As seen below, Mark Henry spoke with TMZ Sports about WWE moving forward with Friday’s Crown Jewel event in Saudi Arabia. Henry was asked about WWE doing business with the Kingdom following the state-sponsored murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
“I think it was a horrible situation that it puts our whole country in, first off,” Henry said. “But that’s policy. That’s up for the country to decide and that’s up for the company to decide. It shouldn’t have any bearing on talent. Your political views should be your political views. I believe in business, being non-partisan. Doing your job and then letting the companies be the ones to work out all of those international particulars. So basically, I’m not saying shut up and dribble, like some people would, like somebody told me on social media – ‘That’s what you’re saying, shut up and dribble!’ No, I’m anti-that. What I’m saying is, we do our jobs until we know different and we don’t know different yet.”
The World’s Strongest Man was also asked about John Cena and Daniel Bryan pulling out of the Crown Jewel event.
“I wouldn’t never say that person is making the wrong decision,” Henry said. “I would say that’s not the decision I would make. I would stand by my guns and do what’s best for business. I’m a firm believer in not leaving people out to dry, and I’ve done a lot of things in my career and in my life, my personal life, where I could say I’m not doing that. But there were people hanging in the balance and I didn’t want to screw those people over. So that’s the situation that this is in, our fans, they want to see you. You know, give our fans what they want.”
TMZ also asked Henry what he would say to people who think WWE shouldn’t do business with the Kingdom while the death of a journalist is investigated.
“My response is, it’s a horrible thing,” Henry said. “That person that lost his life, that family is without a brother, without a dad, without a son. They’ve lost somebody. Any time there’s loss, it’s more serious and we’ve been… it’s not a war situation, he was a journalist. And I do believe that all of the ducks need to be in a row. They need to figure this out, they need to own it and apologize for it, and to make good by it, and do everything you can to fix the situation. But again, it’s government policy. The government has not said, this is what you don’t do, you don’t go over there. They haven’t done that, they haven’t done that to any corporations. WWE is just one business. There are hundreds of thousands of business that are doing business internationally, why pick on one?”
Henry said he is not scheduled to be at Crown Jewel but he would make the trip if Vince McMahon called him.
Henry added, “I hope that everybody that listens to TMZ, will understand that, you have an opinion and so does everybody else. Don’t be a bully. Try to look at something from both sides before you draw that line in the sand and say I wouldn’t do it. Its un-American. It’s not un-American to go and do your job, and when you’re expected to go and do your job.”
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