MUMBAI: India is one of the two countries the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) is setting its sights on developing a market in.
Speaking at the Web Summit technology conference in Lisbon, Portugal, on Tuesday, Paul Michael Levesque — better known by his ring name Triple H — said WWE would look to stimulate the most growth in China and India over the coming months, says a CNBC report.
Wrestling’s popularity in India had soared to such an extent that it had become second only to the national sport of cricket, Triple H claimed. The opportunity in China is equally “massive”, he noted.
One of WWE’s biggest players, Triple H maintained that the WWE would look to stimulate the most growth in China and India over the coming months. The 14-time WWE champion said that while 70 per cent of the WWE’s viewership were internationally based, it currently accounted for just 30 per cent of the franchise’s overall revenue.
“What we need to do is create a talent pipeline, we need to do it globally and we need to do it now,” Triple H said.
The WWE appears to be already making strides in this direction. In October, it drafted former competitive powerlifter Kavita Devi, making her the first Indian woman wrestler to play for the choreographed wrestling promotion.
WWE and Sony Pictures Networks India also announced that WWE Live will return to India with two shows in New Delhi at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium on 8 and 9 December, which will feature “The Modern-Day Maharaja”, current WWE Champion Jinder Mahal, who will be accompanied by The Singh Brothers. Levesque has also been quoted as saying that the organisation is planning to have 11 Indian talents under training to be the next generation WWE superstar by the year end.
Admitting that the WWE has not provided proper guidance to Indian players, Levesque said this is changing for the better. “You will see it increase even further over the next few years,” he said. The Great Khali and Jinder Mahal are the only wrestlers who have so far made it big from India at the WWE.
Last year, the WWE launched a new tournament in London in order to try and find the next breed of British superstars. Triple H said Tuesday that it would continue to be this type of “localized content” that would help expand the WWE’s global presence.
