WWE/Saudi arabia relationship

Psykohurricane55

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I was on another Forum and this as been a really popular topic after what happened to the saudi journalist at the turkish embassy last week.

So i'm just wondering, what are you're opinion about all of this. Do you care that WWE are still going after this or are do you not care about all of this.
 
I admit being a little disturbed at the idea of someone who was involved with the journalist's disappearance/death could likely be on hard cam all night. WWE probably won't back out of an obvious money making ploy, but this does leave a bad taste in my mouth.
 
Let wait for the investigation to conclude and find out why it happens. As for WWE, I'm guessing they will wait until the last minute before doing the show.
 
Nothing happens. It's all about the money.

A person died. That's horrible, but there are things like this happening all over the world and nobody ever bats an eyelid. If they can do Tribute to the Troops, they will do this. Different scenario, I know, so don't get started on some politically correct nonsense.
But still, to do those shows was dangerous. We can't know in advance if anything terrible will happen, but I assume WWE are taking all possible measures to make sure nothing happens. That would ruin their business.

And to those calling on WWE to find its conscience: business is business. Money is conscience.

I personally don't think it's a smart choice to go, but what do they care?
 
WWE's not closing the show and I don't see any reason why they should. Saudi Arabia is another Middle Eastern country that's extremely backwards when it comes to issues on human rights and equality between the sexes, among other things. None of those things, however, have caused McDonalds, Pepsi, Coke, IBM, or Microsoft to stop doing business with them or us from buying gasoline to put in our cars made from the petroleum taken from Saudi Arabia so I personally think it's time that the United States can the fake internet outrage that's going on; where was all the outrage back in August when we learned that a bomb used by the Saudis to blow up a school bus in Yemen was supplied by our own government? I guess it doesn't matter that the Saudis killed 40 children with 500 lbs. of explosives provided by our government, but God forbid something as relatively unimportant as a wrestling company puts on a show for the Saudi Crown Prince.

Corporate juggernauts richer than some countries do business in Saudi Arabia, our own government does business in Saudi Arabia and military contractors, which is basically the PC term for private armies of mercenary killers for sale to the highest bidder, based in the United States does business with Saudi Arabia; all of them reap the rewards of the wanton chaos that characterizes the Middle East, yet people are losing their shit over a wrestling company putting on a show?!?! Maybe I'll jump on the band wagon to crucify WWE if Vince & Co. actually does something worth being outraged over.
 
WWE's not closing the show and I don't see any reason why they should. Saudi Arabia is another Middle Eastern country that's extremely backwards when it comes to issues on human rights and equality between the sexes, among other things. None of those things, however, have caused McDonalds, Pepsi, Coke, IBM, or Microsoft to stop doing business with them or us from buying gasoline to put in our cars made from the petroleum taken from Saudi Arabia so I personally think it's time that the United States can the fake internet outrage that's going on; where was all the outrage back in August when we learned that a bomb used by the Saudis to blow up a school bus in Yemen was supplied by our own government? I guess it doesn't matter that the Saudis killed 40 children with 500 lbs. of explosives provided by our government, but God forbid something as relatively unimportant as a wrestling company puts on a show for the Saudi Crown Prince.

Corporate juggernauts richer than some countries do business in Saudi Arabia, our own government does business in Saudi Arabia and military contractors, which is basically the PC term for private armies of mercenary killers for sale to the highest bidder, based in the United States does business with Saudi Arabia; all of them reap the rewards of the wanton chaos that characterizes the Middle East, yet people are losing their shit over a wrestling company putting on a show?!?! Maybe I'll jump on the band wagon to crucify WWE if Vince & Co. actually does something worth being outraged over.

Aren't there companies pulling out of Saudi Arabia because of this?

See I would agree with you if this was simply WWE holding Saudi Arabia events for Money. And if this what it only is then it's just the WWE being a transparent company that only cares about Money.

Problem is the company has spent years trying to shed away from that image as a Wrestling company that would do anything and compromise for ratings and media attention (Necrophillia, HLA, the attitude era, Wild Sex celebrations?) to be a legit wholesome corporation. A large corporation that cares about social issues and try to make it that point across in every aspect of their programming and product. It seems hypocritical if a company fires someone making a rape joke but continues doing business with a country whose had a history of punishing victims of rape doesn't it?

