Saudi General Sports Authority apologizes for ‘indecent’ WWE ad

The Saudi General Sports Authority has apologized for an advertisement that aired during the Greatest Royal Rumble, saying that it showed women’s wrestlers in an “indecent” way.

The apology was issued through the Saudi General Sport’s Authority’s Twitter account, and Reddit user “comproimse” posted a rough translation of it:

“The General Sport Authority would like to apologize to the viewers and attendees of last night’s WWE event that took place in Jeddah, over the indecent scene involving women that appeared as an ad before a segment. It would like to confirm it’s total disapproval of this, in the shadow of its commitment to eliminate anything that goes against the communities values.

“The authority has made sure to ban showing of any segment that involves women wrestling or any scenes related to it, and stipulated that to the company (WWE). The authority also disapproved any promotional stuff with pictures or videos showing women in an indecent way, and emphasized on commitment of this rule. And it’s a commitment that the authority would still commit to forever in all of it’s events and programs”

It appears that the advertisement in question was WWE’s commercial about the company’s switch to all dual-brand pay-per-views. It features men and women from Raw and SmackDown lip-syncing about the PPV change while in their wrestling gear.

The Associated Press has also picked up on the apology being issued.

Friday’s Greatest Royal Rumble was the first event in WWE’s 10-year agreement with the Saudi General Sports Authority. Paul “Triple H” Levesque defended that partnership in an interview with The Independent ahead of the show, noting that they’ve had discussions about women not being able to wrestle in Saudi Arabia and WWE believes and hopes they’ll be allowed to within the next few years.