More details on WWE scouting initiative in Africa
World Wrestling Entertainment officially arrived in Nigeria on November 8th to launch their search for the next African WWE Superstar. Since the opening press conference, WrestleMap has done some work reaching out to talent in Nigeria, looking over the contest requirements and examining the program that WWE passed out to meeting attendees at the November 8th press conference in Lagos. We’ll take a closer look at what the WWE might have planned for the future of their brand in Africa, what some talent in Nigeria are saying about the opportunity and what it could mean for the future of pro wrestling in the country, and how the WWE will select candidates for the Lagos tryout that’s set for February 2023.
WrestleMap’s own Olusesan Olukoya attended the press conference and shared the program that was passed out to attendees. You can check that out below. The program features a lot of statistics regarding the WWE’s popularity around the world but also contains a couple of interesting passages that are worth expanding on.
Pages from the program provided by Olusesan Olukoya
Perhaps the most interesting part of the program comes on the last page as it gives us a potential glimpse into what’s next for WWE’s African scouting initiative. WWE clearly indicates that they have plans to move their talent search to other parts of the African continent in the near future. So the company seems intent on adding African talent to their roster. The WWE has discussed creating localized content as a reason for expanding their African talent roster, as per the Wrestling Observer. But outside of the creation of WWE JAMBO, a Nigerian-exclusive WWE program that airs on SuperSport, no concrete plans have been revealed as to what other African continent content could be coming.
As for what other countries the WWE could be visiting in Africa to extend their talent search? We have no inside information regarding this as all of our inquiries to WWE have gone unanswered. But it’s always fun to speculate in pro wrestling and perhaps we can do some “educated speculation” here, if that exists. South Africa has hosted WWE live events in the past and has probably the most established and successful indie wrestling scene on the continent. South African wrestlers have made it to the big leagues in the past with PJ Black and Adam Rose both being former WWE superstars and Angelico wrestling in AAA and AEW. The country is also full of English speakers (a characteristic the WWE is considering important in this talent search at least for the time being, more on that later) and ranks third in GDP in Africa behind Nigeria and Egypt. South African consumers are also affected by the recent Showmax streaming partnership with WWE to serve as the home for WWE Network as the streaming platform is one of the most popular in the country.
Along with South Africa, some other countries that could be targeted as potential recruiting grounds for the WWE are as follows. Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Angola and Cameroon all have strong local wrestling scenes with some having big fan interest. However, they aren’t native English speaking countries, besides Cameroon having both French and English recognized as the country’s official languages. Three of the four also rank in the top 15 in Africa’s nominal GDP ranking. The Showmax streaming platform that WWE Network will now be featured on is also available in all four of these countries as far as we can tell. Despite not being involved in the Showmax coverage area, Egypt’s ranking in the top 3 of Africa’s GDP rankings in multiple metrics combined with a budding indie wrestling scene in the country means they must be considered despite not being an English speaking nation. Some of Africa’s more populated English speaking countries would also certainly have to be in consideration as areas that the WWE could hold future scouting quests. These countries include Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe and Botswana. These countries are identified here either because of a large English speaking population, a budding pro wrestling scene or fan interest that’s been observed through hours of social media research. Obviously, we can’t rule many countries out or say for sure that any will or won’t be targeted.
As for the localized content that might be in store for African fans, again we’ve received no confirmation from WWE or anyone that may be involved, but it would make sense that the WWE would be looking to make something that appeals to African viewers with access to WWE Network through Showmax. This may start out as programs similar to the aforementioned WWE JAMBO but in time, could it mean something like NXT Africa? While there’s been no indication of that, and it’s unsure how financially viable that product would be at this time, I don’t believe this is something that can be ruled out from WWE’s long term plans seeing their interest in creating NXT Europe and the numerous reports that have indicated the company has had a desire to create other regional NXT brands in the past. Any possible establishment of NXT Africa, however, would certainly be many years down the road at this point.
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WWE and SuperSport have gone live with the submission platform for their contest to find WWE’s next African superstar. Interested parties can find the link to submit to the contest by clicking here and submissions are open until December 18, 2022. To get a better idea of what WWE is looking for in this talent search, we took a closer look at the rules and regulations and came away with some interesting findings.
At this point in time, WWE isn’t interested in seeing any physicality. So seemingly, previous in ring experience isn’t of concern for the talent scouts at this time. Instead, video submissions are to only showcase charisma and character work, with potential recruits essentially pitching themself with a promo.
WWE is only looking for talent in the age range of 20-39.
All video submissions must be in English so although the contest is open to wrestlers across the continent, submissions in languages other than English will not be considered at this time.
All applicants must be double vaccinated for Covid-19 and have a valid passport.
WWE will pay for any necessary travel for talent that are selected for the Lagos tryouts in 2023.
These specific regulations stuck out to us for a couple reasons. One, it’s entirely possible that all of the individuals selected to attend the tryouts will have no in-ring experience at all. It would be very unfortunate, in our opinion, if wrestlers based in Nigeria and Africa that have been working for years for an opportunity like this, get completely overlooked despite having already received some previous training and having experience wrestling in official pro wrestling bouts. The requirement that submissions must be in English also makes it difficult for wrestlers in wrestling-hungry countries like the Congo, the DRC and Angola who, despite having experience in the ring, may not receive a look due to not being proficient in English. Hopefully this is a policy that can be reconsidered in the future, giving French and Portuguese speaking talent a shot to be considered.
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Since the introductory press conference to launch the quest to find the next African WWE superstar, we’ve had a chance to talk with some talent in Nigeria about the opportunity to potentially try out for the WWE. Every Nigerian wrestler that we’ve spoken to is extremely excited by the opportunity and plans to submit an audition tape in hopes that they’ll be selected for the tryouts. Beyond the opportunity to compete for the WWE, Nigerian pro wrestler Flying Danko commented to WrestleMap that he feels that the WWE showing interest in Nigeria should in turn create better opportunities within Nigeria for pro wrestlers. This can potentially come through more investments into the sport by local government and businesses who see that Nigeria is now being considered as a hotbed for pro wrestling talent and that these sponsoring bodies will see the potential of creating more African wrestling superstars and what the returns on those investments could be like. We certainly hope that this will prove to be the case as well.