Bottom line is if all these PR and social awareness initiatives is part of the company's values, which I assume it is, it is in the best interest of the WWE to, at least, postpone the event. I have worked in a large tech corporation before and the first thing you do ever year is take a Corporate Standards and Ethics training and refresher course every year. One of the parts in the training is that you never compromise the company's value for profit. And this is what the WWE is violating right now, in some respects.
 
Before the murder and pathetic excuse for a cover up of this reporter I didn't pay any mind to WWE's relationship to Saudi Arabia. Even after the bombing of that school bus I didn't think much of any controversy. Now I'm starting to feel differently. It's hard to believe this murder didn't come from the top. This wasn't collateral damage or being behind in values and equality, it was murder of one of your critics. That's scary shit. For WWE to mount a "goodwill" propaganda show right now seems downright disrespectful to Americans and American values. I'm not going to protest Raw or cancel my network subscription (I'm not currently a member) but I'm definitely going to have shittier taste in my mouth as a fan.

Oh yeah, and 9/11.
 
I would never support a country that throws people headfirst off of a building due to their sexual preference, Where a womens value is worth less than that of an animal and throws people in jail for trivial reasons that occurs daily here such as being an unmarried couple, showing affection like holding hands with your husband or wife or wearing the wrong type of clothing.
For me it's no better than performing for Hitler and the German nazis so I would prefer WWE not to hold such large events here but I guess if you pay them enough they will do anything.
 
Aren't there companies pulling out of Saudi Arabia because of this?

As of right now, these companies aren't pulling out of Saudi Arabia, there are various CEOs of major companies like JP Morgan, McDonalds and some others are merely pulling out of some sort of big conference that's supposed to take place soon. It's called the Future Investment Initiative conference. These companies aren't going to walk away from the billions of dollars they make from doing business with Saudi Arabia, not for the death of a reporter or a million others just like him. These companies have done business with the Saudis for decades, the CEOs and company executives know full well the history of the crown prince of the KSA just as they know the kind of man his father is. They didn't go into it blindfolded and I guarantee that Vince didn't either, they all knew full well the atrocious history the Saudi government has when it comes to human rights violations just like American companies that did business with Germany during World War II knew what the Nazis were all about, what their goals were and what they stood for.

See I would agree with you if this was simply WWE holding Saudi Arabia events for Money. And if this what it only is then it's just the WWE being a transparent company that only cares about Money.

Problem is the company has spent years trying to shed away from that image as a Wrestling company that would do anything and compromise for ratings and media attention (Necrophillia, HLA, the attitude era, Wild Sex celebrations?) to be a legit wholesome corporation. A large corporation that cares about social issues and try to make it that point across in every aspect of their programming and product. It seems hypocritical if a company fires someone making a rape joke but continues doing business with a country whose had a history of punishing victims of rape doesn't it?

Bottom line is if all these PR and social awareness initiatives is part of the company's values, which I assume it is, it is in the best interest of the WWE to, at least, postpone the event. I have worked in a large tech corporation before and the first thing you do ever year is take a Corporate Standards and Ethics training and refresher course every year. One of the parts in the training is that you never compromise the company's value for profit. And this is what the WWE is violating right now, in some respects.

