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 late 2022 in Lagos, Nigeria, the host city for a multi-day tryout on a date to be confirmed in 2023.
“The Search for Africa’s Next WWE Superstar” is open to citizens of any African country. Submissions will be accepted until 30 April, 2023.
Interested candidates will be asked to submit a video highlighting their potential to become a WWE Superstar. Successful applicants will be invited to participate in the Lagos tryout in May-June 2023 (tbc). 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 later in 2023.
A fulltime WWE developmental contract may be offered to the top-performing participants who will then begin their new career at the world-class WWE Performance Centre in Orlando, Florida.
“Africa is a focal point of our renewed global talent recruitment strategy and this initiative in Lagos will launch what we envision becoming a year-round, multi-country effort to cultivate relationships and identify talent that will resonate with our passionate and loyal African fanbase,” said James Kimball, WWE Head of Talent Operations and Strategy.
“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 at SuperSport to uncover the next generation of Superstars through this program.”
“The continent abounds with athletes and Africa has had several WWE Superstars, so this is the perfect opportunity to showcase fresh new talent,” said Marc Jury, Chief Executive of SuperSport. “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.”
Last week, 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. The partnership incorporates all WWE Premium Live Events, including WrestleMania, as well as WWE Network’s vast library of original and archived programming available to stream 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.