Light being shed on years-long controversies usually requires a combination of time, a prominent executive’s exit from a company, and the magic wand of a book deal and ensuing PR tour.
For WWE audiences, this effect now pertains to the story of a plane delay in Saudi Arabia seven years ago, ex-co-president George Barrios, and his comments on the My World podcast with Conrad Thompson and Jeff Jarrett.
Headlines from the interview read that the situation of talent being stuck in the country after the Crown Jewel event was “exaggerated to some degree”, but the language used by Barrios doesn’t dismiss the theories regarding the talent and production team’s hold-up being more than “mechanical” in nature, as was originally stated.
What happened at Crown Jewel in 2019?
Crown Jewel was staged in Riyadh in October 2019 and was the fourth show of the WWE’s ten-year agreement with the General Entertainment Authority. WWE already endured plenty of backlash from the inaugural event in 2018, featuring an angle pitting the heel Daivari brothers as representatives of Iran confronting Saudi Arabia’s Mansoor and other prospects from the country. It leaned on real and deep-seated tension between the countries on a show mixed with propaganda messaging throughout the broadcast. That was mild compared to the November 2018 show, where WWE opted to stay the course and head to the country one month to the day after journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered at a Saudi Arabian consulate in Turkey.
The Crown Jewel show of 2019 was arguably the most star-studded to date, with Tyson Fury and Cain Velasquez joining a giant-sized event consisting of nine matches and nearly sixty performers booked. It included a 10-man tag with team captains, Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair; an eight-team Tag Team Turmoil match, and a 20-man battle royal.
Hours after the show, word started to trickle out that the WWE’s chartered flight was not leaving the country, with those on board left with questions as minutes turned to hours, and concerns turned to fear.
WWE addressed the delay with a statement by Atlas Air:
A chartered WWE passenger flight operated by Atlas Air is currently delayed in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia due to a mechanical issue. The flight was scheduled to depart at 0300 local time on November 1. Our top priority is always to ensure our passengers arrive safely and on time at their destination. The aircraft is being repaired and will be inspected and certified before returning to service to transport our passengers to their final destination. We regret that operational disruptions delayed the flight and apologize to our passengers who were inconvenienced.
The statement issued by WWE on behalf of the charter company was designed to quell concerns back home. Skepticism arose from talents who were not informed of any issues during the flight; if the answer was simply mechanical, why wasn’t that conveyed to those affected?
The company added, “More than 175 Superstars, production crew and employees boarded a 747 charter flight back to the United States on Thursday. After the door closed, due to several aircraft problems, including mechanical issues, all passengers sat on the tarmac for more than six hours”.
In the My World interview, Barrios essentially nullified the smokescreen, possibly alluding to a fee being paid to get the plane back home. It was an odd explanation, as he outlined a previous experience in a separate country where they were told of a new fee that was required to get a plane out of its airport, which Barrios then agreed to pay. He backpedals short of stating that was the cause in October 2019: “I’m not saying there’s an analog there, I’m just saying there was a delay, and then we got out, and I’ll leave it at that.”
If one subscribes to the mechanical issue being the beginning and end of the problem, then an analogy to a previous example of paying a fee to exit a country wouldn’t make much sense in this context.
Was it a hostage situation?
It’s a loaded term (no one has ever alleged that anyone was held at gunpoint or insinuated that talent was in imminent danger), but it’s the one that was used by talent and their families that week.
Karl Anderson’s wife in a since-deleted tweet on Nov. 2, 2019: “We don’t need our daddy…being held hostage while we’re at home and worried to death.”
An unnamed wrestler was in communication with David Bixenspan while stuck in Saudi Arabia and wrote, “We’re all pretty certain we’re being held hostage.”
In 2020, WWE settled a pair of lawsuits for $39 million with the City of Warren Police and Fire Retirement System. It was alleged that WWE misled its investors regarding a forthcoming Middle East and North Africa rights deal and did not alert them in advance of its deal with OSN ending in 2018. Part of the settlement includes WWE and the defendants not admitting to liability or the validity of the allegations outlined.
Because Saudi Arabian broadcaster MBC was in discussions for a deal with WWE, the broadcast of Crown Jewel in 2019 was expected to be part of the suit. A confidential witness who previously wrestled for WWE was part of the suit, claiming they were part of a “hostage” situation and that the term was used by other WWE personnel on the trip. The witness also spoke of former executive Mark Carrano telling them that Mohammed bin Salman and Vince McMahon had gotten into an intense argument over a late payment and that McMahon cut the feed for Crown Jewel (which was corroborated by tweets at the time of Crown Jewel having a delayed start on MBC).
From the lawsuit filing:
CW-2 (Confidential Witness #2) recalled that he was initially told the charter flight he was scheduled to leave on was delayed because the plane needed to be pulled around, and once they boarded, they were removed from the airplane after 20-30 minutes. CW-2 explained that he spoke with a stewardess on the flight about the delay, who told him that “it seems someone doesn’t want us to leave the country.” CW-2 further explained that the pilot sounded “distressed” when he informed the passengers that the flight was unable to take off. CW-2 recalled that they were then told that it was because of mechanical issues, but he recalled seeing a “ton” of guards wearing black “militia” attire and wearing guns that were blocking their exit and “staring at the wrestlers.”
