Saudi Arabia Embraces Western Sports to Rehabilitate Global Image

Bread and circus always works. Until it doesn't.

All they have to do is allow women to live, dress, work as they please. That would enhance its global image.

The sports that a country promotes are irrelevant. That a country butchers, tortures, and imprisons people who speak their minds— or, in the case of women, just want to live freely— is of supreme importance. Such a country should be shunned by the civilized world.

Wow, Professional Wrestling in Saudi Arabia. Who could have possibly guessed? The Jim and Linda McMahon show, has a new market. And it's not really a "small business", is it? No, there's billions to be made. And take another guess, at who's also closely tied to Professional Wrestling? Yes, that's right - Trump. Trump first learned how to fire up a crowd, at the wrestling matches that he made guest appearances at. For an Attention Junkie like Trump, the screaming crowds at a WWE match were like heroin to a drug addict. He HAD to have it. So now we have the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, who aspires to become the most brutal dictator on the planet, finding another way to bribe the President of the United States. As if the Hotels and Golf Courses and financial bailouts for Jared weren't enough, now we have the Professional Wrestling Show. I lost count. What was the latest number of American Military troops that Trump was sending, to defend the Crown Prince?

Strange that this article doesn't mention the recent announcement that golfers Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Phil Mickelson, Tony Finau, Patrick Reed and others will attend a European PGA Tour event in Saudi Arabia in late January and early February, and will receive seven figure appearance fees. Johnson said before last year's event, which he won, "I'm not a politician, I'm a golfer." Somehow he forgot that he was also a human being capable of judgment and empathy. It will not be easy in the ultra-conservative world of professional golf, but some way should be found to ostracize these players.

As someone said below, "bread and circuses", is all this is. I can just picture the kindred "wunderkinds", Jared Kushner and Prince Mohammed, sitting around praising themselves at the idea of using western entertainment and sports to distract from the prince's killing of an American journalist, suppression of human rights activists, and wealth confiscation and confinement of his family members.

wrestling - a western sport? Wrestling is not a sport Wrestling is an US event/theatre/circus The KSA floated the idea of hosting the male olympics, and somewhere else the women could compete.

Bread and circuses to distract from torture and repression.

Female wrestlers? Saudi Arabia? Rehabilitating global image? Donald Trump must have been the consultant who made the recommendation.

Western `sports'? I didn't know grotesque, choreographed beatings fell under the heading of sport.

Well, I always knew something would bring the world together in universal understanding and harmony. I just never thought it would be WWE. Truly, God works in mysterious ways. Very mysterious.

Despite some comments suggesting otherwise, this is actually a very lucrative time for professional wrestling in the United States. WWE’s recent broadcast deal with Fox is it’s most valuable ever at over a billion dollars, and it’s currently broadcasting three in-ring shows on two networks (USA and Fox). Meanwhile, the market is healthy enough that WWE has its first real competition since WCW in the 90’s, with AEW Dynamite debuting on TNT with record high viewership. With the amount of money being thrown around for domestic television deals, the partnership between WWE and Saudi Arabia is even less defensible.

Yippee - same as Qatar. As much as Qatar wants to join the ranks of civilized nations, its dependence on coerced labor and corrupt work preferences for Qatari professional jobs make it untouchable. Tennis and soccer are huge in Qatar. As is, unbelievably, horseback riding. The Saudis can try to impress Trump and his ilk with WWE and other "sports", but it will go nowhere, especially when our presidency changes over.

This surely is over playing one's hand to the point where it makes you very skeptical, and think it's just the worst public relations scheme anyone has ever thought up. At least make it a dignified sport! Then perhaps after a few years of that, I will truly believe it.

It will take a lot more than western sports to rehabilitate this country!

WWE is not sports--it is entertainment. There is a difference.

Congratulations to Netflix Reed Hastings. His “ we’re not in the truth to power” business puts him in the same company as Germany’s I.G. Farben and Krupp. They weren’t in that business either. And business was good.

Now this is a funny article. A country that recently 'allowed' women to drive and attend some events by themselves introducing women's WWE events. Oh the irony! The audience filled with men in robes watching scantily clad ladies throw each other around. Wouldn't it be more efficient to license strip bars?

Women's tennis and diving would be two good sports to test the Saudi interest in western sports. Including letting Saudi women participate in both.

WWE is a "sport" now? Partner dancing sure, but a "sport"? Since when?

Saudis are so bad in PR.

yea this will make everyone forget MBS ordered a hit on an American journalist

Saudi Arabia is a terrorist outfit. They butcher journalists in their own embassies. That's terrorism - big as it gets.

This article exposes yet another hypocrisy that is The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Ironically, the exploitation of women's sexuality, in the form of WWE athletes, is one of the means being used broaden Saudi culture. Until very recently, Saudi/Muslim women were not allowed to enter sport stadiums, drive, travel without a male guardian etc. to protect them from the possibility of a “lewd male gaze.” These rules were also instituted to protect men from being tempted or whatever, but I guess because the murdering crown prince said so, it is halal now for Saudi men to ogle non-Saudi women grapple around on the ground. The Dollar… and what serves men’s interests, eclipses the honest examination and critique of changing cultural patriarchal norms that are hidden behind Wahhabi religiosity that Saudi and Muslim women have been speaking out and struggling against for decades. I really don’t know…maybe the means (greed and lust) justify the ends (eventual increased mobility for Saudi/Muslim women).

sorry but watching women going at it in a boxer ring is not my idea of "western sports". show me indoor and outdoor volleyball, track, archery, swimming and then we'll talk. Apologies to the women shown in the photo but as we all know tv wrestling has been losing money in the US- taking it to SA is probably good for their economy but not really for the western educational values needed in SA.

Bread and Circuses to quell the restless masses. Saudi has one of the largest youth populations in the Middle East. They already suffer high unemployment, if their government doesn't provide more opportunities for job creating and economic diversification, they risk ending up like Lebanon or Iraq (almost forgot about Iran), both of whose governments have collapsed in the past few weeks. No matter how deplorable a government can be from time to time, surely popular entertainment, fast food, and shopping are preferable to civil war.