WWE is returning to India this Friday for its first event in the country since 2017 with WWE Superstar Spectacle at the GMC Balayogi Indoor Stadium (Gachibowli Indoor Stadium).
The show will not be airing on Peacock or the WWE Network. Instead, this is a local show hosted by WWE’s broadcast partner in the country, Sony Sports Network.
John Cena, World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins, Women’s World Champion Rhea Ripley, Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champions Sami Zayn & Kevin Owens, Intercontinental Champion GUNTHER, Jinder Mahal, Veer, Sanga, Drew McIntyre, Becky Lynch, Natalya, Matt Riddle, Ludwig Kaiser, and more are advertised to appear.
While speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer talked about the event and the importance of the India market to WWE as it’s their second biggest TV revenue stream, behind the US.
“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 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.”
Meltzer discussed the original idea years ago of having a big stable of Indian wrestlers because of WWE’s popularity in the market, although it’s hard to sell tickets in the country.
Meltzer later added, “They [WWE] 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 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.”
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