WWE to bring big Premium Live Event to India for the first-time-ever?

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Bengaluru, August 19: India offers WWE the biggest TV viewership and also a huge chunk of fanbase. Thanks to that, the company wants to give something back to the loyal WWE Universe in India in the form of a huge Premium Live Event.

During the recently bygone Q2 Earnings Call, WWE Co-CEO Nick Khan confirmed that the company is hosting Clash At The Castle in the UK on September 3rd as WWE’s shows in the United Kingdom draw strong TV ratings.

It's the same reason that WWE is also scouting locations to hold future events possibly for WWE Network Specials in India and Australia. WWE has previously hosted two big pay-per-views in Australia (Global Warning in 2002 and Super ShowDown in 2018).

But they have never done such a PPV/PLE in India which makes people believe that the company could possibly be doing a Stadium Show in the near future. No further details were provided regarding the speculated show in the subcontinent.

WWE has only held untelevised Live Events/House Shows in India, with the latest one taking place in December 2017 when legendary Triple H met Indian-origin Jinder Mahal in the main event.

Furthermore, a company Official also stated the following about India offering them the biggest fanbase, citing the recent viewership in the sub-continent.

“India is one of our top international markets. In terms of audience size, it is our largest. Something like 89 million Indians watched WrestleMania 33, 50 million Indians watch RAW and SmackDown every week (on Sony Ten 1 and Sony Ten 1 HD).

"Sunday Dhamaal has 25 million tuning in. Those are numbers greater than any other international markets we have.”

Earlier this year, reports from The Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) showed that WrestleMania 38 drew 56.1 million viewers in India on Sony Sports Network. These numbers were up by 29% in comparison to the viewership of WrestleMania 37 in 2021.

The viewership of WrestleMania 38 – Night One was 34% up compared to WrestleMania 37 – Night One and the viewership of WrestleMania 38 – Night Two was 33% up compared to WrestleMania 37 – Night Two.

Moreover, the debut of the Indian Superstar Veer Mahaan on Raw After Wrestlemania helped the viewership in India by 9% compared to the go-home show for the Biggest Event of the Year.

WWE has three more PLEs scheduled in their calendar following Clash at the Castle in September. Extreme Rules is confirmed for October 8 followed by Survivor Series on November 26.

In between these two events, there will be a Saudi Arabia Stadium Show in the first week of November which is yet to be confirmed. Then WWE Day 1 on the 2023 New Year’s Day will kick things off for next year.