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What's the story?
After it emerged yesterday that WWE Superstar Ariya Daivari had received death threats following his appearance at the Greatest Royal Rumble, one of the men who was closest to the situation, Saudi Arabian prospect Monsoour, has commented on the situation.
There's also an update on the situation as the 205 Live Superstar responded to Iron Sheik's comments on the situation saying the threats are coming from upset Iranians - not Saudi Arabians as speculated.
In case you didn’t know…
Last week, WWE held the Greatest Royal Rumble event in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia - a landmark show featuring the first ever 50-man Royal Rumble and star-studded matches like John Cena vs Triple H, Brock Lesnar vs Roman Reigns in a Cage Match, and The Undertaker vs Rusev in a Casket Match.
One story that seemed to grab headlines, at least in the Middle East, though, was actually a segment designed to showcase four Saudi Arabian tryout finalists who would typically be interrupted then beat up the typical foreign heel team of Ariya Daivari and Shawn Daivari, who came out waving the flag of their home nation Iran - a country with very different religious and political views, different values, policies and with both countries providing support for opposing sides in the Syrian Civil War.
Both Shawn and Ariya Daivari, born in Minnesota, have Persian heritage and portray Iranian characters, so in typical wrestling form, WWE utilised this in order to garner some heat and rile up the crowd so that the four local competitors would get a pop when they disposed of the villains.
You can watch the entire segment below.
The heart of the matter
After tweeting out yesterday about receiving death threats and even apologizing for how his character was portrayed, Ariya Daivari has received overwhelming support from the WWE Universe - not least from his in-ring rival on the night, a man who stole the segment and the hearts of many viewers named Monsoour.
Well, Monsoour has taken to social media to comment on the situation, praising Ariya Daivari and brother Shawn for putting him over on the grand stage and reiterating that the Daivaris' role in this situation as fictional.
The tweet the Saudi Arabian prospect was responding to was this...
One other interesting update from the situation came after WWE's most famous Iranian performer, The Iron Sheik, responded to the 205 Live Superstar's apology.
However, Ariya Daivari confirmed that the threats have actually come from his compatriots - seemingly upset with how Daivari portrayed the country of Iran on television at a Saudi Arabian event.
What's next?
Ariya Daivari is currently an active member of the WWE 205 Live roster and you can expect to see Daivari on Tuesday nights on WWE Network after SmackDown Live.
As for Monsoour, hopefully we haven't seen the last of him as he seemed incredibly comfortable on the microphone and, from what I've seen on his social media accounts, he's pretty good in the ring too!
Author's take
Well, as I said in the original article, anyone receiving death threats is pretty upsetting but it is nice to see one of the Saudi Arabian prospects speak out about the situation and express support for Ariya Daivari.
I'm not easily offended so I find it difficult to relate, but I can appreciate why this segment could have been close to the bone for a lot of people affected by the countries' hostile relationship. The very interesting part, though, is that Daivari claimed the death threats came from compatriots and not Saudi Arabians upset with the heel character he played. Either way, you have to feel for Daivari who was merely doing what he was booked to do, and hopefully this all subsides soon.
