The ring is set in Dubai Opera for the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) Tryouts. Around 35 contestants, in their T-shirts and shorts, jump, squat and practise push-ups.
The contestants, from the West Asia and India, harbour a dream to make it to the WWE ring one day. Out of this, 10 are Indians and come from diverse sports backgrounds such as kushti , kabaddi , weightlifting and even television.
Sukwinder Grewal, Rinku Singh, Gurvinder Singh, Kavita Devi, Sahil Sangwah, Laxmi Rahoot, Rahul Bodke and Gurvinder Singh believe it’s all a dream come true.
Ms. Devi, who has won an international-level gold medal in weight-lifting, hails from Jind district of Haryana. She says it was her training in the Great Khali Wrestling School that paved her path to WWE.
“I hail from a place where women are not given enough freedom. But, my big brother kept motivating me to pursue my dream. I was a national champion in weightlifting. But, I was not satisfied. I wanted to do something different. Joining the Khali school was a big opportunity for me,” she said.
The school draws many like Ms. Devi whose hearts are set on wrestling and the WWE ring. “Most of us come from lower-middle class backgrounds. For us, wrestling is our ticket to achieving something big and rising up in life.”
WWE has been strengthening its initiative to tap into the Indian market. They have been keen about recruiting Indian talents for the last few years.
Ed Wells, WWE Executive Vice President, International, said: “We have a long and rich history in India. There is a tremendous fan base here and India gives us the largest social media market in the world. However, we haven’t done enough localisation. We are working on that. Last month, WrestleMania 33, our biggest event, premiered in Hindi.”
Canyon Ceman, V.P. Talent Development, who conducts scouting trips, says Punjab was a big target spot.
“When I asked for athletes with large physical size, people told me to go to Punjab. We have also tried to highlight culturally important sports so that they also gain a bit from our initiatives. And, as a part of that, we have visited kabaddi grounds and kushti centres. The athletes from these backgrounds are more graceful in their movements than any body or power-builder,” he said.
There has been a surge in the interest for WWE in India over the last few years, Mr. Ceman pointed out.
“I get a lot of Facebook requests from India. They are extremely proactive, when it comes to WWE participation. The social media metric is crazy and has considerably increased in the last few years,” he said.
