In 2018, WWE had two scheduled shows in Saudi Arabia: Crown Jewel and the Greatest Royal Rumble. This comes as WWE’s business initiative to expand the company into uncharted territories. However, this expansion in a controversial country has, at the very least, divided fans, superstars, and the women’s division at large.

First, the fans of the WWE expressed backlash against these events, as they happened amidst the controversial death of an American journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, in Saudi Arabia. After the events were announced, subscriptions to the WWE Network program decreased. While there is not causal link between the announcement and the decrease, WWE has to be concerned with the blowback they will receive from fans by continuing the programs in the country.

WWE has just announced their intent to remove the classic Backlash pay-per-view from their schedule in order to replace it with another Saudi Arabia show. While the shows do produce a lot of money for the company, one would have to wonder why the WWE is making this risk. On top of the friction with viewers and the location, there is also heat amongst the superstars working for the company. John Cena, Daniel Bryan and Sami Zayn, for instance, decided to cancel their appearances for the show after the controversy was released to the public. Being some of the biggest names in the company, these stars hold a lot of weight among the fan base, and definitely seem to be throwing their influence around.

Additionally, and more problematic, the company maintains their policy of keeping the women from competing in the shows. At a time when the WWE has preached this idea of the “Women’s Revolution” in the company, they seem to be hypocritical when it comes to this show in the Middle East. While it is true that the business must be concerned with multiculturalism and the influence of other non-western systems of life, they also must be concerned with upholding their values. WWE claims they are doing this in the name of being a catalyst for change in the region, as they were in Abu Dhabi, where the women had the first women’s match in the entire history of the Middle East. By having more shows in Saudi Arabia, WWE hopes to one day make it to a position of progress that allows their women to compete without question in the region.

Until that time comes, the WWE will continue to wait out their fans reactions, see if the fans forget about the controversy in the region, and find out if their fans can live without the prominent women main event matches being on the pay-per-view shows. Additionally, they will have to look for ways to appease their stars, write the characters that are upset with the situation out of the storylines, and work to appease the women that are missing this major pay-per-view in the name of business expansion.

Despite these challenges from the business administration, these women worked so hard to break the glass ceiling in WWE. Get on WWE’s social media sites, show your support of the women, voice your opinion on this business decision and continue to be entertained by the greatest women’s athletes in the world. Leave a comment on the post below, and tell me your thoughts on this issue.

1…2…3… I’m tapping out.