It was a very newsworthy trip out of Saudi Arabia last week, which I’ve already gotten four articles out of. (The WWE crew was stuck in a lengthy flight delay, they had to be pulled from SmackDown as a result, there’s a lot of weird happenings surrounding this that we still don’t have the whole story on and also it seems Cain Velasquez wasn’t actually cleared to wrestle.)
Well on the heels of all that, guess what WWE just did? Yep, they announced an expansion of their partnership with the Saudi Arabian government. While initially they cited a 10-year contract with the General Sports Authority, they are now linking themselves to the General Entertainment Authority. You can see their press release below:
WWE® AND THE SAUDI GENERAL ENTERTAINMENT AUTHORITY EXPAND EVENT PARTNERSHIP
STAMFORD, CONN. and RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA, November 4, 2019 – 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. WWE and GEA also continue to work towards the completion of a media agreement in the MENA region.
This long-term partnership demonstrates WWE and GEA’s commitment to bring sports entertainment to the region and supports Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030.
This comes amid speculation that disputes have emerged between Vince McMahon and the GEA.
In my third article linked above I go more into this, but basically it’s thought that there’s a lot of money still owed to WWE in this deal and things have gotten a little dicey over it.
That it specifically mentions establishing a second annual event is also funny, considering another part of this issue was that WWE might not be doing two a year going forward. That wasn’t just baseless speculation, it comes directly from a quarterly conference call. WWE’s representatives at that time, just weeks ago, couldn’t guarantee investors they’d be doing two events in Saudi Arabia a year. Considering these are far and away WWE’s biggest revenue getters – assuming they’re actually paid what they’re owed for them anyway – this did not make them happy. WWE’s stock dropped significantly coming out of that quarterly call, likely related.
Considering all that, to say this statement feels politically motivated would be a bit of an understatement. They’re deep in PR and cover-up mode now. And considering how miserable much of the roster was this past week and how many of them were asserting that they’d never go back there, I can’t imagine this announcement is gonna be a popular one in the locker room.
If morale was a big concern they probably would’ve delayed such a thing until we were closer to said second annual event. But with all the rumors running rampant, they clearly wanted to put up the guise that all things are rosy between them and the Saudi Arabian government.
And hey, maybe they are. Nothing’s been confirmed, I can’t say what goes on behind closed doors. But it’s personally hard for me to look at this and not see it as transparent.
