US Senators Urging WWE To Pause Plans For Crown Jewel Event In Saudi Arabia

U.S. senators are urging WWE to “pause” plans to go through the WWE Crown Jewel event on Nov. 2 in Saudi Arabia. Three U.S. senators are quoted in a news article published  by IJR.com regarding the situation.

“I’d hope that they would be rethinking their relationship with the kingdom especially with respect to events coming up in the next weeks like [WWE Crown Jewel],” said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.). He classified the apparent murder of U.S. resident and Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi as “a brazen assault on the freedom of the press and a slap in the face to the United States, if this murder occurred as it seems it did.” Murphy is the senator representing Connecticut, the state where WWE is headquartered.

there should be a pause in WWE’s business relationship with Saudi Arabia. Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del) said WWE should “be taking a hard look” at its relationship with Saudi Arabia moving forward.

“Private enterprise is private enterprise, different than a governmental entity,” Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) told IJR, “but because [Linda McMahon] is part of the president’s cabinet, it falls into the grey area where the administration really should give it some thought and maybe even prevail upon them not doing it.”

Many media entities and businessmen have withdrawn from events and projects in and with Saudi Arabia including Rich Branson, Steve Case, the New York Times, Bloomberg, and CNN.