The Saudi Arabia deal was always going to present a PR problem for WWE, but until recently, it was one that, given the hundreds of millions of dollars involved, they were willing to paper over. Time will tell if the apparent killing of Khashoggi changes that equation, but one thing that is certain is that it’s become a lot harder for them to hide. A slew of major American companies all pulled out of next week’s “Future Investment Initiative” in Riyadh, and on Thursday came word that Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin would also be skipping the event. Media powerhouse and talent agency Endeavor announced earlier in the week that they were exiting a planned $400 million investment deal with the kingdom. All of which is to say that WWE’s position is increasingly isolated, explaining the national scrutiny they have faced, which included a major role in John Oliver’s featured “Last Week Tonight” segment about Khashoggi’s disappearance.

As of Friday, WWE is still planning on moving ahead with the show, and the company’s official line is that they are “monitoring the situation”. Look a little closer, though, and you can find another argument taking shape, one that was advanced by a pair of WWE performers in the past view days.

“My personal opinion is that they should go,” offered former WWE Champion John “Bradshaw” Layfield, in his role as a commentator on Fox Business Network, “You isolate a country, all you do is impoverish that country. WWE has been at the forefront of change, and you want to change Saudi Arabia, you send something like WWE there.”

“I think we should go. I think the only way to help with change over there is to go and not to cancel the trip,” added current star Randy Orton, “That’s the goal is to make things better everywhere and I think us not going — it doesn’t help. Going helps.”

This line of reasoning, that WWE recognizes the Saudi government’s imperfections, but wants to help move it along into a more modern future, is one that has also been advanced by WWE Executive Vice President Paul Levesque, better known to wrestling fans as Triple-H. (Oh, right, it bears mentioning… one of the guys from DX who made all of those dick jokes? He’s now the heir apparent to take over the company one day.) “I understand that people are questioning it,” said Levesque, back in April, when the deal was first announced, “but you have to understand that every culture is different and just because you don’t agree with a certain aspect of it, it doesn’t mean it’s not a relevant culture.”

There is absolutely a good-faith discussion to be had about whether isolating a repressive regime actually does more harm than good, and what role, if any, the United States should have in trying to modernize and reform foreign countries. But to be clear, that is absolutely not what the debate over Crown Jewel is truly about. This is not a typical international show, after all, where WWE presents its usual product in a new market. No, this is a fully paid propaganda effort, where the entire bill is footed, and the production dictated, directly by a government that, by all appearances and available evidence, lured a journalist who’d been critical of the regime into his own gruesome death and dismemberment with a bonesaw.

There is no debate to be had here. None whatsoever. WWE should obviously not be in the business of promoting the Saudi government, nor should anyone else, and nor should they have been from the very start, given the amount of carnage and brutality the regime is responsible for. Professional wrestling has always flirted with controversy, and sought to exist in the moral grey area, but the situation in Saudi Arabia is utterly black and white.