WWE Global Ambassador Titus O’Neil addressed the mixed opinions regarding WWE’s partnership with Saudi Arabia, including hosting WrestleMania 43, during an appearance on TMZ Inside The Ring. O’Neil defended the relationship based on his own experiences in the country.
“I can say this, you know, because I’ve been to Saudi Arabia several times now, I feel safer in Saudi Arabia than I do in most places or a lot of places in the United States of America,” O’Neil stated. “I think in the United States, we have this mindset that we’re the greatest country in the world, and we are a great country. But people don’t move to the United States because we’re the greatest country in the world. They move because we have the greatest amount of opportunity”.
He contrasted the two places, noting, “I think that the biggest difference between places like overseas, in Japan, Saudi Arabia, Middle East, all those places and the United States, are morals and convictions. They actually live by theirs, whether you like them or not… You don’t hear about mass shootings in Saudi Arabia”. He added, “And I’m not saying that they get it all right, but we don’t get it all right either, to be pointing fingers at anybody”.
O’Neil recalled his first trip: “It’s one o’clock in the morning, and I see kids running around on the beach, kids. So I get up the next morning and I asked my driver, I’m like, ‘Hey, are you guys not worried about… getting, you know, sexually assaulted or beaten or brutalized or kidnapped or whatever.’ They say no, because it’s automatic death sentence. And I’m like, so kids are safe over there, but kids are not safe in the United States”.
He concluded, “My perspective of us going to Saudi Arabia for WWE, yeah, it’s business, but it’s also changing cultures”. “First and foremost, most of the people that are complaining about the show being over there would never book a ticket to go over there anyway. Watch the show on TV is going to be a spectacle. Saudi Arabia does nothing small, and WWE does nothing small”.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit TMZ Inside The Ring with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription. You can listen to the full episode on Apple and Spotify.
