With the recent events involving Saudi Arabia continuing to flood the news-waves, it’s sports entertainment partner, WWE, has now found themselves in hot water as well, with many fans and now United States officials asking WWE to cancel the upcoming “Crown Jewel” special event.
The event is scheduled to take place on November 2nd, 2018 from the King Saud University Stadium in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The controversy comes after reports of the apparent murder of U.S. resident and Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The Saudi government is being accused of having something to do with his disappearance by Turkish officials.
In light of this news, earlier this week, United States Senators Chris Murphy (Conn.), Chris Coons (Del.) and Bob Menendez (NJ) called on the company to rethink their relationship with the government of Saudi Arabia.
Here are some quotes from the Senators from an article on IJR.com via WrestlingNewsSource.com:
Senator Murphy:
“I’d hope that they would be rethinking their relationship with the kingdom especially with respect to events coming up in the next weeks like [WWE Crown Jewel]. [This is] a brazen assault on the freedom of the press and a slap in the face to the United States, if this murder occurred as it seems it did.”
Senator Menendez:
“Private enterprise is private enterprise, different than a governmental entity, but because [Linda McMahon] is part of the president’s cabinet, it falls into the grey area where the administration really should give it some thought and maybe even prevail upon them not doing it.”
Senator Coons:
“There should be a pause in WWE’s business relationship with Saudi Arabia. [They should] be taking a hard look [at its relationship with Saudi Arabia moving forward].
In addition, a participate in the upcoming event and mayor of Knox County, Tennessee Glen Jacobs (aka Kane) stated that he will remain on the show and will not be backing out.
Jacobs has this statement released from his office:
“Mayor Jacobs won’t speculate on Mr. Khashoggi’s disappearance. However, he and his family are in the mayor’s thoughts and prayers.”
WWE released a statement on Thursday stating that they are “monitoring” the situation.
In closing, not only are U.S. Senators upset over this relationship, but many WWE fans and other people are not a fan of WWE holding their agreement to perform the Crown Jewel event. Here is a poll from our Twitter account, @PWPNation:
Should #WWE move forward with #CrownJewel and run it from The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia or cancel the show?
— PWP Nation (@PWPNation) October 12, 2018
It’s clear that there are quite a few that think WWE should pull out of this event as well. Although it is a small sample size (we know), it’s a good test of how a good portion of people, not only WWE fans, feel about this situation.
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