George Barrios Details Meeting To Finalize WWE/Saudi Arabia Deal; Says There Were Armed Guards, A Prince Was In His Boxer Shorts & Had Hookah

In-depth information from George Barrios.

Jeff Jarrett and Conrad Thompson rolled out a new episode of Jarrett’s My World podcast featuring former WWE Co-President and Board member George Barrios.

They did a deep dive into WWE’s relationship with Saudi Arabia and further elaborated on what Barrios discussed in his book. Barrios detailed how the deal was finalized. He remembers people not being eager to fly to Riyadh to represent WWE. He said fellow former Co-President Michelle Wilson wasn’t going because she’s a woman, and that would have been a complex situation to handle.

Barrios added that he thinks Vince McMahon did not want to go, so he was the next person up. Barrios’ wife was not a fan of him traveling to Saudi.

He dove into the details of arriving at the meeting. He said there were guards armed with machine guns. Barrios remembers one of the Princes being in his boxer shorts and having a hookah setup. Barrios said the Prince was shouting at him because he felt WWE was being greedy with their terms of the deal.

“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 (McMahon), I don’t think wanted to go honestly and so I’m like, ‘F*ck it. It’s me,’” Barrios smiled. “I’m up… I like to consider myself this tough street kid. I’ve been in a million fights; I’m not scared of anybody. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, but I was like, I was a little worried, and I remember Carol, my wife, was a little worried… We had made the decision: I’m going. We’re going. We’re gonna get this deal done. It’s the night before the earnings call. So usually, I’m home late anyway, because we were prepping… At this point, we hadn’t even been prepping. We were working on this. But I come home, it’s like 1 o’clock in the morning… gotta turn on the lights and I gotta pack and she’s like, ‘Pack? Where are you going?’ I go, ‘After the earnings call, I’m flying to Riyadh,’ and she’s like, ‘What!?’ My own personal things, explaining that, she was worried about it. But I get out and I will tell you… I have negotiated deals in every part of the world. I am very comfortable in every part of the world, even when the customs are very different… Broken bread in China, Thailand, India, everywhere, you know? That was the most unique kind of business meeting I’ve ever been in. First thing is we’re scheduled to start at 7 PM. We don’t start till like 11 PM. Again, we’re talking weeks after the (Jamal) Khashoggi thing. We drive into this compound; it’s pitch black. Get out; there’s guards everywhere strapped with machine guns. 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 f*cking yelling at me because he thinks we’re being a little greedy on the terms of the deal, and me going into this side room with his number two guy to hammer out the deal and it’s me and a couple of my guys, junior guys, and them, and it’s this small room with these overstuffed couches — very nice — and 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,” Barrios laughed. “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 but the reality is, while I was there, they were amazing partners. 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. 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.”

To read Barrios’ recount of why WWE continued working with Saudi Arabia after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, click here.

If the quote in this article is used, please credit My World With Jeff Jarrett with an H/T to Fightful for the transcription.