Most corporations try to paint themselves as being companies of strong moral fiber and having a wholesome attitude. It's an image that almost nobody really believes or buys into; McDonalds often features families in their commercials, kids especially as they've branded themselves as being sort of the ultimate kid friendly fast food joint. Like every other corporation in America, however, they exploit their workers to varying degrees, they have politicians in their pockets for the purpose of creating measures designed to help them make even more money or to oppose measures that might rein in some of the corporate fat cats, they do business with countries hostile to what are considered to be American values such as China and Russia, etc.. In spite of WWE's efforts, much of the rest of the world doesn't really take them seriously when they try to portray themselves as this upright, wholesome altruistic company that's looking to build a better tomorrow. It's all hypocritical nonsense, just like it is for any of these other companies. Then again, is it hypocritical to denounce McDonalds or Coca-Cola for doing business with the KSA in one breath and then to order a Big Mac and a large Coke in the next? I don't know, maybe does and maybe it doesn't. Morality and Corporate America don't go hand in hand, at least not when it comes to the movers and shakers who have all the power. If an assembly line worker for Ford Motor Company says the N word in earshot of a dozen people, he's gonna be fired; if Ford CEO Jim Hackett says it during a meeting in the presence of the very top company executives, it's most likely that nothing whatsoever will happen in terms of consequences. The other executives will probably either laugh or pretend that they didn't hear a thing.
This entire situation has put on full display exactly what Capitalism ultimately is: it's about doing business with just about anybody as long as they're willing to pay without regard for morality. This is how the system works, it's how it's always worked and how it always will work unless Americans, and I mean many, many, many millions of Americans are able to stand united and demand for things to change and hold Corporate America accountable; that's not going to happen, however, we're so divided and so different in our mind sets. WWE could be "forced" to change their plans if stockholders stood up and began selling off their stock but that's not happening: WWE's stock was up another 1.5% today and the company's stock is worth about $6.4 billion, a little more than half of which belongs to Vince himself. Fans could demand that WWE change their plans by not watching WWE programming but, again, that's not happening as SmackDown last Tuesday did their best numbers in 6 months and outdrew Raw.
When you get right down to it, nobody really cares beyond the usual knee jerk reaction outrage that sparks up and fades away the more time goes by and that's really all this is. In a few weeks, we'll be in the midst of mid-term elections, Trump will say and/or do something that insults and alienates millions of Americans, his supporters will praise him while deriding his detractors while his detractors will detest him and his supporters, the fall out will be front and center and ultimately this reporter will be just another footnote in the history of Trump's tumultuous time as President because we'll have moved on just as we moved on from every scandal, mass shooting and racial injustice. WWE will weather this storm and when they start up their next marketing campaign to show what a progressive company they are, nobody will care, apart from those wo already crap on WWE for one thing or another but keep on spending their time and money to watch just the same.
 
Hope the rumor of both Daniel Bryan and John Cena not wanting to do the show are true.

John Cena doing this show would compromise his status in Hollywood and the mainstream media. Doing this show was probably going to hurt him getting offers from Hollywood.
 
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This... is... bad.

I used to be quite the pearl clutcher, I admit it. Sometimes pearl clutching isn't completely unfounded. Who's pearl clutching? Turkey.

Turkey and Saudi Arabia are two major US allies that exist in a part of the world were US interests are usually spat upon. They both allow the US military to utilize them as transit centers to facilitate deployments to the more dangerous Middle Eastern locations, and for that the US Government tends to look the other way when they overstep the bounds of decent behavior. Both countries are having to answer for a shit-storm of human rights abuses at the hands of their own governments, so it's awfully convenient for Turkey that they can decry the awful behavior of Saudi Arabia. For the record, Turkey was recognized by Human Rights Watch as being the 2018 world leader in convicting journalists that didn't promote the government in a positive light. So, I find it a bit odd that Erdogan feels that he can be taken seriously as someone who would lose sleep over a missing journalist.

I don't think that the team of Saudis were a "hit-squad", more like a piss poor incompetent excuse for a squad of interrogators. I don't think that Mr. Khashoggi was dismembered, I think that he was accidentally killed and that his body was dumped.

All criticisms of Turkey aside, it's still pretty fucked up what Saudi Arabia did and that their apparent reaction is to clean up their image at all costs.

Also, uhh, Prince Salman apparently REALLY wants the WWE to perform in Saudi Arabia. The WWE and Prince Salman are apparently relying on public opinion to have such a short attention span that this will eventually blow over. It's odd to me, because I think that even with investors no-showing Saudi Arabia's investment conference earlier this month, the greatest blow to Saudi Arabia would be if the WWE decides to pull out.

Think about it. Most of us have hedonistic traits. We work our asses off, deal with the bullshit of our loved ones, try to stay somewhat healthy, and all of that leaves us needing to relieve stress in some way. You take away our stress relief, and we become very angry people. I don't find stress relief in stewing for hours over geopolitically based headlines, I find stress relief in watching Becky Lynch call Charlotte Flair a bitch. Say what you want about the low-brow nature of prowrestling (though some of it is pretty damn high-brow), it's fun for most everyone. We were promised a megacard of mayhem for our viewing delight, and the people of Saudi Arabia were promised a reprieve from all of this geopolitical brew-ha-ha. Take that away, and the Prince is gonna' be up shit creek without a paddle or even a fucking boat for that matter.
 

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