WWE’s massive Saudi Arabia deal came together during one of the strangest business meetings former company executive George Barrios ever experienced. The former WWE Co-President found himself inside a heavily guarded compound in Riyadh, negotiating with a Saudi prince who was sitting in his boxer shorts, smoking a hookah, and yelling at him over WWE’s financial demands.
During a new episode of Jeff Jarrett’s My World podcast with Conrad Thompson, Barrios opened up about the negotiations behind WWE’s Saudi Arabia partnership. He explained that nobody was particularly eager to make the trip, especially with tensions running high following the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Barrios said fellow WWE Co-President Michelle Wilson wasn’t going because of the complications surrounding women traveling to Saudi Arabia at the time. He also believed Vince McMahon had no interest in making the trip, leaving Barrios to handle the negotiations himself.
“I remember Michelle’s not going because she’s a woman and that adds a level of complexity at that point in time, less so, but then, it was an issue. Vince, I don’t think wanted to go honestly and so I’m like, ‘Fck it. It’s me.'”*
Even Barrios, who had negotiated major business deals around the world, admitted he was nervous. His wife wasn’t thrilled when he informed her at approximately 1 AM that he would be flying to Riyadh immediately after WWE’s earnings call.
Things only got more uncomfortable once he arrived. Barrios recalled driving into a dark compound surrounded by armed guards. His meeting, originally scheduled for 7 PM, didn’t begin until approximately 11 PM. Inside, he found something he never expected from a high-level international business negotiation.
“Go into this meeting, it’s almost like a man cave. It’s dark. It’s — I don’t know — five, six, probably six… two rows of three of these giant TVs, all with YouTube with all different things on them. It’s like this giant man cave with one of the most senior Princes in the Kingdom, who’s in his boxer shorts with a hookah and the meeting starts with him fcking yelling at me because he thinks we’re being a little greedy on the terms of the deal.”*
Barrios then went into another room with the prince’s second-in-command to work through the financial terms. However, the armed security and guards carrying boxes in and out of the room had him imagining the worst.
“These guards are walking in and out with little boxes and I’m like, God man, I’m going out in one of those boxes. I bet it’s at the end of this thing.”
While Barrios laughed about the experience during the podcast, he admitted the situation genuinely made him uncomfortable.
“So, like I said, I like to pretend I’m not afraid of anything. I was a little uncomfortable. It was the most unique kind of business dealing I’d ever had.”
Despite the bizarre circumstances surrounding the negotiations, Barrios made it clear that his experiences working with Saudi Arabia were largely positive once the partnership got underway. He acknowledged that WWE faced significant logistical challenges because Saudi Arabia had limited experience hosting productions of that size. Even something as basic as distributing tickets became a major obstacle because the country’s ticketing infrastructure was practically nonexistent at the time.
“They can be a little slow sometimes, and as they were getting their sea legs on putting together these large-scale events… A lot of our team — there were a lot of late nights — kind of working through all the logistics of it because you guys know how hard it is to put on major events and now you’re doing it in a country that’d never done it before.”
Barrios ultimately praised the Saudi representatives for their cooperation, saying they were good business partners despite the unusual beginning to their relationship.
“Their ticketing system at that point was non-existent. So how did you get tickets in people’s hands, all this stuff? So we had to do it but, they were good partners. For the most part, they were really good partners.”
WWE’s Saudi Arabia partnership has become a major part of the company’s international business, but Barrios’ account offers a rare look at what happened behind closed doors before those events became a regular fixture on WWE’s calendar. What started with an uncomfortable late-night meeting, armed guards, and an angry prince in his underwear eventually turned into one of WWE’s most significant international business relationships.
What do you think about George Barrios’ account of WWE’s Saudi Arabia negotiations, and does his story change how you view the company’s partnership with the Kingdom? Let us know in the comments.
This transcript was produced exclusively for Ringside News from the original recording. Republishing the transcription in full is prohibited. When using excerpts, provide prominent credit and a link to this article.
