If the guest star of WrestleMania 23 meeting with the guest star of WrestleMania 24 in the White House to discuss prison reform isn’t the most 2018 thing you’ve ever read, here’s another contender: According to The Independent, terrorist group Al-Qaeda is threatening the crown prince of Saudi Arabia for hosting a WWE event in Jeddah. You knew the Greatest Royal Rumble was bad, but did you realize it was “international incident” bad?
The Yemen-based Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (or AQAP) commented on Saudi Arabia’s current regime allowing Western entertainment such as movies and a six-hour fantasy booked pro wrestling house shows, claiming they’re “opening the door wide for corruption and moral degradation.” The WWE-specific comments are especially interesting:
Of particular ire to al-Qaeda, however, appears to be a World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) event in the Saudi city of Jeddah which took place in April.
“[Foreign] disbelieving wrestlers exposed their privates and on most of them was the sign of the cross, in front of a mixed gathering of young Muslim men and women,” it said. “The corruptors did not stop at that, for every night musical concerts are being announced, as well as movies and circus shows.”
The AQAP branch of the extremist organisation is currently battling Saudi forces who fight as part of an Arab coalition in neighbouring Yemen’s complex civil war.
I’ve watched that GIF of Titus O’Neil sliding under the ring probably a hundred times, and I’m pretty sure nothing NSFW happens. And nobody tell Al-Qaeda that WWE inducted Kid Rock into their Hall of Fame, I guess.
We’ll keep you updated on the story as it develops, as we enter this brave new world where WWE is way too close to killing us all.
