WWE erodes the meaning of WrestleMania with sportswashing move to Saudi Arabia

This was always going to happen.

From the announcement of WWE’s 10-year partnership with the Saudi Arabia Ministry of Sport in March 2018, to the expansion of that deal with the Saudi Arabia General Entertainment Authority just over a year later, it felt inevitable that WrestleMania would end up being held there at some point.

That waiting game ended earlier this month during a livestream on WWE’s official YouTube channel that carried the eerie appearance of a press conference without any members of the media present.

Former ESPN broadcaster Joe Tessitore lauded the sportswashing relationship between the world’s most popular pro wrestling company, and the nation laundering its reputation and often-highlighted poor human rights record. A collection of WWE officials, legends and current wrestlers stood along the stage.

WWE CCO Paul Levesque and General Entertainment Authority chairman Turki Alalshikh stood at the podium as the announcement was made: WrestleMania will be held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in 2027.

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I watched, already knowing this was coming. A lot of others did too, evidenced by the flood of comments in the stream’s chat saying WWE “sold out,” criticisms of the Saudi kingdom and the copious amount of Pride flag emojis.

The motivations for the move aren’t hard to decipher.

WWE makes roughly $50 million for each event it holds in Saudi Arabia, all of which feature varying levels of political and cultural propaganda praising the Saudi crown and cultural reforms within the nation. The company is rumored to be pulling in hundreds of millions of dollars for hosting WrestleMania. 

Political motivation cannot be ignored either, considering the long cozy relationship between WWE and the President, and the deep ties between his administration and the Saudi government, among other Middle East nations.

Many fans wary of traveling to Saudi Arabia for WrestleMania

All of that was on my mind as this unfolded. But what really dug into me as I took in this propaganda masquerading as a presser was the first question Tessitore posed following the announcement.

“For an American WWE fan, an international fan, who hears this news today and says to themselves, ‘Ooo, I should go,’ what are they in store for?” He asked The Undertaker.

The WWE legend and staunch critic of trans women competing in women’s sports stumbled out an answer touching on the passion and kindness of Saudi WWE fans and how the “pomp and circumstance” of WrestleMania would be even higher in Riyadh as he sat next to Alalshikh.

That answer fails to get to the crux of why some pro wrestling fans would have qualms about traveling to Saudi Arabia for the biggest pro wrestling week of the year.

There is no denying that WWE fans in Saudi Arabia are passionate about the brand of pro wrestling WWE offers and should have the opportunity, like all of us, to enjoy that in their home nation. WrestleMania shouldn’t be reserved for North America.

But this deal isn’t about the nation’s citizens.

It is about laundering the reputation of an authoritarian government that criminalizes queer, trans, non-binary and gender nonconforming identities, silences journalists and jails advocates of women’s rights within its borders.

There was a unique, deep sadness that came over me while “The Deadman” made his pitch as the realization that the largest pro wrestling promotion in the world tried to convince me, the wrestling fan and frequent WrestleMania week attendee, to travel to a nation that could potentially give me a life-ending sentence simply for being who I am to attend WrestleMania.

Given how diverse pro wrestling audiences — and especially WWE’s — are, I’m sure I wasn’t the only one wrestling with that thought.

And that’s just taking WrestleMania itself into account, without the dozens of events that occur around it — a collection of wrestling and wrestling-related shows that feature a large number of queer talent and increasingly are being run by, or specifically focused on celebrating, queer and other marginalized communities within pro wrestling.

How do you have an “EFFY’s Big Gay Brunch” in a nation where queer expression is suppressed to the point that rainbow-colored items were confiscated or censored simply for the rainbow’s association with LGBTQ Pride? 

WrestleMania will always be a WWE touchstone event no matter where it is held, but what that week has come to represent for the greater pro wrestling world and its audience has evolved beyond simply what WWE offers. Fans who have no interest or financial capability to attend WrestleMania itself still flock to its host city for the events that occur around it featuring every kind of pro wrestling you can imagine and more.

For many fans, like myself, WrestleMania week transcends pro wrestling into a cultural gathering of free expression, experiencing in-person community and bonding over a shared love. Fans across the world deserve to have that opportunity without the fear of persecution and incarceration factoring into their decision to participate in pro wrestling’s biggest week.

With this decision, WWE and its financial partners in the Saudi government inspire those exact qualms in the minds of the marginalized with little more than platitudes to soothe them. No amount of WWE stars admirably wearing rainbow gear or voicing support for trans rights is enough to answer for what the corporate structure that pays out their contracts keeps telling its audience. 

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