Saudia Arabia - Womens Match - WWE/UFC

600 people who endured Bloody Sunday helped spark the march from Selma to Washington…it takes a few, no matter how small to start progress.

I was in the Army in 1991 and went to Saudi and we where given pamphlets on things we could not do due to the customs of that country. that we where expected to follow. If we where with a female soldier and went in to an ice cream parlor (and we did Basking Robins) they would serve the women but they where not allowed to eat in the store. There where even signs up saying this. I guess if the US military has to follow beliefs and customs in another country then the WWE is no different.

I’m just gonna lay this here, from the most current Wrestling Observer Newsletter:

“There are those critical of WWE pushing how much they are behind women wrestling and female empowerment and then doing business with a country where women are treated as second-class and where their women roster members wouldn’t be allowed to perform. But in the end, this is a gigantic money deal over ten years and that trumps just about everything. You can’t expect high morals from a major corporation, and doubly so from a wrestling promoter. Granted, the key to this argument is about how WWE promotes itself as being on the cusp of revolutionary for women in sports, even when they were a half-century behind tennis and years behind even the UFC, which at one point was being run by people closed-minded that needed their eyes opened. If WWE is even pretending to be revolutionary, or even somewhere nearly up to date, on treatment of women and that’s one of their calling cards, and their biggest mainstream star is female, I don’t expect them to stand up for that because they are wrestling people, but at that point they have no right to claim anything legitimately when it comes to backing women. Like I said, I don’t expect anything, but if you’re legit on a cause, sometimes you have to make unpleasant decisions to back that cause. In this case, they failed to do so.”

I wonder if the WWE women could preform if they wore (for lack of a better term) Saudia Arabian attire. If not, there is 2 issues here then. I don’t have a personal issue if it’s just concerning the attire (not to say I agree with it, I’m just saying if that clothing is an acceptable cultural thing and the females of that culture are cool with it on their own volition, then ‘when in Rome’ sometimes). If the issue is ‘we don’t have women perform, stay in the kitchen, know your role, blah, blah, blah’, then I completely disagree with that viewpoint. I’m not sure where exactly that culture stands on those two issues.

To dump a little more gasoline on the fire, where’s the outrage over females not performing in New Japan Pro Wrestling? (I’m sure you’ll tell me it’s not ‘barred’ from the Japanese culture so the WWE can have a women’s match there and they wrestle in DDT etc.) Most of us on the board are big NJPW fans (almost doing the Reigns’ forearm motion calling for the spear and yelling out STRONG STYLE), but does anyone have a problem with no females wrestling in the #2 company in the world? Heck, I went through the entire roster of the company and I think I found just one woman who works in the music department in all of NJPW (obviously there could be a few more, but I bet the number is still ‘few’). As @zekey said with his original post,

Thoughts?

Saudi Arabia’s view of what they find acceptable is beyond WWE’s control and I also think it’s harsh to suggest that WWE are being complicit in perpetuating gender inequality in Saudi Arabia as I doubt they’d have an impact on the matter in any way but it has to be said that this isn’t just a case of their idea of “too much skin” being different but a case of them not even wanting WWE’s female performers to even be a part of the show. That’s where the issue lies with me, they may not be able to affect or be blamed for the pace at which women’s rights in Saudi Arabia is progressing as they can just say that it’s not down to them but they can be blamed for the blatant disservice they’re doing to their own female performers.

In the UAE they of course made slight changes to adapt to the social norms there but they did it in order to make sure that female performers where on the show and overall it was something positive. There’s none of that here.

1 Like

Could a boycott make an impact?

History says yes

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sporting_boycott_of_South_Africa_during_the_apartheid_era

Does anyone know if women will be allowed to be in the crowd or backstage? I also wonder if Renee Young and JoJo will be allowed to be there since they aren’t technically competitors?

A quick Google Image search seems to suggest that the Saudi Arabian WWE show (their version of an Experience or This Week in WWE) has a female host… but I can’t be totally certain about that. It may just be a show from another country in that region that happens to be talking about the Jeddah show.

So, yeah… that was totally pointless information for you. :slightly_smiling_face:

Women are allowed into soccer games as of this January so I would assume so?

I agree with those who say the women’s revolution is a sham… but that is nothing new. Even after declaring it was a new era for women’s wrestling, it took social media campaigns to get it off the pre-show. Also lets not forget they decided to have a guy win the first women’s money in the bank to generate heat. This latest decision is not out of line with a lot of their recent decisions.

I thing they should have an event sometime this year when they have just a night of women’s wrestling…maybe for the finale of the Mae Young Classic. Feature talent from all three brands…

Apartheid wasn’t a religion it was a political philosophy.

Does anyone know if the women actually have to travel there or can they stay behind and have a few days off?

Unless there are some house shows?

The Undertaker opens the casket to throw Jericho in but Becky Lynch pops out the casket and throws them both in to win the match.

Sin Cara wins the 50 Man Royal Rumble, takes the mask off and it’s actually La Luchadora.

Saudis are impressed by the storytelling and decide to let women become red heads.

Powerful stuff.

Are American conservatives killing people for being gay and denying women almost all of their rights? Their not just working with Muslims they are working with Saudi Arabia. Most Muslims look down at them for their extreme laws. Will you please admit you were wrong to compare these two.

religeon and political agenda are not the same thing…and I didn’t make any comparisons because that’s fucking stupid.

Keep being anti Muslim…it’s still ok to do that :roll_eyes:

There is a difference between being anti-Muslim and being anti-Saudi Arabian government. Criticising based on your prejudice towards someone because they’re of a certain religion is wrong but criticising based on their own actions is fair especially when concerning governments that control the lives of many people.

Criticising the Saudi Arabian government doesn’t make you Islamaphobic just like criticising the Israeli government doesn’t make you antisemitic.

2 Likes

WWE making money in a Muslim country…Bad.

ROH owned by Sinclair broadcasting that practices state propaganda… ok. :thinking:

I don’t think the issue is that they’re making money in a Muslim country. There wasn’t much criticism of them doing shows in the UAE. WWE are receiving criticism in this situation because they agreed with someone telling them their female performers aren’t allowed on the show.

UFC don’t book women for their Middle East shows.