Occasionally, I feel the need to bring up wrestling. Usually it is to push for respect, but this time, WWE is doing something very ethically questionable, and not enough people know about it.
Earlier this year, the wrestling giant discovered it could make a multitude of money from hosting special shows in countries they do not often visit, with Saudi Arabia and Australia being the first two in a probable long line. Obviously, being associated with the former is a bit of a red flag, but WWE is blatantly selling out with its Saudi Arabian relationship. Let me explain. 
At the beginning of the year, the new Saudi Arabian crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, as part of his Vision 2030 campaign to “modernize” his country, paid WWE somewhere between $40 and 50 million to showcase an event dubbed “The Greatest Royal Rumble” in April. Serving as both entertainment for the Saudi elite and as a vehicle for the country’s propaganda to reach Westerners, the event was horribly out of place and felt 100 percent contrived while it was happening.
Ian Williams for Vice Sports outlines just how gross the situation was. “Michael Cole (WWE’s lead color commentator) bleated on endlessly about the jewel of the Middle East and how wonderful bin Salman was. Vision 2030 was mentioned by name, and its buzzwords were so present and cloying that it felt as obvious as when the announcers plug KFC or Starburst between matches,” Williams explained.
Female wrestlers were not allowed on the show, yet WWE shamelessly showed videos promoting the so-called progressiveness of the new Saudi regime finally allowing women to drive. The resident Syrian wrestler for WWE, Sami Zayn, was also nowhere to be seen to the surprise of absolutely no one. Of course, neither the women nor Zayn received a share of the massive payday the event earned.
I watched the event live, and seeing a U.S.-based company practically trip over itself to take a big payday from individuals violating human rights was more than a little unsettling. 
WWE is already set to host another event, Crown Jewel, in the country next month. Even while the Saudi Arabian government is being all but confirmed to having a journalist killed, WWE is simply keeping quiet, monitoring the situation and waiting for everything to blow over so they can fly on over and make another $45 million.
Other companies like JPMorgan, CNN and Ford are pulling out of conferences in Saudi Arabia in wake of the murdered journalist and disassociating themselves with the country. U.S. senators are advising WWE to change their relationship with Saudi Arabia too, but there is no backing down as of yet. For the cherry on top, even the wrestlers want nothing to do with the situation. 
Bryan Alvarez, one of the primary reporters in the wrestling world, stated on his Wrestling Observer Live podcast, “The majority of the talent doesn’t want to go to Saudi Arabia, but the office wants to go to Saudi Arabia and they have shareholders that they want to please with all of these big money deals that they’re getting.”
The saddest part of this is how transparent WWE is being with their greed. It shows the world they are willing to shill for any type of cause for a price; and as a fan of wrestling, I am honestly ashamed to be associated at all with it. Working in the country at all raises some issues, but outright supporting their backward policies is only perpetuating their continuation.
It is their right to work with whomever or whatever they like, but Americans should be putting pressure on WWE to back out of this. I am not naïve enough to expect corporations to be ethical in any situation which does not make sense financially, but this is especially egregious.
If they will not do anything, based on their conscious alone, Americans should be aware so we can impact them where it matters: their pockets. No American individual or company should push the garbage coming out of bin Salman’s regime, and we should make this known in no uncertain terms.