"Hacksaw" offers is thoughts on the situation.
WWE made it clear during their Quarter 3 financials conference call that they are moving forward with the decision to continue running their 'Crown Jewel' show at the 'King Saud University Stadium' in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. U.S. Senators among other government figureheads have offered their opinions on if it is a good idea for the sports-entertainment company to continue doing business with Saudi Arabia while there is a ton of negative attention on the country stemming from the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
Many podcasters, former WWE employees and Hall Of Famers have shared their thoughts on the situation at hand and one of the latest to give their take was WWE Hall Of Famer "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan. Duggan was interviewed by TMZ Sports and was asked for his thoughts on WWE's decision to keep 'Crown Jewel' in the original location. Duggan stated that it is impossible to change every part of the world and added that there are worse things occurring in the world other than what is going on in Saudi Arabia.
“I think they should stick to it. You can’t control what goes on in other parts of the world, and they had scheduled… you just can’t hold the rest of the world to our values and what happens over there, happens over there." He continued, "I think it was Henry Truman who said, ‘He’s an S.O.B. but he’s our S.O.B.’ and that’s kinda the way I look at Saudi Arabia, personally. McMahon, he looks at it of course as a huge business opportunity and that’s why he’s gonna go over there but I just don’t think he can shut down a whole operation, over a… a horrible incident obviously - a tragedy and everything you can say but compared to what goes on in the rest of the world over there in Libya and Syria and Iran, it’s relatively minor as horrible as it is to say. So if you’re gonna start picking and choosing things… you won’t be able to go anywhere. There’s something everywhere negative.”
Jim Duggan was also asked for his opinion on the reports that former 16-time WWE World Champion John Cena is refusing to travel with the company to Saudi Arabia. Duggan stated that it says a lot about Cena's character that he's willing to stand for what he believes in but it is also a testament to Cena's position in the company that he is allowed to take a stance as such without any blow-back.
“John Cena, he’s in a different position than 90% of the others guys on the roster but of course, he has his own opinion and he’s in a position to where he can state that opinion, and he’s a company guy so it says an awful lot for the guy to stand up and do his own beliefs." Duggan said.
News broke earlier today that 'Crown Jewel' sold out after three hours of the tickets being on sale. To read more into that, head over to Fightful's article on the topic.
If you are going to use the quotes above, please credit TMZ Sports with an H/T to Fightful for the transcriptions.
