NEW DELHI: World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), one of the largest sports entertainment properties in the world, could be on its way of setting up an exclusive performance centre in India, much on the lines of the one it has in Florida that has trained and developed some of the best talents in the business since 2013.
WWE legend and executive vice president of Talent, Live Events and Creative, Paul Levesque aka ‘Triple H’ told Hindustan Times that India’s stature of being the hotbed of talent for the sport is rising by the day yet it needs to bring out more potential prospects for the WWE to consider sending their talent scouts and trainers to the country more often as a part of the performance centre. Till then, the company is open to inviting more recruits to the USA for training.
Although India tops the list in the WWE’s fan following and social media engagement, not many wrestlers from the country have made a successful entry in the main event in the USA barring The Great Khali, Canadian of Indian descent Jinder Mahal and Kavita Devi.
The WWE’s efforts need to expand more to grab the attention of Indian viewers and wrestlers alike since Mahal’s WWE Championship reign saw an increase of a mere 0.3% in viewership ratings across three months last year, according to a Forbes report.
“We will have to do more and more tryouts and training outside as the global talent pool increases. If there are five athletes coming from India, we will bring them here. But, once the number goes up to around 50 or 60, we will be looking to train them there (in India),” Triple H told HT.
“In my opinion, the scope of WWE in India is massive. I visited India twice last year and the fan base there is absolutely massive. The fans are really passionate about WWE and once we start recruiting more talents from the country, I am sure the popularity will increase exponentially,” he added.
Triple H is confident that the WWE will see more Indian faces in the future as it recently launched its official Performance Centre website that provides details on the application process, the steps to be taken after a successful tryout, updated rosters, and first-hand insights from current WWE talents. This will tackle the issue of lack of awareness that Indians had in the past about entering the industry and will enhance WWE’s recruiting system.
“In the past, we have done local scouting in India through various trainers as well as coaches and that is how we got Kavita Devi and Kishan Raftar. With the website, the athletes now have a direct pathway and if they have a interest in WWE, they can contact us directly and showcase their talent.”, Triple H continued.
According to him, although the WWE has been considered more of an ‘entertainment’ programme than a sports one in the past, he believes that there has been a change of guard with more professionalism required to be a successful wrestler in the league, citing ex-UFC and MMA star Ronda Rousey’s example.
“When it comes to the athletes, the entertainment factor of WWE can sometimes be a bit scary. But the money is real, the performance is real and the hard work is 100% real. The athleticism is a major part of the business and I don’t think there is any stigma attached to the business any more,” he told the daily.
