Sam Roberts Says WWE Should Move Crown Jewel Out of Saudi Arabia

– Sam Roberts discussed the WWE Crown Jewel controversy on the latest episode of his podcast, saying WWE should relocate the show. Roberts, who appears on WWE’s Kickoff show panels, said that he supports WWE’s deal with Saudi Arabia on the whole, but thinks that the company needs to move the show outside of the country in the wake of Saudi agents reportedly murdering Washington Post columnist and Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi.

“I’m ok with the deal. Saudi Arabia has done a lot of questionable things, but I’m ok with the deal in general,” Roberts said. “But, my own personal opinion is that because of this story -– and because honestly the U.S. is still figuring out whether they’re gonna have to retaliate against Saudi Arabia — I don’t think that Crown Jewel should take place in Saudi Arabia…I think that the show should go on. The show must go on. A big investment has been made into this show. And it’s gonna cost WWE, it’s gonna cost them money. But I think WWE has gotta eat this one. They were featured on Vice, they were featured on John Oliver this week, and it’s not good press.”

He added, “I would expect that they [WWE] have a backup plan already and at this moment, if you ask me today, I think they should use the backup plan. I think that WWE needs to figure out how to do this show outside of Saudi Arabia. If they want to go back, go back. We can have that discussion separately at another time. But I think for this one, for the sake of everybody involved … I think it would be a better thing if they did it outside of Saudi Arabia.”

The situation regarding Khashoggi’s alleged murder is continuing to heat up. Amid reports that Saudi officials plan to put the blame on Gen. Ahmed al-Assiri, a high-ranking adviser to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a Turkish newspaper published time-stamped photos from surveillance footage showing a frequent companion of bin Salman’s travelling to Istanbul and entering the consulate hours before the alleged murder, then leaving a few hours after.