WWE â??Monitoringâ?? Saudi Governmentâ??s Reported Involvement In Death Of Journalist

[Fallout]

http://www.prowrestlingsheet.com/wwe.../#.W8BAaWhKiUm

WWE says theyâ??re â??monitoring the situationâ? involving the death of a journalist reportedly at the order of Saudi Arabiaâ??s royal court.

A rep for WWE released a statement to the media saying, â??We are currently monitoring the situation.â?

For those unaware, the New York Times reported this week that officials believe Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi was assassinated in the Turkish consulate last week by a team who dismembered his body with a bonesaw.

Companies with ties to the Saudi government have since come under heavy scrutiny. On Wednesday, the New York Times pulled out as a media sponsor from an investor event later this month in Riyadh. Richard Branson also suspended business talks with the Saudi Arabian government in regards to a reported $1 billion investment in Virginâ??s space companies.

Weâ??ll keep you updated if WWE makes any additional comments.

It makes my skin crawl how soft a stance WWE is taking on this. I think many of you know my thoughts on the government of Saudi Arabia, but this is a new low for even their dystopian hellhole. I don't see Crown Jewel being called off, but I do hope WWE reconsider their relationship with the Saudi government going forward.

[Jack-Hammer]

As far as WWE goes, they're going to get raked over the coals over this by internet fans, smarks, dirt sheet writers and even some other wrestling companies but, frankly, so the fuck what? That's part for the course for damn near anything they do.

I can't demonize WWE for doing business with the Saudis while so many mega corporations like Pepsi, Microsoft, AT&T, Coca-Cola, Ford, IBM, Holiday Inn, not to mention all the various oil companies like Chevron, Texaco, Mobil, etc.. This is the dirty side of Capitalism, it goes on every single day and these companies aren't going to throw away billions of dollars by ceasing all business relationships with the KSA. That's especially true for the oil companies because such a breakdown would pretty much start a worldwide financial meltdown. Compared to those companies, WWE is a little guy and I guess it's easier to go after the little guy in situations like this, even though the little guy is ultimately just an entertainment company.

There was controversy for WWE agreeing to do the Greatest Royal Rumble and not having any women on the show, there's this controversy and I'm sure there'll be something else that comes along when/if their next Saudi show goes down. I've read some comments made in sections on some articles and forums, some from other wrestlers, talking about the "purity" and "artistry" of pro wrestling and how it shouldn't be sacrificed in the name of money and I think those people ought to shampoo my crotch. Do you think New Japan, ROH, LU or Impact would turn down deal for them to put on a series of wrestling events in which they'd be paid $50+ million per show???? I was born, but I sure as hell wasn't born yesterday and those companies, would jump all over it because it'd be the single best pay day any of them ever had in their entire existence. Some want to prefer to think of wrestling as performance art, more power to 'em but deep down, it's not that at all and if it is, then it's doomed to mediocrity. All the "this is awesome", "fight forever" and "holy shit" chants in the world don't pay the bills and provide some security when Father Time starts kicking ass like he does to everyone eventually.

If WWE does sever their business relationship, it's not like I'd jump all over them or anything. I'm mostly just irritated by all the examples of fake internet outrage that WWE gets subjected to, sometimes quite unfairly at that, by wrestling geeks.

[Spidey]

Nothing is likely to change. WWE is a small fish in this pond, and Americans are so divided about shit lately that another government killing their own is likelier to just have one side go on an internet tangent and bash the other side for being concerned. Case in point, above.

[Fallout]

As far as WWE goes, they're going to get raked over the coals over this by internet fans, smarks, dirt sheet writers and even some other wrestling companies but, frankly, so the fuck what? That's part for the course for damn near anything they do.

Working closely with a theocratic autocracy that executes women for being raped and homosexuals is a bit more concerning than bad wrestling or Dave Meltzer commenting on a female wrestler gaining weight.

Sure, people overreact to stuff in this day and age, and often times, they search for a casus belli, but that doesn't mean there's never an opportunity to be actually upset with terrible decisions.

I can't demonize WWE for doing business with the Saudis while so many mega corporations like Pepsi, Microsoft, AT&T, Coca-Cola, Ford, IBM, Holiday Inn, not to mention all the various oil companies like Chevron, Texaco, Mobil, etc.. This is the dirty side of Capitalism, it goes on every single day and these companies aren't going to throw away billions of dollars by ceasing all business relationships with the KSA. That's especially true for the oil companies because such a breakdown would pretty much start a worldwide financial meltdown. Compared to those companies, WWE is a little guy and I guess it's easier to go after the little guy in situations like this, even though the little guy is ultimately just an entertainment company.

