Josh Barnett Comments On Possibility of Taking Bloodsport To Saudi Arabia

WWE is taking Wrestlemania 43 to Saudi Arabia in 2027. This has raised questions about whether independent promotions will join them in the country. Promotions like GCW typically hold events during Wrestlemania weekend in the show’s host city. GCW owner Brett Lauderdale recently noted he had been approached about holdign shows in Saudi Arabia. In an interview with MuscleManMalcolm (via Fightful), Josh Barnett was asked about taking one of his Bloodsport events to the country.

He said: “Look, I know that there is a controversial environmental around Saudi Arabia and pro wrestling and the companies going back and forth from there. I honestly doesn’t participate in any of that because I see the arguments and they’re not hard for me to understand, but ultimately, my opinion is wherever I go and whatever I do, I always do things with sincerity and I believe that I am a force for bringing the world more together than apart. While it’s not my duty or even necessarily my interest to try and use pro wrestling or whatever avenue I may be associated with to create universal peace and harmony in the world, I’m not taking that on as my responsibility but what I can do is bring something that is sincere, authentic, and really — what it does with something, let’s say in this case Bloodsport or if I was to bring an MMA event there or whatever, there’s more about this that is understood by everyone than less. We’re more alike in this degree. My hope would be that by coming down there, let’s say in this case with Bloodsport, we could do something to motivate or bring an approach that they wouldn’t otherwise have access to. Maybe from there, in time, we might see things change in a manner that is more suitable to those that are against the way they do things down there. I also sit back and try to not be — I don’t filter history through the lens of modernity and I don’t filter necessarily every other place in the world through mine. I realize that everywhere is going to be different, sometimes in small degrees and sometimes in great degrees. My job is not to go out there and tell the world how to exist, my job is to be an upright standing person who lives by his ethics and does for those what he says he’ll do.“