Panic on the Tarmac: When WWE met the KSA - a podcast by Andrew, Ed, and Zak

Welcome back to the Bill Bradley Collective, where it is a seasonal focus week. That’s right, join us for a conversation show examining the relationship between World Wrestling Entertainment, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and sportswashing. WWE has been the world’s dominant professional wrestling company for the greater part of the last half century. A publicly traded entity boasting gross revenues in excess of $1 billion in 2021, the WWE maintains lucrative rights deals with both NBCUniversal and Fox that are expected to expand when they come up for renewal next year. Despite this fiscal prosperity, WWE made the decision to involve themselves in Saudi Arabian efforts to legitimize and Western-ize themselves in their economic endeavors. Join us, where on the eve of WWE Crown Jewel in Riyadh’s MRSOOL Park we examine the active strategic partnership between WWE and the Saudi General Sports Authority. Among our topics: North Korean involvement with two non-WWE wrestling outfits for an infamous two-day exhibition in 1995; a who’s who of top stars refusal to participate in the wake of the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi; the simultaneous touting of an internal “women’s revolution” whilst staging shows in greatly gender-discriminatory territory; the flight delay from hell AKA “panic on the tarmac” following Crown Jewel’s 2019 installment; and finally A-list social media celebrity Logan Paul’s main event involvement later this week in the main event. For even the most progressively optimistic of wrestling enthusiasts, it is impossible not to consider the WWE/Saudi marriage born perfectly from the worst of capitalistic inclinations.

SPEAKING OF MARRIAGES...it may be a week from Election Day but more importantly we are less than two weeks away from the nuptials of Collective host, tribal elder and leading voice Ed’s wedding. He and his wonderful bride-to-be and dear friend of the pod Alisha will be tying the knot, and the Bill Bradley Collective will be on location two weeks from now with a very special road-show episode.

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