Maybe those businesses are wrong? I understand capitalism often results in shady dealings, and that it's the best financial model we currently have, but I think some things don't have a price tag, like human life and many of the liberties we should be thankful for having in the west that places in Saudi Arabia do not allow. In the wise words of John Stuart Mill: "That so few now dare to be eccentric, marks the chief danger of the time."

Also, don't try to twist this into a "WWE is the little guy in this situation." This isn't a Pepsi or Microsoft forum, and for those companies obvious problems, they aren't producing what amounts to state propaganda broadcast across the entire world, with a US Mayor in the main event no less.

[Jack-Hammer]

Working closely with a theocratic autocracy that executes women for being raped and homosexuals is a bit more concerning than bad wrestling or Dave Meltzer commenting on a female wrestler gaining weight.

Sure, people overreact to stuff in this day and age, and often times, they search for a casus belli, but that doesn't mean there's never an opportunity to be actually upset with terrible decisions.

Allegedly, these shows are part of some sort of attempt at a more liberal social reform in Saudi Arabia the prince is undertaking, otherwise I'm not sure if even Vince would've gone through with it.

Maybe those businesses are wrong? I understand capitalism often results in shady dealings, and that it's the best financial model we currently have, but I think some things don't have a price tag, like human life and many of the liberties we should be thankful for having in the west that places in Saudi Arabia do not allow. In the wise words of John Stuart Mill: "That so few now dare to be eccentric, marks the chief danger of the time."

Also, don't try to twist this into a "WWE is the little guy in this situation." This isn't a Pepsi or Microsoft forum, and for those companies obvious problems, they aren't producing what amounts to state propaganda broadcast across the entire world, with a US Mayor in the main event no less.

WWE is a little guy in this situation whether you want to admit it or not. Senators, such as Lindsey Graham, have publicly stated that they'd like WWE to potentially postpone the event but, again, nobody is calling on these other companies to stop doing business with the Saudis. Why is that exactly? Holding WWE to standards that aren't applied to other American companies is, to me, just plain crap no matter what sort of forum this happens to be. Lindsey Graham wants WWE to alter its business arrangement with Saudi Arabia? Fine. If WWE decides to, that's fine too. My point is that WWE doesn't even register as a blip on the radar compared to these mega companies that make bank by doing business with the Saudis; what WWE is getting is a drop in the bucket next to them but you don't hear lawmakers going after them because, in many instances, it's the various CEOs and executives of these Fortune 500 companies that keep Washington politicians in business.

If Vince calls the show off, more power to him. If he's able to call off the rest of the Saudi deal and does, I've got no problem with that. I just don't see why WWE should be held ot a higher standard then damn near the rest of corporate America.

[Y 2 Jake]

Crown Jewel will happen regardless. I'm sure the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia can put a pretty big dent in WWE's profitability if they were to back out.

[Slyfox696]

Unless there's a drastic change in overall US position regarding the Saudis, I do not see the WWE pulling out of this show. At the end of the day, the giant hypocrite Lindsey Graham can say what he wants, but he and others clearly are not going to hold anyone accountable. I do not see the WWE pulling their show.

[EnviousDominous]

Unless there's a drastic change in overall US position regarding the Saudis, I do not see the WWE pulling out of this show. At the end of the day, the giant hypocrite Lindsey Graham can say what he wants, but he and others clearly are not going to hold anyone accountable. I do not see the WWE pulling their show.

The biggest thing at stake in regard to the geopolitical ramifications of this piss poor excuse for an interrogation turned shitty accidental hit-job (more on that later) is that letters of intent have already been signed by King Salman and King Trump in an effort to initiate the *deep breath* 2017 United States-Saudi Arabia arms deal.

The President's explanation of why this deal is great was a series of non-sensical hand waving while exclaiming how good this deal will be in regard to how it would supposedly add over a half-million jobs for US workers.

If the majority of US citizens share a public opinion (the most powerful and chaotic weapon in history) that Saudi Arabia is too toxic to engage with in regard to the arms deal, and it falls through, it would be advisable for the WWE to stay the fuck out of Saudi Arabia and anywhere else that Saudi Arabia has influence. While Saudi Arabia has shown a great deal of effort to progress past their hard-lined theocracy into a more socially-progressive and slightly less orthodox theocracy, they still hate having their money fucked with just like anyone else.

The shitty interrogation that turned into a shitty hit-job, yeah. This is all hearsay by the way, take it with a grain of salt.

