What Does Lita Think Of Women Not Wrestling In Saudi Arabia?

Maybe they’ll listen to her. Last year, WWE made its debut in Saudi Arabia with the Greatest Royal Rumble. While the show was a rousing financial success, there are some people who aren’t pleased with the fact that, due to Saudi Arabian law, women weren’t allowed to perform on the show. This didn’t sit well with several people, including a host of female wrestlers. One of them has spoken up about it in a recent interview.

She was recently back in a good cameo.

Lita tears up as she talks to Bayley prior to Women's Royal Rumble Match

Lita recently appeared on WrestleZone Radio to discuss a variety of topics, including the Saudi Arabian women’s issue. She talked about understanding the business aspect of the show and how WWE wanted to make money, which was fine, but wasn’t happy with how WWE went about trying to defend not having women on the show. Here are her comments, with transcription courtesy of 411mania.com:

“I understand that they are a business, a global business and they are always looking to expand their global presence. However, I do feel this was a direct conflict of interest with them maintaining any integrity or truth to the fact that they say they would like to push forward women, their roles and their reputations in this business as anything resembling equal to a male.

“Make the money, that’s fine, but don’t try to cover it up. Don’t say, “No, we are doing this because in the future we would like to help progress their culture forward!” No, you want the money, you’re a business and businesses make money. That’s okay. From my perspective over here, I don’t own your business so that’s your call. From a PR perspective don’t say you are doing it because, “We want to help progress that culture forward.” No, it’s a direct conflict of interest, in my opinion.”

You can listen to the whole interview here.

Lita knows what it’s like to be left off of a show. Why wasn’t she on the Raw 25th Anniversary Special?

Opinion: Really, this is similar to what a lot of people have said about the issue already. It’s perfectly understandable that WWE wanted to make a fortune from a single show. However, there’s a little more to it than that. WWE is presenting itself as a company at the forefront of women’s athletics and wrestling in particular. It’s really hard to go along with the idea that they’re trying to make things better by doing business with a government with such a horrible human rights record.

What do you think of Lita’s comments? Should WWE continue running shows in Saudi Arabia? Let us know in the comments below.

Thomas Hall has been a wrestling fan for over thirty years and has seen over 50,000 wrestling matches. He has also been a wrestling reviewer since 2009 with over 5,000 full shows covered. You can find his work at kbwrestlingreviews.com, or check out his Amazon author page with 26 wrestling books. His latest book is the WWE Grab Bag.

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