John Oliver dedicated the lion’s share of Sunday’s “Last Week Tonight” to slamming Saudi Arabia over the government’s alleged assassination of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. The HBO host also trashed with business ties to the Middle Eastern country, including President Trump and WWE.
The professional-wrestling promotion has a pay-per-view event, “Crown Jewel,” set for Nov. 2 in Saudi Arabia. While the company told TheWrap last week that it’s “currently monitoring the situation” in Saudi Arabia, should the event continue as planned, “Crown Jewel” will be WWE’s second PPV in Saudi Arabia in 2018.
“Audiences around the world were treated to wall-to-wall propaganda about the new Saudi Arabia,” Oliver opined before rolling footage from the first one, April’s “Greatest Royal Rumble.”
There was also “constant excited compliments throughout the broadcast,” he said, referring to the commentary of ringside broadcasters Michael Cole and Corey Graves.
Oliver then played a clip of WWE Superstar John Cena thanking the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia after his match at the “Greatest Royal Rumble.”
Later, the “Daily Show” alum mocked Cena’s “U Can’t C Me” move: “You don’t see these human rights abuses right here,” Oliver said, waving his hand in front of his face.
“It seems the WWE is overtly pro-Saudi Arabia as it is latently homoerotic, which is to say, intensely,” Oliver summed up, seated next to a photo of a submission maneuver.
TheWrap reached out to WWE with a request for comment on Oliver’s remarks, though we did not immediately hear back.
Of course, Oliver still went hardest at Trump over his dealings with the Saudis, who are not as progressive as those mid-“Greatest Royal Rumble” ads might have you believe.
Watch the video above.
Khashoggi, a prominent Saudi journalist and critic of crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, went missing Oct. 2 after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Top Turkish security officials have since contended that Khashoggi was assassinated on orders from the highest levels of the royal court.
The Saudi government maintains that Khashoggi left the consulate soon after he arrived and is not in their custody.