There is a sizable fan following for WWE in India, but the company hasn’t staged a performance there in a very long time. This is going to alter, and it will also be a significant event.
On September 8, WWE Superstar Spectacle will take place at the G. M. C. Balayogi Indoor Stadium in the Indian suburb of Gachibowli, near Hyderabad. The addition of John Cena to the show will generate significant revenue for the production firm and fantastic press for Cena as he continues to market movies in the nation.
Dave Meltzer spoke on Wrestling Observer Radio about the significance of WWE’s special show in India. He added that the corporation had previously intended to establish a sizable stable of Indian Superstars, but it didn’t really work out.
“They’ve been wanting to do this big show, it’s basically a television event in India. The building itself is like 3500-4000 seats for this setup. It’s not about drawing a big crowd, or anything like that, like big money from the fanbase. But it’s a show that their business partners in India are bringing them in, and it’s gonna be a primetime special I think on Sony Six.”
“It was something that was planned months ago and delayed because they were waiting for a merger to go through that has since gone through with Sony Six.”
“It’s gonna be heavily using Sanga and Veer and Jinder Mahal. The idea was always to have a big stable of Indian wrestlers, because India is the market, even though they can’t go there and draw people at shows because culturally people just don’t buy tickets for sports events, other than cricket which is like the big national sport, but it’s very, very difficult to sell tickets.”
“When they went with Jinder and Triple H, they did have 9,000 people, it wasn’t a sellout or anything but people think, ‘Oh, they’re so popular on TV’, which they are, but, they make more money on television in India than anywhere but the United States. They make more than Canada, more than the UK, I think Canada’s #4, UK’s #3, India’s #2 as far as the money that (they) make off of the television.”
“So it’s a very important market for WWE, but not a market that they can run a whole bunch of shows in like they can in Canada or the UK.”
When they made the announcement about this show in India, WWE received a lot of media attention. Besides promotions with local bases, like the one the Great Khali runs, those fans haven’t seen a lot of live pro wrestling action.
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