WWE issued a statement and it is very full of corporate bullshit. 

This whole situation is very strange.

Yeah. I don't think it was a mechanical issue. There was some report that Vince got in a disagreement with someone last night. I'm thinking they were fucking with the talent to make a point. 

So no one has been murdered, yeah? 

3 minutes ago, Coffey said:

So no one has been murdered, yeah? 

Not that anyone is aware of

15 minutes ago, Mad Dog said:

Yeah. I don't think it was a mechanical issue. There was some report that Vince got in a disagreement with someone last night. I'm thinking they were fucking with the talent to make a point. 

That's my line of speculation as well. Delaying the departure just a few hours screws up Vince's live television show.

25 minutes ago, Coffey said:

So no one has been murdered, yeah? 

Dignity ? Self-respect maybe ?

Meltz says they are bringing in NXT talent for tonight's show

They've lucked into a perfect opportunity to push Matt Riddle to the moon and prep him to beat Brock down the line. 

23 minutes ago, Strummer said:

Meltz says they are bringing in NXT talent for tonight's show

At this point they kind of have to unless they want to do a Vince vs Hulk vs Brock 60 minute Iron Man match. 

Gotta think Fox must love that the show they invested so much in got derailed like this. 

7 minutes ago, sek69 said:

Gotta think Fox must love that the show they invested so much in got derailed like this. 

Survivor Series : Team  Fox vs Team MBS. Winner takes Smackdown.

Just spitballing here, maybe the next time they do a Thursday Saudi show they should just run Smackdown there the next day. Even if everything would have gone according to plan, having 3/4ths of your roster flying across the world to run a show on 3 hours rest is kind of fucked up. 

I'm more hoping that the majority of the roster nopes the fuck out from returning. I know *I* wouldn't be going through that shit again.

Having working in the middle east (admittedly not Saudi) it could be a visa clearance issue. Some transient contractor visas need to be signed off to process exit, as they're classed as "transit" workers and exit can become an additional security risk. 

If they've not processed everything correctly it could be that. A spontaneous show will probably be better anyway 

7 hours ago, MoS said:

The shows are and will always be propaganda for an evil empire, and having a token women's match won't change that. 

Having a token women's match is part of the propaganda, too!

it's probably a little generous to Saudi Arabia to call it an empire. The whole wahabbi funded schools in various countries aspect would be the closest thing to an empire. Evil entity that hates the concept of other gulf states leaving the nest, yeah definitely.

The problem with midweek Saudi cards is that the most obvious idea is to tape Smackdown which won't work as great for some obvious reasons (network not wanting canned shows and taping before an event and airing it afterwards). The pool of willing talent for future Saudimania shows is lower now.. but some would be won over by piles of cash and the whole fallacy of "well, it can't be any worse than that ever again". A Smackdown being held the day after a Saudi card somewhere in the area would have some challenges.. although I wonder if they could just go to some place like Dhahran (Saudi Aramco) for a Smackdown and have a mostly expat audience.

3 hours ago, Cobra Commander said:

it's probably a little generous to Saudi Arabia to call it an empire. The whole wahabbi funded schools in various countries aspect would be the closest thing to an empire. Evil entity that hates the concept of other gulf states leaving the nest, yeah definitely.

Also, in terms of imperial propaganda, these shows were always starting from 15th place or so, behind all the Tribute to the Troops shows (especially the ones from Iraq).

16 minutes ago, PhilTLL said:

Also, in terms of imperial propaganda, these shows were always starting from 15th place or so, behind all the Tribute to the Troops shows (especially the ones from Iraq).

Agreed. Tributes to the Troops shows, that appeared to be extremely safe for talent, especially women...

34 minutes ago, El-P said:

Agreed. Tributes to the Troops shows, that appeared to be extremely safe for talent, especially women...

I assume this is a sarcastic reference to the mortar attack and the Ashley Massaro incident.

31 minutes ago, PhilTLL said:

I assume this is a sarcastic reference to the mortar attack and the Ashley Massaro incident.

I am not sure about the first thing you are refering to (care to elaborate ?), but yeah, the Ashley Massaro rape thingy really should have been investigated a whole lot more seriously than it apparently was. I'm still baffled these kind of things are so easily swiped under the rug, especially when the girl ended up killing herself.

1 hour ago, El-P said:

I am not sure about the first thing you are refering to (care to elaborate ?), but yeah, the Ashley Massaro rape thingy really should have been investigated a whole lot more seriously than it apparently was. I'm still baffled these kind of things are so easily swiped under the rug, especially when the girl ended up killing herself.

Because it's rasslin', and rasslin' doesn't, never has, and never will matter. Remember, they're in the "garbage business." It's fake, so everything that happens must be fake too - even when the crimes are real. 

3 hours ago, El-P said:

I am not sure about the first thing you are refering to (care to elaborate ?), 

Oh, absolutely--in 2006, there was an insurgent attack using mortars on the base where staff was setting up for the next day's Tribute show. I believe some talent was on-base as well.

9 minutes ago, PhilTLL said:

Oh, absolutely--in 2006, there was an insurgent attack using mortars on the base where staff was setting up for the next day's Tribute show. I believe some talent was on-base as well.

Oh, wow, I was not aware of that one. Crazy to think they would go back after that.

This Saudi shit has more twists & turns than a Vince Russo WCW storyline.

Now the rumor circulating, which is apparently from Hugo Savinovich (which was in Spanish and translated to English) is that Vince McMahon was owed 300-600 million & wasn't paid. So he cut the feed to the KSA version of Crown Jewel. To combat that, the Prince held the roster plane hostage. 

Sounds pretty far fetched but the fact that it could also be plausible I don't know if it says more about Saudi Arabia or the carny business of pro wrestling.

"Never say never."

If true, this has to effectively end their 10 year deal, right? Surely they can't take a chance on return trips if this is how the relationship is turning out?

37 minutes ago, Coffey said:

This Saudi shit has more twists & turns than a Vince Russo WCW storyline.

Now the rumor circulating, which is apparently from Hugo Savinovich (which was in Spanish and translated to English) is that Vince McMahon was owed 300-600 million & wasn't paid. So he cut the feed to the KSA version of Crown Jewel. To combat that, the Prince held the roster plane hostage. 

Sounds pretty far fetched but the fact that it could also be plausible I don't know if it says more about Saudi Arabia or the carny business of pro wrestling.

"Never say never."

Melzer says the figures aren't accurate but he's not really pouring cold water on any of the rest of it. He said that the public story from the company is not the internal story but that it's difficult to corroborate anything. My conspiracy take on that is that Dave doesn't want to drop any of his sources in the shit because it's probably only high level people who know the real details.