WWE Hall of Famer JBL issues response to criticism over WrestleMania 43 taking place in Saudi Arabia

While speaking on the Something To Wrestle podcast, WWE Hall of Famer JBL (John Layfield) addressed criticism over WrestleMania 43 taking place in Saudi Arabia…

“I can’t judge motives, uh, you know, so I don’t know their motive for, you know, why they’re doing it. Are they doing it for selfish reasons? Are they doing it because—and I say motives, I know why they’re doing it. Obviously, they’re doing it because of the Saudi Arabia news. I don’t know if it’s a selfish motive as, ‘Hey, I just want to be heard, I’m a spoiled brat,’ or if ‘I really believe this and that’s my voice speaking out.’ So, I don’t know where they’re coming from. I think it’s misguided. You know, I don’t think—we’re not the moral police. And you say, ‘Well, you can’t do business with this country because of this, this, this.’ You can list that for pretty much any country, including ours, pretty easily. And so, I get people want to have their voice heard. I 100% do not agree with that dissent at all.”

“When you had women over there for one of the first times in the Middle East countries, the fans at one point chanted, ‘This is change.’ And I think that’s important. I think it’s important to work with these countries… In my opinion, you don’t get that by isolation. When you send something like WWE over to Saudi Arabia—I don’t want to overstate what an entertainment company is—but I think that’s something that opens up the world. And you see that when you see these kids’ eyes. You see that when you hear the fans chanting, ‘This is change.’ You see that when you see women wrestling. Are there a lot of things wrong? Yeah, 100%. There’s a lot of things wrong. A lot of things wrong with our country, too. If you’re looking at our country from the outside in—if you’re the moral police—you might not want to do business with us either. You know, I think there are reasons to do things, and I think what WWE is doing is good.”