JBL has hit out at critics of WWE for the promotion hosting a show just days after the war between Iran and Israel.
WWE's Night of Champions PLE was held inSaudi Arabia a couple of days after the conflict in neighboring Iran, with many on social media criticizing WWE for going after money rather than their stars' safety. JBL, though, rejected those complaints and said that WWE wouldn't risk the lives of its stars.
"I was reading all these tweets about how they [WWE] are taking money over safety and all this bulls*it. And it is bulls*it, by the way. It's bulls*it. They'd be like, 'Oh, they don't care anything about the guys' safety.' They are going over there too. They're not going to put their own lives at risk, they have families also. This is just insane to me [the criticism]. And tweet after tweet was negative, [saying] 'Oh, they are putting money over safety,'" said JBL on "Something to Wrestle."
JBL argued the war was thousands of miles away, and WWE's plane wasn't going to fly over Iranian airspace, which is where the war was happening.He added that, by the logic of many, WWE shouldn't even travel to Austria or other European countries due to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
"That war was 1000+ miles away. To get to Saudi Arabia, they are flying private, they are not flying over Iran airspace. You fly over the Egypt direction. You're flying from west to east and not east to west. You're not anywhere near this warzone. It's like shutting down Austria because there's a war in Ukraine. Would you feel safe going to Vienna? Yeah, of course you would," said JBL. "I don't have any issue with them going to Saudi Arabia. I don't think it's money over safety. Was it about money? Of course it was. It was money if you go to Baltimore; it's money if you go to LA."
He stated that WWE was honoring its contract with Saudi Arabia, while also saying that he's been to war zones and Saudi Arabia isn't one of them.
