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Crown Jewel - 11/2/18 from null, null


John from Cincinnati

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17 minutes ago, RIPPA said:

On the WON radio show overnight - Meltzer said that what he was told was that unless the State department specifically tells them not to go, the WWE will do the show.

Of course, Dave thinks the RAW crowd could possible sway things depending on how they react to anything Crown Jewel related

I'm sure the crowd in Topeka or wherever will behave and there's nothing to worry about for the WWE.

Where are they tonight anyway? Let me just google and...

Oh, they're in Philly.

Oh.

 

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6 hours ago, quackhell said:

Seeing Cole, Graves and Cena's slavish pro Saudi Arabia comments on Last Week Tonight was bizarre. Knowing the WWE they will jump all over it and brag about getting mainstream coverage instead of viewing it as any kind of condemnation. 

If this starts to hurt John Cena’s brand, I could see more pressure to drop it.

2 hours ago, OSJ said:

I cancelled the Network. I'll miss NXT and 205 Live and the ladies wrestling, but enough is enough. Fuck VKM and Saudi Arabia.

Is NXT still available on Hulu?

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18 minutes ago, Ryan said:

They just won't mention it at all and then just run it and act like it didn't happen on their other TV shows. Problem solved.

They should have a YouTube video up on Wednesday with Corbin and Paige announcing the rest of the World Cup roster. Also of note is Rey Rey vs. Mr. Nakamerica on Tuesday (in DC). I'm quite interested in seeing how DC reacts to Crown Jewel promos.

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Yeah, ya'll can dream that the show's getting cancelled and this story has legs all around, but the "Rogue agents" line just went out and something shiny will happen this week and we'll move on, as the God Emperor is.

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Probably not a common feeling in the IWC, but I actually feel bad for WWE here. They're stuck between a rock and a hard place. Setting aside morals for a second here, most businesses would bite off the hand offering them millions of dollars to do what they already do but on a bigger scale. They would've been idiots to turn that deal down from a business standpoint. Likewise, they wouldn't be smart to renege on the deal now and potentially get sued for breach of contract. They have shareholders to answer to who would prefer not to lose their investments.

On the other hand, it would be bad PR to fly over there now and put on a show for a murderous regime when "the world is watching!" Not that the wider world is concerned about a wrestling company, but while other western companies and governments are doing deals with Saudi Arabia behind closed doors, WWE is doing theirs in full public view with pyrotechnics.

I'm actually really interesting to see how they handle this on Raw and Smackdown. I'd imagine they'll still build towards the matches but downplay the location of those matches. If the show does go ahead, I can imagine it being quite downbeat.

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1 hour ago, Swiftian said:

Probably not a common feeling in the IWC, but I actually feel bad for WWE here. They're stuck between a rock and a hard place. Setting aside morals for a second here, most businesses would bite off the hand offering them millions of dollars to do what they already do but on a bigger scale. They would've been idiots to turn that deal down from a business standpoint. Likewise, they wouldn't be smart to renege on the deal now and potentially get sued for breach of contract. They have shareholders to answer to who would prefer not to lose their investments.

On the other hand, it would be bad PR to fly over there now and put on a show for a murderous regime when "the world is watching!" Not that the wider world is concerned about a wrestling company, but while other western companies and governments are doing deals with Saudi Arabia behind closed doors, WWE is doing theirs in full public view with pyrotechnics. 

I'm actually really interesting to see how they handle this on Raw and Smackdown. I'd imagine they'll still build towards the matches but downplay the location of those matches. If the show does go ahead, I can imagine it being quite downbeat.

You'd have a point if nobody knew how awful the Saudi government was until they lured a journalist to their consulate and chopped him to bits, but that's just not the case.  This country's record was well-documented long before WWE signed on with them. 

"They would've been idiots to turn that deal down from a business standpoint."  I disagree.  Even setting morals aside, they should have anticipated a horrible regime doing a horrible thing and thought about how it would make them look, what the potential blowback on their business would be.  Even your most cynical MBA would warn your company away from immoral shit because it can hit you in the wallet.  Either they were greedy or just too dumb to have foresight into something that should have been obvious.  Neither is very good and nobody should feel bad for them for either their greed or their stupidity.

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1 hour ago, Niners Fan in CT said:

 

Ten years ago I would have expected a response like the Rosie O'Donnell or the NBA thing and the response by John Oliver would have been glorious as he is the king of trolling, but in 2018 I doubt we will see any reaction to this at all.

