WWE is in India after almost 6 years, to do their Live Event titled “WWE Superstar Spectacle” today.
Becky Lynch was going to be a part of this event, but has been pulled. She issued an apology to the fans in India and tweeted the following:
“I’m sorry to all the fans in Hyderabad, India. I was so excited to perform for you – but as there was a tiny tear in my passport I have not been allowed to board my flight. 😔 @qatarairways”
According to PWInsider, WWE Hall of Famer & former World Heavyweight Champion The Great Khali is scheduled to appear at this event. No word yet on what his role will be.
Great Khali’s last match took place over 5 years ago, at WWE’s Greatest Royal Rumble 2018 premium live event in Saudi Arabia, where he entered the 50-man Royal Rumble match. He lasted in the match for about a minute, before being eliminated by Braun Strowman & Bobby Lashley.
In 2021, he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.
As of this writing, the following matches have been announced so far:
– John Cena & World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins vs. Imperium (Ludwig Kaiser & Giovanni Vinci)
– Women’s World Championship Match: Rhea Ripley (c) vs. Natalya
– Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn vs. Indus Sher (Veer Mahaan & Sanga) (with Jinder Mahal)
Other wrestlers that are scheduled to appear at this event include:
– Intercontinental Champion Gunther
– Drew McIntyre
– Matt Riddle
– Bron Breakker
– Shanky
– Odyssey Jones
Women’s World Champion Rhea Ripley posted the following photo to promote today’s event, with the following caption:
“Good morning India 🇮🇳”
According to the Wrestling Observer, WWE’s TV partner in India, Sony Sports Network, is paying them big money to do a show in India, which will be a TV special in the country:
“Yeah, the partners, this is another show where WWE is being brought in. 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 a 5,000 seat building.
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 Ten.
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 Ten. It’s gonna be heavily using Sanga and Veer and Jinder Mahal.
[WWE] makes 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 number 4, UK’s number 3, India’s number 2 as far as the money that they make off of the television.
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.”
The last WWE Superstar Spectacle (that took place in the US at the ThunderDome in 2021) drew 25 million viewers on TV in India.
A WWE Official said the following about the Indian wrestling market back in 2017:
“India is one of our top international markets. In terms of audience size, it is our largest. Something like 89 million Indians watched WrestleMania 33, 50 million Indians watch RAW and SmackDown every week (on Sony Ten 1 and Sony Ten 1 HD). Sunday Dhamaal has 25 million tuning in. And those are numbers greater than any other international markets we have.”
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