The World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in conjunction with its Sub-Saharan Africa broadcast partner, SuperSport, has announced a continent-wide talent search to find Africa’s next WWE Superstar.
The campaign was announced in an interractive media briefing in Lagos, to herald Lagos as the host city for a multi-day tryout in February 2023.
James kimball, WWE Head of Tarlent Operations and Strategy led the delegations from the U.S. to meet with their Supersports team led by Marc Jury, the Chief Executive of Supersports.
According to Kimball, the search for Africa’s Next WWE Superstar “is now open to Nigerians and citizens of other African countries and their submissions will be accepted till Dec. 18.
Interested candidates are to submit a video highlighting their potential to become a WWE Superstar.
Successful applicants will be invited to participate in the Lagos tryout in February 2023.
A select number of tryout participants will then be awarded an all-expenses-paid experience to continue their tryout journey alongside current and prospective WWE Superstars.
This would be ahead of WrestleMania 39 in Los Angeles in April 2023.
Kimball said that at the end a full-time WWE developmental contract may be offered to the top-performing participants who will then begin their new career at the world-class WWE Centre in Orlando, Florida.
Kimball added that Africa is a focal point of their renewed global talent recruitment strategy and this initiative in Lagos will launch what they envision becoming a year-round multi-country effort to cultivate relationships.
“We at WWE identify talent that will resonate with our passionate and loyal African fanbase ever increasing in Africa especially in Nigeria.
“The region has incredible potential to serve as a meaningful talent development hub for WWE and we look forward to working with our tremendous partners in Nigeria at SuperSport.
“Our targets is to uncover the next generation of Superstars through this program,” Kimball said.
Similarly, Marx Jury, for the Supersports team said that the continent abounds with athletes and Africa had several WWE Superstars, a perfect opportunity to showcase fresh talents.
“There is a massive appetite among African audiences for WWE action and entertainment, we expect this initiative to be very popular with aspirants.
“SuperSport looks forward to telling this exciting story in the weeks and months to come.”Jury said.
Jury added that WWE and MultiChoice recently announced a major broadcast partnership that would see Showmax, the leading streaming service available in the region, become the new home of WWE Network in Africa.
He said that the partnership incorporated all WWE Premium Live Events, including WrestleMania, as well as WWE Network’s vast library of original and archived programming available to stream.
He added that WWE would be on-demand by more people in Africa from early 2023 on Showmax, Africa’s most loved streaming service.
“SuperSport, the sport broadcasting subsidiary of video entertainment platform MultiChoice, will continue to broadcast live weekly episodes of Raw.
“SmackDown and NXT as well as all of WWE’s Premium Live Events in a multi-year extension,” Jury said.
The Nigeria’s 7ft 3inch giant Tolulope Omogbehin, known in the wrestling circuit as Omos, was on ground in Lagos to also come in to inspire the future generations.
A Nigerian-American professional wrestler and former college basketball player, Omos is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the WWE Raw brand under the ring name Omo.
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