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16 minutes ago, Technico Support said:

You'd have a point if nobody knew how awful the Saudi government was until they lured a journalist to their consulate and chopped him to bits, but that's just not the case.  This country's record was well-documented long before WWE signed on with them. 

"They would've been idiots to turn that deal down from a business standpoint."  I disagree.  Even setting morals aside, they should have anticipated a horrible regime doing a horrible thing and thought about how it would make them look, what the potential blowback on their business would be.  Even you most cynical MBA would warn your company away from immoral shit because it can hit you in the wallet.  Either they were greedy or just too dumb to have foresight into something that should have been obvious.  Neither is very good and nobody should feel bad for them for either their greed or their stupidity.

WWE is not the only company in bed with them though. Huge multinational companies, banks and governments do business with them all the time knowing full well what a bunch of wankers they are and the potential for some bad PR. Again, leaving morals aside, from a purely business perspective the deal made sense.

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45 minutes ago, ComingToAmerica said:

I don't recall anyone complaining much about their interest in expanding there.

It's almost like one of them is paying for high-profile, PPV-level shows seasoned heavily with state-sponsored propaganda. That sort of thing tends to draw more attention and scrutiny. 

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18 hours ago, Brian Fowler said:

Alvarez is reporting most of the locker room doesn't want to do the trip. Not that it'll matter much since they are employees allegedly independent contractors with less rights them employees get.

Second source on that one... and this from bought WWE media

 

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1 hour ago, Niners Fan in CT said:

That's not a good look for John Cena. He's trying to get this acting thing going and now people might want to ask him questions about Saudi Arabia.  I think Big Match John should distance himself from WWE at this point.. 

Well good thing he got the JBL haircut and added about 5 pounds of PED's to his frame.  Nobody will be able to recognize him now.

Looking at Rippa's post, putting Brock up there is so funny.  He is uncomfortable getting out of his own city much less Saudi Arabia.  

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I don't feel sorry for WWE at all. The Saudi government didn't become bad with this one death. Thing is I wouldn't begrudge the good people of that country a fun wrestling show as entertainment on a regular touring schedule, whatever to that. It's just that there's an official governmental relationship and that effectively that government is booking part of the show and inserting feed lines and graphics that turn it into Welcome to Saudi Arabia ft. some wrestlers, and will be doing that for the next DECADE. VKM can get out of Bret's 20 year contract but not this? Gimme a break.

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25 minutes ago, West Newbury Bad Boy said:

It's almost like one of them is paying for high-profile, PPV-level shows seasoned heavily with state-sponsored propaganda. That sort of thing tends to draw more attention and scrutiny. 

Ultimately they work do in China won't be done without involvement of the State censors, being involved in ticket sales potentially brings them into contact with the social credit system pilots etc etc. You can make distinctions sprinkled with sarcasm, but I don't think the distinction is particularly significant. I repeat; Saudi Arabia is a liberalising regime, China is not.

The ticket company for the events is owned by Alibaba, who definitely spout state propaganda in terms of promoting China as a great place to do business. So the relationship to state propaganda is more indirect, but it is there. The presence of WWE, even if they don't explicitly spout 'propaganda', normalises China - which is an increasingly authoritarian country (and it's not like it wasn't authoritarian to begin with). 

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13 minutes ago, ComingToAmerica said:

Ultimately they work do in China won't be done without involvement of the State censors, being involved in ticket sales potentially brings them into contact with the social credit system pilots etc etc. You can make distinctions sprinkled with sarcasm, but I don't think the distinction is particularly significant. I repeat; Saudi Arabia is a liberalising regime, China is not.

You can whatabout China till the cows come home. Nobody here is advocating stronger business ties with them. But they're not the ones putting on this high-profile pile of stink. So they're not the ones opening themselves up to scrutiny on this topic and in this thread. The further WWE goes with China, the more public push-back they're likely to receive. But this Saudi nonsense is very loudly happening right now. Thus, it gets an immediate and vocal response right now. 

Liberalising is nice. But as strange as 2018 is, cutting journalists into tiny pieces is still frowned upon in most polite circles.

As for the sprinkling of sarcasm, you're welcome. It's the least I could do when you were probably three posts away from dropping "virtue signalling" into the conversation. 

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2 minutes ago, West Newbury Bad Boy said:

 

Liberalising is nice. But as strange as 2018 is, cutting journalists into tiny pieces is still frowned upon in most polite circles.

Unless you are a certain potential HOF pitcher (or in this administration).

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