WWE comments on talent dissent over Crown Jewel: "As always, we maintain an open line of communication with our performers, as we continue to monitor the situation."

Uh huh. 

This is gonna be the first ever PPV broadcast from Parts Unknown !!!

1 hour ago, El-P said:

This is gonna be the first ever PPV broadcast from Parts Unknown !!!

If only Ultimate Warrior was still around for the hometown pop.

7 hours ago, NintendoLogic said:

They'll probably treat it like an episode of Raw in a city Vince doesn't think is big league enough to mention on the air.

"Coming to you from the greater suburban area of downtown Saudi Arabiaaa..."

And really... we can make all the bad jokes we want about it (and I sure made some awful ones already), but in the end, a political regime just lurred a journalist into their consulat, kidnapped him, tortured him (yeah, that's called "interrogation"), killed by ("by accident") and dismembered him. Just think about the atrocity of this act. And the WWE is gonna take the money and, most probably, run their *second* (this year, more coming) propaganda show for this regime.

So, fuck them.

(And really, fuck anyone who still supports them from this point on. And that includes each and everyone of the workers who, apparently, are all against doing the show. This is now or never people, get a set of balls, refuse to do it and unionize.)

He fell throat first on a sword.  Tragic story.

Fortunately, MBS is investigating.

3 hours ago, El-P said:

(And really, fuck anyone who still supports them from this point on. And that includes each and everyone of the workers who, apparently, are all against doing the show. This is now or never people, get a set of balls, refuse to do it and unionize.)

I understand what you're saying, and agree with it to an extent, but it's easy to say that on a message board. I'd imagine it's quite a different story for the workers.

Apparently JBL was on some Fox Business show and tried the "it's ok for WWE to run this show because they also do good stuff sometimes" and people are reacting as badly as you'd expect. 

1 hour ago, ...TG said:

I understand what you're saying, and agree with it to an extent, but it's easy to say that on a message board. I'd imagine it's quite a different story for the workers.

Of course it is (easy to say that on a message board), and of course it's me being angry (because quite frankly, I've been a pro-wrestling fan for almost 30 years, 8 of which as a WWF fan, and it's a really awful feeling to imagine that you've had so much fun thanks to some truly disgusting, awful human beings).

Still, at some point, you gotta ask yourself what the hell you're doing with your life. 

Trying to understand WWE fans is a waste of time. Vince shows up tonight in light of all of this and gets a massive pop?

Just now, Charles (Loss) said:

Trying to understand WWE fans is a waste of time. Vince shows up tonight in light of all of this and gets a massive pop?

You really thought he wasn't going to get the treatment he always gets?

Whether he gets it or not, I don't understand the mentality of being all over WWE for this and then cheering him like mad when he comes out. It doesn't surprise me, but it makes absolutely no sense.

The only thing I can think of is they are separating the performer from the person.  That's all I got.  Who knows?

Some folks think it's not a big deal and don't effect them in any way, truly sad. 

I'm not remotely surprised that he got that pop, but I was thinking the same thing when he came out. The people that complain about Vince - especially on something like this when it's about literal human rights violations and murder - and then treat him like a babyface are... a fascinating bunch. WWE will never change because they know they can get away with it. Vince can get away with it. Not only get away with it, but remained beloved.

If I can play devil's advocate for a moment, it this really that much worse than covering up a murder?

It's amazing how "WWE" is discussed in a way that somehow completely separates from "Vince McMahon". A subtle thing, but a form of language we use that absolves him personally of a lot while blaming this faceless entity for bad things.

Just now, NintendoLogic said:

If I can play devil's advocate for a moment, it this really that much worse than covering up a murder?

That wasn't my point. My point was that if people are criticizing WWE, you'd think the live reactions to Vince would reflect that. I wasn't commenting either way on my viewpoint on the decision to do the show or not -- I was commenting on how the reactions don't sync up.

Just to be clear, I'm not talking about tonight. I'm just asking whether WWE's involvement with Saudi Arabia is really that much worse than the things Vince has been directly implicated in over the years.

The answer is no. The difference is that Vince's involvement in those things isn't a current story that people are talking about where they are sharing opinions. So I wouldn't expect Vince to get that reaction for those things. I would for this. So I guess in addition to crowd reactions and business metrics not matching up, crowd reactions and social media reactions don't match up either. Just more confusion in the WWE puzzle.

I'd be curious to know the percentage of people in the crowd who are even aware of what is going on beyond a general sense of "the Saudis aren't someone we'd normally want to be so buddy-buddy with".  I would be surprised if there was a high level of awareness, but I was surprised at how many people were aware of the issues surrounding Snuka when they aired the tribute package for him and then cut to an uncomfortable looking crowd. 

I dont know much about how the stock market works, but if the story picks up mainstream news these next two weeks in a really intense way, is there a chance that the stock price would drop in a level that would shake WWE?

I am of the mindset that at this point all WWE is going to do is avoid mentioning the location in the show buildup, run the show, and the move on to the next thing. And that the only thing that could potentially stop that would be strong pressure from USA and FOX or if the stock drops from bad PR, but I dont know if the PR related to them going ahead with the show would be enough to make a dent in the stock with everything else WWE has going as a positive.

They are counting on short memories. In the times we live, it's probably a safe bet. No one has bothered to follow up to ask WWE the status of their Randy Orton "investigation" from just a month or so ago either.

5 hours ago, Charles (Loss) said:

The answer is no.

Covering the Snuka murder was really, really bad. But we're more in "extremely sleazy old-school carny shit". Selling yourself for an obscene amount of dollars to do propaganda pieces (because that's all these shows are) for a criminal regime is a whole other level of soulless capitalistic zero-ethic bullshit. I'm not sure anything compares, to be honest.

(well, financing and actively being a part, true Linda, of the cabinet of Trump may be equally as bad in the grand scheme of things, really, considering the influence this piece of trash has in the current world)

As far as this goes :

6 hours ago, Charles (Loss) said:

Trying to understand WWE fans is a waste of time. Vince shows up tonight in light of all of this and gets a massive pop?

Fuck each and everyone of them. There's no "separating the person from the performer" in this context. I hope they had a blast at Smackdown cheering this guy who puts "smiles on the faces" of a regime that just ordered the brutal murder and dismembering of a journalist. It's way past the point of embarrassing.