By MICHAEL MIYOBA
IN a quest to find Africa’s next WWE Superstar, WWE, in conjunction with its Sub-Saharan Africa broadcast partner SuperSport, has begun a continent-wide talent search programme using WWE super stars with African roots.
WWE super stars Tolulope Omogbehin, a Nigerian-American professional wrestler popularly known as Omos and Sesugh Uhaa popularly known as Apolo Crews are in Lagos, Nigeria, where the launch for talent identification was unveiled on Monday.
The duo are expected to tour a number of African countries to poach for talented individuals who will compete at the multi-day tryout scheduled for February 2023 in Lagos.
Interested applicants wishing to become the nest WWE super stars are required to submit a video highlighting their potential.
Apolo Crews who was born in Nigeria before he moved to America where he became a WWE super star said the talent search identification programme will give more Africans an opportunity to represent the continent at a global level.
Omos, who was born in America from Nigerian parents is confident the visit to Africa will inspire more Africans to take up a career at the world-class WWE Performance Centre in Orlando, Florida.
Omos whose dream was to play in the NBA before WWE changed his life tipped talented Africans wishing to become WWE super stars to be disciplined, coachable and work hard to reach the top.
Meanwhile, WWE Head of Talent Operations and Strategy James Kimball said the initiative, in partnership with SuperSport, launched what WWE envision becoming a year-round, multi-country effort to identify talent that will resonate with WWE’s passionate fan base.
“Africa is a focal point of our renewed global recruitment talent strategy,” Kimball said.
Chief Executive of SuperSport Marc Jury said; “The continent abounds with athletes and Africa has had several WWE superstars, so this is the perfect opportunity to showcase fresh new talent.”
“As 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 after WWE and MultiChoice announced a major broadcast partnership that will see Showmax – the leading streaming service available in the region – become the new home of WWE Network in Africa.
