JBL Blasts Critics Of WWE’s Deal With Saudi Arabia

JBL has no sympathy for those uncomfortable with WWE’s relationship with Saudi Arabia.

The deal between Saudi Arabia and WWE continues to draw a huge amount of criticism given Saudi Arabia’s poor human rights record, treatment of the LGBTQ community, allegations of sportswashing, and political tension stemming from the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

These issues came back into the spotlight in the days ahead of Night of Champions as the political tension in the Middle East continued to escalate. This led to calls on social media for WWE to postpone the event and refuse to take its staff to Saudi Arabia.

Although this was never an especially likely scenario, that didn’t stop those shouts on social media from growing increasingly louder as the event moved closer.

JBL Holds Nothing Back In Attack On WWE’s Critics

On the latest edition of Something to Wrestle, WWE Hall of Famer JBL rubbished the idea that the company was sending talent into a war zone by continuing on with Night of Champions. The veteran said the outcry on social media was “bullsh*t,” adding that the event wasn’t anywhere near what people were calling a war zone.

“That war was 1,000-plus miles away,” he stated firmly. “You’re not anywhere near this freaking war zone. It’s like shutting down Austria because there’s a war in Ukraine… I don’t have any issue whatsoever with them going to Saudi Arabia. And I think all of this clamoring about, ‘Oh, how dare you send people into a war zone?’ I’ve been to war zones. That ain’t a war zone.”

With regard to those who continue to be uncomfortable with WWE’s dealings with Saudi Arabia, JBL gave another blunt assessment.

“If you want to put a moral test on whoever you work for or work with, you’re going to be like some religious purist. You can’t put morals, your morals on somebody else… to me, it just takes away from you’re just being some a–hole purist that thinks they’re better than everybody else… The world’s enjoying themselves. Either come along for the ride or go somewhere else.”

Ahead of Night of Champions, CM Punk publicly apologised for comments in 2020 that were highly critical of WWE’s relationship with Saudi Arabia. In a now-deleted post stemming from a social media spat with The Miz, Punk told the star to “suck a blood money-covered d**k in Saudi Arabia.”

H/t to WrestlingNews.Co