On a recent edition of his “The Extreme Life Of Matt Hardy” podcast, Matt Hardy discussed WWE hosting events in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. He said,
“I wasn’t freaked out. I knew, or I trusted the WWE in the fact that they felt it was safe for us to go over there and do a show, that I was okay with it. Because I felt like they were going to try and make sure they have this working arrangement, and they know what we’re doing, we’re going over there.
“I remember, at the very beginning, it felt strange when they said like, you know, ‘No women are allowed,’ and they were very strict about that. And that is one thing that has broken as we move forward, obviously.”
Hardy added that, despite fan backlash, the majority of people on the roster at the time merely saw the event as just another booking. He said,
“There were some people that weren’t crazy about it. And most people were just like, ‘You know, it’s another town, another booking. You know, it’s global, it’s a long flight but it’s another booking.’ That’s how the majority of people were. There were some people that weren’t fans of it.
“I guess I kind of get that. It depends on where everyone stands, I guess, on their beliefs of morality or whatever else you want to classify as. But the majority of the crew was like, ‘Okay well, it’s another booking, they’re gonna take good care of us. And we’ll go over there and get it done. And we’ll come back.’”
Hardy was part of the 2018 Greatest Royal Rumble pay-per-view event where he and Bray Wyatt captured the RAW Tag Team Championships.
WWE has hosted events in Saudi Arabia ever since as part of the nation’s ‘Saudi Vision 2030’ program which has the goal of the nation branching out internationally.
