Aren't there companies pulling out of Saudi Arabia because of this?
As of right now, these companies aren't pulling out of Saudi Arabia, there are various CEOs of major companies like JP Morgan, McDonalds and some others are merely pulling out of some sort of big conference that's supposed to take place soon. It's called the Future Investment Initiative conference. These companies aren't going to walk away from the billions of dollars they make from doing business with Saudi Arabia, not for the death of a reporter or a million others just like him. These companies have done business with the Saudis for decades, the CEOs and company executives know full well the history of the crown prince of the KSA just as they know the kind of man his father is. They didn't go into it blindfolded and I guarantee that Vince didn't either, they all knew full well the atrocious history the Saudi government has when it comes to human rights violations just like American companies that did business with Germany during World War II knew what the Nazis were all about, what their goals were and what they stood for.
See I would agree with you if this was simply WWE holding Saudi Arabia events for Money. And if this what it only is then it's just the WWE being a transparent company that only cares about Money.
Problem is the company has spent years trying to shed away from that image as a Wrestling company that would do anything and compromise for ratings and media attention (Necrophillia, HLA, the attitude era, Wild Sex celebrations?) to be a legit wholesome corporation. A large corporation that cares about social issues and try to make it that point across in every aspect of their programming and product. It seems hypocritical if a company fires someone making a rape joke but continues doing business with a country whose had a history of punishing victims of rape doesn't it?
Bottom line is if all these PR and social awareness initiatives is part of the company's values, which I assume it is, it is in the best interest of the WWE to, at least, postpone the event. I have worked in a large tech corporation before and the first thing you do ever year is take a Corporate Standards and Ethics training and refresher course every year. One of the parts in the training is that you never compromise the company's value for profit. And this is what the WWE is violating right now, in some respects.
Most corporations try to paint themselves as being companies of strong moral fiber and having a wholesome attitude. It's an image that almost nobody really believes or buys into; McDonalds often features families in their commercials, kids especially as they've branded themselves as being sort of the ultimate kid friendly fast food joint. Like every other corporation in America, however, they exploit their workers to varying degrees, they have politicians in their pockets for the purpose of creating measures designed to help them make even more money or to oppose measures that might rein in some of the corporate fat cats, they do business with countries hostile to what are considered to be American values such as China and Russia, etc.. In spite of WWE's efforts, much of the rest of the world doesn't really take them seriously when they try to portray themselves as this upright, wholesome altruistic company that's looking to build a better tomorrow. It's all hypocritical nonsense, just like it is for any of these other companies. Then again, is it hypocritical to denounce McDonalds or Coca-Cola for doing business with the KSA in one breath and then to order a Big Mac and a large Coke in the next? I don't know, maybe does and maybe it doesn't. Morality and Corporate America don't go hand in hand, at least not when it comes to the movers and shakers who have all the power. If an assembly line worker for Ford Motor Company says the N word in earshot of a dozen people, he's gonna be fired; if Ford CEO Jim Hackett says it during a meeting in the presence of the very top company executives, it's most likely that nothing whatsoever will happen in terms of consequences. The other executives will probably either laugh or pretend that they didn't hear a thing.
This entire situation has put on full display exactly what Capitalism ultimately is: it's about doing business with just about anybody as long as they're willing to pay without regard for morality. This is how the system works, it's how it's always worked and how it always will work unless Americans, and I mean many, many, many millions of Americans are able to stand united and demand for things to change and hold Corporate America accountable; that's not going to happen, however, we're so divided and so different in our mind sets. WWE could be "forced" to change their plans if stockholders stood up and began selling off their stock but that's not happening: WWE's stock was up another 1.5% today and the company's stock is worth about $6.4 billion, a little more than half of which belongs to Vince himself. Fans could demand that WWE change their plans by not watching WWE programming but, again, that's not happening as SmackDown last Tuesday did their best numbers in 6 months and outdrew Raw.
When you get right down to it, nobody really cares beyond the usual knee jerk reaction outrage that sparks up and fades away the more time goes by and that's really all this is. In a few weeks, we'll be in the midst of mid-term elections, Trump will say and/or do something that insults and alienates millions of Americans, his supporters will praise him while deriding his detractors while his detractors will detest him and his supporters, the fall out will be front and center and ultimately this reporter will be just another footnote in the history of Trump's tumultuous time as President because we'll have moved on just as we moved on from every scandal, mass shooting and racial injustice. WWE will weather this storm and when they start up their next marketing campaign to show what a progressive company they are, nobody will care, apart from those wo already crap on WWE for one thing or another but keep on spending their time and money to watch just the same.