Former WWE Co-President George Barrios recently appeared on Jeff Jarrett’s My World podcast to promote his new memoir, and he shared some interesting tales about his time in the company.
Perhaps the wildest story he told related to when he was sent to Riyadh to finalize the deal between WWE and Saudi Arabia.
Barrios said he believes the reason he was sent to Saudi Arabia for the negotiations was because then-WWE boss Vince McMahon didn’t want to make the trip. He also noted that WWE’s other co-president
at the time, Michelle Wilson, stayed behind “because she’s a woman, and that adds a level of complexity at that point in time.”
He told Jarrett and co-host Conrad Thompson: “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.”
Barrios said he made the flight right after an earnings call, and he noted the meeting took place weeks after the highly-publicized death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. (The CIA later stated Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman had ordered Khashoggi’s assassination, though the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has denied any role in his death.)
Soon enough, Barrios found himself in “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.”
“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,” he said. “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**king 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 joked.
While he admitted to being “uncomfortable” in the meeting, Barrios said the Saudis turned out to be “amazing partners.”
Barrios also addressed a notorious incident that occurred in Saudi Arabia involving WWE stars. Following the 2019 Crown Jewel, a plane transporting WWE wrestlers was delayed on a runway in the country. Reports soon emerged that cited anonymous sources saying talent felt they were being detained or held hostage at the airport.
However, Barrios downplayed the incident while speaking with Thompson and Jarrett. According to him, the plane’s delay came as a result of an unpaid airport fee.
“I think it was exaggerated to some degree, and again, back to doing business in other countries, there were other runways around the world where our plane was delayed. I remember somebody calling us [and said], ‘Hey, there’s a new fee.’ It was not in Riyadh. It was in a different country — I won’t name it,” he said. “Our plane had been delayed and somehow it had gotten serious enough it had reached my desk, right? Usually, this stuff is just getting handled. But it reached my desk, because a new fee had been instituted in this country — airport fee — that was a lot of money to get out.
“Somebody said, ‘Someone could look at this and say you’re being extorted to being left out of the country.’ I guess it depends how you want to look at it. But in that moment, there was a fee. So, what did I say? I said, ‘Pay the f**king fee. We’re coming home, right? So I don’t even know why you’re calling me. Yes, it’s a lot of money but yeah, we’re paying the airport fee.’”
Barrios added: “If anybody’s listening and is going to charge me with a violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, I say bulls**t. That was the then law in that country, and we obeyed it. So when you ask about what happened in Saudi Arabia, I think for the most part, I don’t know exactly. I’m not trying to say there was an analog there. I’m just saying there was a delay, and then we got out. I’ll leave it at that.”
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