HBO’s “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” scorches WWE’s Saudi Arabia affiliation, WWE.com removes mentions of Saudi Arabia as host country for Crown Jewel

HBO’s weekly current events show “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” just aired a segment critical of WWE’s relationship with Saudi Arabia. Host John Oliver waved his hand in front of his face and said “You can’t see human rights violations.” The segment highlighted the propaganda that WWE aired to their Network subscribers on the first event.

Regarding the Saudi Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (known as “MBS”), Oliver said:

His p.r. push isn’t just toward attracting businesses. It’s also toward changing the world’s perception of Saudi Arabia. To that end, he struck a ten year deal with one of the most popular and most American franchise that there is – WWE. They held their first of many events there back in April and audiences around the world were treated to wall-to-wall propaganda about the new Saudi Arabia including video showing women happily driving, men dancing, and tourist destination beauty shots in addition to constant excited compliments throughout the broadcast.

Then clips aired of Michael Cole saying: “For the first time, WWE bringing an event of this magnitude to Saudi Arabia… This vibrant, progressive city is our host tonight… All part, of course, of the Saudi Vision 2030…”

Then John Cena is shown thanking the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Oliver said: “It seems the WWE is as overtly pro-Saudi Arabia as it is lately homoerotic, which is to say intensely. But the truth is, MBS is far from the political reformer that he is being presented as. Scratch any positive story about him and you will see a much grimmer truth underneath.” Oliver went on to list examples of dissidents and protestors being arrested, along with the controversial, catastrophic air bombings in Yemen that have killed many children.

The program dedicated the core 17 minutes of the 35 minute show to Saudi Arabia. Oliver closed with this commentary:

Trump’s intense bromance with MBS is bad news because when you set no boundaries on an oppressive regime, they are always going to ask themselves ‘ how much can we get away with here,’ and as we saw this week, their answer may be ‘pretty much anything.’

Pressure continues to mount on WWE to disassociate from Saudi Arabia after the disappearance of the U.S. based journalist who had been a top critic of the current Saudi Arabia regime. “Pull the plug on it and be more careful who you jump in bed with the next time,” one veteran ex-WWE wrestler told PWTorch tonight when asked what WWE should do now considering the growing controversy surrounding their affiliation with Saudi Arabia.

WWE does not list a location for Crown Jewel on their WWE.com Events Schedule page or Event Preview page (see attached graphic). While all other scheduled events have a location listed, the location is blank for Crown Jewel. That doesn’t mean a decision has necessarily been made to relocate the show, but it does indicate WWE is at the very least giving the impression they are not committed to staging the Nov. 2 event in Saudi Arabia as originally planned.

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