CW-2 became aware that something was wrong and explained that a number of the other personnel were referring to the event as a “hostage” situation.” CW-2 explained that he asked the Senior Director of Talent Relations, Mark Carrano, about what was going on and that Carrano told him that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and McMahon had gotten into an argument over late payments in connection with the June 7, 2019 Super ShowDown event. Carrano also informed CW-2 that McMahon had cut the live feed for the Crown Jewel event and that this had made the Crown Prince “very mad.”
CW-2 also heard that while on the plane, other wrestlers communicated back home that the military police were holding the wrestlers, and that McMahon didn’t air the first 30 minutes of the pay-per-view, and that as retaliation the Prince was holding them.
The late payment was referenced by George Barrios during WWE’s earnings call on October 31, 2019 (the same day as Crown Jewel), stating that after the end of the quarter, they received a $60 million payment, which was confirmed by WWE’s chief accounting officer Mark Kowal as a payment for the June 2019 event in Saudi Arabia.
KSA paid the full fee due with respect to WWE Super ShowDown 2019 prior to WWE Crown Jewel. In fact, WWE publicly disclosed in its Q3 2019 Earnings Conference Call held at 11 am ET on October 31, 2019 — prior to the start of WWE Crown Jewel 2019 later that day — the receipt of a $60 million payment for an outstanding receivable subsequent to the close of the quarter. Following the receipt of that payment, the full fee due with respect to WWE Super ShowDown 2019 had been paid, with $1.9 million of reimbursable costs relating to the event subsequently paid comprised of payments advanced by WWE for (i) shared costs (security, ground transportation, hotels, catering); (ii) customs and VAT; and (iii) merchandise/freight costs.
The settlement avoided this going to discovery and further details emerging, although it’s worth adding that WWE’s legal rep Jerry McDevitt gave an on-the-record statement to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter denying the allegations by the ex-WWE performer:
These false allegations were originally made in two suits filed by two different law firms. After the Court appointed a third firm to be lead counsel, WWE provided all three law firms with specific detailed facts from the persons with actual knowledge of the situation, including the phony allegation about the plane. The first two law firms then dropped their lawsuits to avoid sanction motions, but the third firm chose to ignore the specific facts they had been provided, and instead cited an unnamed disgruntled former wrestler with no knowledge of the facts. WWE is preparing its response to the lawsuit and will be moving to have it dismissed.
Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows have been the most transparent of those on the trip, speaking about their experience after leaving WWE.
From Anderson (transcribed by Jeremy Lambert at Fightful.com):
I never heard anything, but you hear that Vince pulled the plug on the pay-per-view. I’m hearing it from the crew, that will probably never admit it. We’re going, ‘why did he pull the plug? Why are we still standing here?’ Then you see more arguing and then they say, ‘we’re all going to get on the plane now.’ We all get on the plane, sit on the plane for another hour, and you start seeing your bosses getting up and they’re leaving the plane. Now, all the boys are texting each other like, ‘what the fuck is going on?’ At this point, it’s probably 9 am. I look at Michael Hayes and I go, ‘Are we in a hostage situation? Because this is really weird.’ He goes, ‘Huh? I don’t know.’ Then he walked away. It makes me feel like he did know. Ultimately, they ended up saying there was a mechanical problem. Around 10:30 am or 11 am, they got us off the plane, got us to the hotel, waited around the hotel, let us sleep there, we left probably around 4 am the next day.
AJ Styles addressed the incident on his Twitch stream and had his own questions about what he was told. He spoke about a fuel operator going home and asked why that person would go home when there was a scheduled flight about to take off. He was told of paperwork issues and then spoke with the pilot, and Styles was told, “There was a (real) problem; that was a thing.” He went on to say he was never in danger but doesn’t know what happened involving McMahon and MBS, “That’s not my job,” but was also “not going to throw WWE under the bus”.
The fallout included most of the main roster talent being unavailable for the next evening’s episode of SmackDown in Buffalo, New York. It required an entire rewrite of the show focusing on NXT, who were rushed to Buffalo to participate in a series of matches and save the show.
Days later, WWE and the General Entertainment Authority presented a united front, announcing an expansion of its deal to encompass two shows per year while working towards a media rights agreement. It struck some as bizarre given that WWE had already been running two events per year.
Many of the performers returned months later for the Super ShowDown card in February 2020, including AJ Styles, Karl Anderson, and Luke Gallows. It was the last show in Saudi Arabia for twenty months as the pandemic paused the deal, with excess shows tacked onto the backend of its term. They resumed touring in Saudi Arabia in October 2021 with an approximate $55 million attached to each show.
“I guess it depends on how you want to look at it” – George Barrios
The truth of Crown Jewel 2019 is a mixture of incomplete information and a deal with so much incentive structured that WWE would be hard-pressed to speak ill of its partner. Most are willing to accept that some level of gamesmanship was being played in Saudi Arabia, with talent and production used as unsuspecting pawns. There is no evidence of any imminent threat they faced, but the idea of being held in a non-violent standoff while families are seeking answers and fearing the worst, paints a picture of the uncontrollable variables that WWE has accepted in exchange for its most lucrative events on the calendar.
This relationship has since grown to include the country hosting select episodes of Raw and SmackDown piggybacking off PLEs in the region, this past year’s Royal Rumble, and WrestleMania in April 2027.
Further, TKO has hitched its wagon to Saudi Arabia in other ways, including hosting annual UFC events in the region, and the formation of Zuffa Boxing, backed by Saudi Arabian-based company Sela.
TKO has leveraged itself to the degree that these shows are vital for its earnings, pressuring wrestlers and fighters to risk their personal safety in ways beyond what they’re already trained to do inside the ring or cage.
