The Greatest Royal Rumble wasn’t without controversy. In fact, that’s just about all we’ve been hearing about the event at this point.
The women on WWE’s roster weren’t invited to the big Saudi Arabia show due to strict laws regarding women. Females don’t share the same rights in Saudi Arabia like they do in America and that’s an understatement. Although they do now have the right to vote and drive a car there is a lot of work to do.
Because WWE’s women had to sit out the trip to Jeddah, Jerry Lawler said on his podcast Dinner With The King that the women would be getting paid for the trip anyway. Conflicting reports on the subject have since followed but the issue probably won’t be figured out until WWE actually starts paying people for the Greatest Royal Rumble.
Jim Ross opened up on The Ross Report where he gave his opinion on the Greatest Royal Rumble and whether he thinks the women deserved to draw a check even though they weren’t invited on the show (via Ringside News).
“I don’t know why it would be that way. It’s not everybody’s right to be on any card. You earn your right to be on the card. And the women have done a phenomenal job and I am as big a supporter of women’s athletics in general, hey I’m a season ticket holder to the OU women’s basketball games. I’m a big fan of the OU women’s softball team who are defending national champions. So I’m a big fan.”
“But I believe the same thing as I do about WrestleMania. It’s not your birthright to be booked. It’s like playing in the Super Bowl. It’s not your right as an NFL player you earn that right to get in that game.”
“So I believe the women I don’t know if they were paid or not. I don’t know why they would have been paid and I may piss some people off but I’m just being honest. It’s my problem I have sometimes, being honest.”
Jim Ross makes a good point but when he says that you have to earn your place on a big show he might be overlooking the fact that women didn’t have the choice to earn anything on the show because WWE wasn’t booking any females. But at the same time, WWE issuing payment to the women on the roster also might be displaying some acknowledgment that they know it was wrong to make them sit at home while the men got to take the trip.
