Controversy surrounds 'Greatest Royal Rumble' in Saudi Arabia

[mvcg66b3r]

The Greatest Royal Rumble event has been the topic of much discussion among the WWE faithful. Many fans are intrigued by the event in Saudi Arabia, which will feature a 50-Man Royal Rumble Match. Is there a prize for the winner? Will that man get a title shot?

Then there are the singles matches. The Undertaker and Rusev will square off in a Casket Match. AJ Styles will defend the WWE Championship against Shinsuke Nakamura and legends collide when John Cena faces Triple H. The Universal Championship will be on the line when Brock Lesnar takes on Roman Reigns in a steel cage. If this event were in the states, there’s no question it would be a huge night for fans. But this one is full of controversy.

The reason for that is the obvious absence of the women’s division. The female Superstars of WWE are not booked on the card and evidently will not appear in any capacity. While the prehistoric politics of the Middle East are obviously at play here, there’s definitely much more going on behind the scenes.

https://wrestlingrumors.net/wwe-controversy-surrounds-saudi-arabias-greatest-royal-rumble-event/

 

[Mr Tony]

$$$$ talks

WWE/GREATEST ROYAL RUMBLE: Triple H addresses criticism of WWE choosing money over values and performing in Saudi Arabia
WWE’s push with the women’s evolution has been welcomed by
the majority – if not all – wrestling fans. But now, the
company is getting flack for taking the money and performing
for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia when one of the requests was
that no women can be part of the show.

Last year, Sasha Banks and Alexa Bliss made WWE history by
becoming the first two women to wrestle in Riyadh. They were
the only two on the roster and even had custom-made suits
that showed no skin apart from their face and hands. But
this time around, there will be no such thing.

WWE signed a mega multi-million dollar deal with the Kingdom
to perform shows in the country over the next ten years. WWE
has been criticized for taking the money and do shows in the
very-strict country that only last year allowed women to
drive.

But Triple H has defended the move, saying that every
culture is different and just because not everyone agree
with certain parts of it, it does not mean that it’s not a
relevant culture.

Speaking to the UK Independent newspaper, Triple H said,
“You can’t dictate to a country or a religion about how they
handle things but, having said that, WWE is at the forefront
of a women’s evolution in the world and what you can’t do is
affect change anywhere by staying away from it.”

He said while the women will not be competing this Friday at
the Greatest Royal Rumble, the company did have discussions
about it with the Saudis and they believe and hope that in
the next few years, the women will be part of their shows
there as well.

“The country is in the middle of a shift in how it is
dealing with that – the position is changing, and rights are
changing, as are the way women are handled and treated in
society. We think that’s a great thing and we’re excited to
be at the forefront of that change.”
http://www.pwbts.com/messages/36004.htm

 

[Will_H_69_9]

this has been a controversy that up until a couple weeks ago has been contained to just the wrestling world.

and this is the latest controversy in pro wrestling with sexism being a major part of the story.

in the past, you had decades of women's wrestling being held back by The Fabulous Moolah and not to mention being accused of being a madam who abused talents she trained and then sold them to men who were running the business back in the territory days of the industry as well as drugging them, and not to mention controlling women's wrestling with a dicta or like iron grip, which said Moolah controversy has really picked up steam in a post-Me Too movement America after WWE announced that a women't battle royal at WrestleMania 34 would be named in her memory (similar to how Andre the Giant's name is on the annual men's battle royal at WrestleMania) only for them to face a huge backlash to the point to where Mars, Incorporated, the parent company of long time WWE sponsor Snickers stepped in and told WWE to rename the women's battle royal.

also, in the last 25 years, you had the whole Sable sexism lawsuit, a sexual affair between HHH and WWE owner Vince McMahon's daughter Stephanie McMahon (which has since evolved to a marriage for the WWE power couple) that formed in real life from a storyline that started in late 1999 force Chyna out of the WWE and later caused her to end up falling into a bad place with a porn career and drug/alcohol addition and mental issues that followed her until her untimely dead 2 years ago. you also had WWE degrade their female talents during the height of a very edgy and un-pc friendly era known as the Attitude era making them wrestle in matches that were pretty much porn without the actual acts of sex, and had a few moments of public nudity with a woman who was at the time married to Jerry "The King" Lawler. and not to mention there was a era of women who joined the wrestling roster by a very sexually charged event called the "Diva Search" which came from 2003-2007 where models and random women who were stereotypical beauty queens/female porn star looking women would compete in a popularity contest to decided who would get a WWE contract (which most got a contract despite losing the contest).

and not to mention after Trish Stratus and Lita retired, no women got their own WWE t-shirts until 2013, when WWE started selling t-shirts for then WWE women's wrestler AJ Lee (now known in real life as AJ Mendez Brooks which Mendez is her real life surname pre-marriage, who retired from WWE in 2015 due to a combo of injuries and bad blood between her and WWE for firing her husband Phil "CM Punk" Brooks from the company the year before on their wedding day of June 13, 2014, after he walked out of the WWE due to injuries and growing frustrations with how his character in WWE was being booked at that point), which started the women's wrestlers t-shirt tend in WWE.

up until 2016, WWE called their women Divas instead of Superstars as Divas was a bad term to describe some women in the music industry, especially Mariah Carey.

and in 2015, WWE was called out by the fans for not giving women wrestlers enough time to wrestle matches longer than 3 minutes which caused a controversy in which spawn a hashtag that trended know as #GiveDivasAChance. and not to mention during this time frame, Stephanie McMahon quoted Meryl Streep's women empowerment speech at the 2015 Oscars that resulted in the soon to be retiring AJ Lee to reply and call her out on Twitter which she pointed out the mistreatment of the women of WWE including how they didn't get much earning of their merch sales and were paid less then their male counterparts. Stephanie was embarrassed and had to do a damage control type of tweet where she thanked her for her opinion as well as Stephanie's father and company owner Vince also responded to said tweet. it was consider the catalysis to the start of the women's revolution in the WWE where they phased out the term Divas, gave women longer matches, and let them wrestle in gimmick matches that used to be only for their male counterparts like Steel Cage matches, Hell In A Cell matches, Money In The Bank ladder matches as well as other ladder matches (granted the first women's MITB was met with controversy itself as a man won it on behalf of heel women's wrestler), and this year, women competed in their first ever Royal Rumble match and their first ever Elimination Chamber match.

link to verity some of the stories:

the AJ Lee tweet that called Stephanie McMahon out:
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2377069-aj-lee-tweets-at-stephanie-mcmahon-regarding-wages-screen-time-for-wwe-divas

Fabulous Moolah Memorial Battle Royal controversy that resulted in a name change of the match:
https://www.si.com/wrestling/2018/03/15/wwe-changes-name-fabulous-moolah-battle-royal