So, apparently the plan was that Jamal Khashoggi would be apprehended, interrogated, and extradited to Saudi Arabia as retaliation for criticisms that he's shared about Prince Salman. The interrogation didn't go well, and Mr. Khashoggi was accidentally killed in the effort to get him to confess to crimes warranting extradition. The dork-squad had a plan-b, they had one of their members named Mustafa al-Madani wear a fake beard and Mr. Khashoggi's clothes before strolling out of the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul as if he was Mr. Khashoggi. The idea that a high-profile journalist going missing could raise some red flags apparently went over the heads of the assassins, they probably didn't think that they would have to deal with covering up a death in the first place.

Saudi officials at first claimed that they didn't know where Mr. Khashoggi had gone, and that they're just as confused as everyone else as -- to their knowledge -- he left without incident and that was that. They had no explanation for why a clean-up crew arrived immediately prior to the expected arrival of a Turkish team of forensic investigators, the clean-up crew only showed up after the team of investigators were given permission to inspect the consulate. I believe that the official Saudi statement (made by Prince Salman) on the matter was that claims that Mr. Khashoggi had been killed were "Completely false and baseless".

A "Senior Saudi Official" who requested to be anonymous apparently waffled and told Reuters that Mr. Khashoggi was supposed to be drugged and kidnapped, but he was accidentally killed in a chokehold because Mr. Khashoggi was resisting. Mind you; just prior to this statement, another anonymous (but not senior) Saudi official had told Reuters that Mr. Khashoggi died in a fist fight. If anything is certain with all of these fucking pathetic stories that are being thrown around by people who've apparently never seen an episode of Forensic Files or CSI, it's that the Prince was full of shit when he said with all certainty that it would be completely false and baseless to claim that Mr. Khashoggi was murdered. The changing stories were blamed on false information being shared internally, so my advice to officials in the Saudi government is to get their shit together before putting out a public statement on the death of a famous journalist.

This was all apparently part of a bigger (but intentionally under the radar) effort by the Prince to extradite all dissidents (people who don't kiss his ass at every waking opportunity) of Saudi heritage back to Saudi Arabia to face trial, as indicated by intelligence documents that were shared with Reuters, because his feelings get hurt easily and he figures that acting like a pathetic asshole is the best way to overcome his demons.

The most reliable series of events, as were relayed to Reuters, are that:

Click for Spoiler:

Step 1, lure Mr. Khashoggi to a safe house (?) and detain him there for a "period of time" where if he didn't agree to return to Saudi Arabia they would simply let him go. There's no step 2 to their plan to make the Prince less butthurt, which in the long run would have been a waste of time to plan anyway.

Mr. Khashoggi was lured into the Consul General's office, and a member of the hit-squad named Maher Mutreb ditched the plan and told Mr. Khashoggi that he should just go to Saudi Arabia. Mr. Khashoggi refused and informed Mr. Mutreb that he had given instructions to someone (later revealed to have been his fiancé Hatice Cengiz, he wasn't bluffing) to contact an aide to President Erdogan and inform them that he had gone missing.

Mr. Mutreb decided to have a complete brain dump and explain to Mr. Khashoggi that the plan was to drug and kidnap him if he didn't comply and return to Saudi Arabia. Mr. Khashoggi became understandably irate at consciously hearing this news, and he began to scream what I can imagine was a series of loud noises meant to indicate that he was in distress.

Not wanting these noises to persist, someone put Mr. Khashoggi in a chokehold and covered his mouth. This person apparently didn't realize that the human larynx is about as sturdy as a standard fucking paper towel tube, you could literally crush one with minimal force.

Thinking fast, the dork-squad rolled Mr. Khashoggi's body into a rug and loaded it into a consular vehicle, likely the one that was found recently abandoned (vehicles don't just go missing, and nobody fucking says anything). Turkish officials believe that the body was dumped (intact) in the Belgrad Forest.

A member of that dork-squad named Meshal Saad al-Bostani mysteriously died in a car crash in Riyadh on the 18th, literally four days ago.

Also; the fifteen men who are suspected of carrying out the interrogation arrived together, and left together after the death took place. Which is pretty fucking stupid if, for better or worse, you would have wanted to hide the fact that all of this wasn't part of a fucked up plan by Prince Salman himself. Did they come there to hang out in Istanbul for a day? Whatever.

Crown Jewel will likely happen by the skin of the WWE's teeth as the major fallout from this colossal geopolitical blunder is yet to come, and by and large most in the geopolitical community don't give a fuck about pro-wrestling.

[Lee]

Uncle Dave says it's on.

[Spidey]

There's a real chance that someone involved with his death will be on the hard cam all night.