The Greatest Royal Propaganda Exercise, and why Vince McMahon is a pig.

Today, and you wouldn't know it if you didn't know about it, was a WWE pay-per-view/Network special.

It was one of the most unique cards the company has ever put on.  It was a massive sold show (WWE was paid in advance for the show, ticket prices for other than the propaganda were minimal), in which the company was paid a reported nine figures (somewhere in the area of $100 million to $200 million) just to put on a show...

In Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Now, let's be honest here:  There's a lot more to this than meets the eye.  The House of Saud is purporting a massive ten-year reform effort, and has signed on the WWE to help out -- modernizing entertainment, allowing some ability to recognize women as more than just cattle, etc.

A lot of wrestling fans (myself included) sat out the card almost completely.  The number of red flags this card has put up, however, is startling.  Not only that, but it is almost scary to think of the ramifications, especially as you know Vince McMahon and Donald Trump are good friends, with wife Linda the head of the Small Business Administration.

• The first and largest issue many of us have had with the card is the backwards mentality Saudi Arabia has with women.

Women are nothing more than cattle in Saudi Arabia -- sexual cattle at that.

This has been some degree of true throughout the Middle East, but there have been inroads.  WWE itself did a show last year in the United Arab Emirates, and two women wrestled on it.  Yes, in full body suits so as not to show off against local custom.  But it was still a progress.

No such progress here.  The women had to stay home.  However, a point has been made that the women will be paid per the money the show made -- which could be a massive payday because of the ridiculous Saudi millions.

In fact, the only women allowed to attend were special "family seating" at ringside with the Saudi royals (this was truly the Greatest Royal Rumble, the name of the show) to make people believe there were reforms going on...

• Oh, the seating itself...  Well, if you need any idea of how little The Powers That Be view the rest of the commoners in Saudi Arabia, someone posted to Reddit's professional wrestling forum this picture, just as Universal Champion Brock Lesnar was coming in, showing the cultural divide between the elites (and their propaganda "actors" -- no, the families aren't acting/faking, but they are being actors in the Saudi propaganda) and the "lesser people":

That was the amount of space Saudi custom required to keep the common riff-raff from the Royals (and their propaganda instruments).  It was literally a $100-200M show for...  3,000 people, the rest on the outside looking in?

• That the card, sans Ronda Rousey's star turn in the mixed-tag in New Orleans, was probably better than the one for Wrestlemania 34 in the first place.

I'd spent weeks bashing the WWE for lack of build for their annual extravaganza, partially due to drug concerns.  It's clear that THIS was the show that the WWE was building to:

1. Undertaker facing Rusev in a casket match, rather than a 90-second squash to John Cena in New Orleans.
2. A rematch for the Smackdown main title, better than Mania.
3. A steel-cage rematch for the Raw main title, with a shocking twist that once again Vince rim-job Roman Reigns fails to beat Brock Lesnar.
4. A ladder match for one secondary title...
5. In fact, all the men's championships defended on the show, just like Mania.
6. And the topper is a 50-man, 90-minute Royal Rumble match, the largest in history, for a trophy and an apparent Saudi Championship which was won by fan favorite "Monster Among Men" Braun Strowman.

• At least one wrestler, because of concerns, opted out of the card.  Sami Zayn is of Syrian descent, and that would've been an obvious political problem.
• One wrestler had to change his gimmick.  Finn Balor has become an inclusive voice in the WWE with his character ("Finn Balor is for everyone."), including rainbow representation.
• The "foreign heat" segment which was used to get over Saudi trainees for the WWE Performance Center almost went very badly.  The two heels who had to work to get the trainees over (the Daivari brothers, in their first, and probably last, WWE appearance together) decided to dip their feet into the Saudi-Iran proxy war, which ruffled more than a few feathers.  

The Daivaris brought the Iranian flag to the promo, and at least one verified Saudi Twitter user (with over 400,000 Twitter followers) said the promo was meant to "provoke every Saudi".  Not what you want to do, Vince, in a country that could declare jihad at any time!

• And then there's Vince McMahon himself.

No one will confuse Vince Jr. with a man of scruples.  He'd have a boob job done to his daughter if it made him money (and he probably did!!!).

But I look at all the cultural problems with this card, and I am left to recall:

1. Vince is a Republican.
2. He's friends with President Fat Q*Bert.
3. It's almost clear that a misogynistic, big-money-only society like Saudi Arabia's would be central to the type of society he would like to see here!

So it makes perfect sense that this pig (who has also done everything in his power to short-circuit daughter Stephanie and son-in-law HHH and their work on evolving women's wrestling to acceptable levels in the WWE) would take the Saudi money and run fast with it, because this is what he believes in!

The only difference (if he's actually religious, and not just for himself and what he, in one angle, used to call "McMahonism") is Allah vs. Christ.

And if you don't like it, this is probably what Vince thinks of you (and me):