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As a fan of everything you pay a lot of attention to, you accept a certain amount, let's call it, imperfection. It is too polite, of course, for professional wrestling, given the importance of sexism, homophobia and racial caricature in the past of the struggle. But you hope and sometimes shake things up. The arc of progress usually goes up, after all.
The situation has improved at WWE, the largest wrestling company in the world. This strange sports soap opera, which I have enjoyed since I was a child, has mostly caught up with the times.
WWE women are no longer participating in pudding matches, for example. They are now fighting Hell in a Cell, Royal Rumbles and no-gimmick contests that are sometimes big enough to steal the show. Damn it, Ronda Rousey is fighting for the WWE now.
Stereotypes, long used to induce the lowest instincts of bait lovers, are less abundant. The darkness of some characters of struggle and the homosexuality of others are no longer presented to the spectators to fear or to hate. These things are presented as if you did not know, something fans would like to encourage.
There are a lot of good ones in the fight these days. There are a lot of improvements and a lot of wonderful wrestlers, matches and shows that make WWE something that I'm happy to pay for. Every summer, I happily take the boys that my wife used to give as tutors to WWE's major shows in Brooklyn. Every summer, I also pay stupid sums to attend the big events in Summerslam and to sit as close to the public as possible during the episodes of Smackdown. I do not buy any t-shirts or replica belts, but I started paying $ 10 a month for the WWE streaming network from its launch in early 2014. I had no regrets. I regularly watched the WWE division, the minor league division, NXT, take advantage of their English and women's tournaments and just started to enter the cruiserweight show, 205 Live.
This morning, I canceled my subscription to the WWE network.
WWE is planning to launch a show called Crown Jewel in Saudi Arabia next month, and I am not comfortable paying them the money they follow, given the latest charges laid against the Saudi government that funds the show.
I have nothing against the basic concept of WWE shows in Saudi Arabia. If they want to do the promotion there and spend their money on emissions consistent with their products, it's cool. But that's not what happened this year. In April, just two weeks after WWE's largest-ever event, Wrestlemania, WWE staged a show in Saudi Arabia called The Greatest Royal Rumble. It was not representative of what WWE is today, a significant part of its staff forced to stay at home. While Wrestlemania has featured several women's matches, including Charlotte Flair against Asuka and Rousey's wrestling debut, the Greatest Royal Rumble did not have one.
Instead, the women having banned from performing, the April show had time to announce men's matches and a propaganda on the importance of Saudi Arabia under the leadership of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. It is the same allegedly reformist leader whose government is accused of cracking down on militants and dissidents, as a recent report says L & # 39; interception. It's the same leader whose agents are now accused of murdering Jamal Khashoggi, an American resident Washington Post journalist who criticized the government.
The 2018 WWE shows in Saudi Arabia are part of a lucrative 10-year deal that the company has signed with the kingdom of the Middle East. The Saudis have paid a lot of money, perhaps as much as $ 50 million per show, according to a media outlet that looks at the public finances of the WWE. Regardless of the dollar amount, the Crown Prince pays for performances that exceed the magnitude of what WWE usually does. That's why you get matches and appearances in these series that did not happen in the United States. When is Brock Lesnar fighting again? Not in American concerts since August. He is back for Saudi Arabia. When will the legendary Shawn Michaels come out of retirement since 2010? Not in recent years to fight the best wrestlers in WWE, like A.J. Styles or his own protégé Daniel Bryan; Instead, he should return to Crown Jewel in a glorified old defender match with the washed-out stars Triple H, The Undertaker and Kane. No women's matches are announced for the card. It's a shame, because it shows that there was something good to get out of it in addition to corporate profits to compensate for state-run propaganda.
It is probably irrational to draw moral limits as to how you spend your money in a capitalist society. The phone I use, the food I eat, and the games that I like a lot – and that allow me to make a living – are all produced in a way that could take my mind off if I do not. 39, know more about the process. But there are limits. Maybe it should have been something else? Maybe my country is doing enough terrible things to make any stand against an agreement between the Republic of Korea and the WWE too hypocritical. But while I see reports of a Saudi team dragging a journalist into a trap at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, killing him and tearing him to pieces, my zeal for watching the WWE's hype-packed programming for the Crown Jewel event disappears.
The skepticism left something to be desired, since these claims were made only by Turkish officials, were denied by the Saudis and have yet to be confirmed by the United States. There is apparently audio and video evidence, but Washington Post reports that it is not clear if this has been approved by the United States. Possible murder is only the last drop. The Saudi-WWE agreement has a stench for a while. It was always screaming and disgusting. If the Turkish charges are true, it is beyond what I can personally tolerate.
In recent days, the media and businesses have suspended or broken ties with the Saudi government. US senators from both parties are now urging WWE to rethink their agreement and perhaps "suspend" the plans for the show, according to a report released today by the Independent Journal Review. The wife of WWE Executive Director Linda McMahon is a member of President Trump's cabinet.
WWE simply said that it was "watching" the situation. That's not enough for me. If the facts on which the rumors are based turn out to be true, they will have to stick to time. If not, count on me. I would like to renew my subscription to the WWE someday. For the moment, it's canceled.
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