it seems like essentially nothing happened. No one really stood up and complained, and there are conflicting stories about whether Seth Rollins spoke or not, but he's been pretty vocal on twitter about how great WWE is and how everyone saying anything bad is a dirty liar, so he's really endearing himself to a lot of people.
posted by Ghidorah at 12:37 AM on November 6, 2019