Seriously, WWE should go ahead and establish something in Saudi Arabia. Call it NXT Saudi Arabia because WWE has never been that creative with branding.
I’m sure the company could reel in more money just by having a year-round presence in addition to their main roster tours in the kingdom. The company is still working on trying to get NXT Japan off the ground—even when they’re 2.5-7-1 with Japanese stars.
For those wondering, the two and a half are Nakamura, Asuka, and TAJIRI (the half) as far as successes. Yes, Kaientai DX made up most of the seven failures. KUSHIDA is the draw.
NXT Saudi Arabia
WWE loves that Saudi money, they draw well when they head over there, in those tens of thousands who attend the show, I’m sure at least a hundred of them want to train for wrestling. Out of that hundred probably a fourth of them are athletic enough for it.
Out of roughly 25 hopefuls, a sliver of them are probably charismatic enough to break out. Oh, that was some good math off the top of my head. There’s your home roster for NXT Saudi Arabia. They don’t have to be good-awesome off the bat, hell NXT was originally created to polish raw talent for a WWE career or introduce established wrestlers to the WWE system and style. Let NXT Saudi Arabia do the NXT thing.
WWE brings in a bunch of notable signings and prospects each year. Saudi Arabia is apparently important enough to the company that they would make odd booking decisions and put the belt on someone who hasn’t been relevant to current WWE storylines. Establish a territory there.
On top of that, they could take the Greatest Royal Rumble belt—a belt, won in a battle royal, that isn’t defended—and use that as the promotion’s main prize. Just change the title’s name. Unless WWE is going to have Braun come out and say that he’s defending it now.
Expanding the NXT Brand
This would be a significant step in expanding the NXT brand—which is probably the most successful thing WWE has done on TV in the last ten years. It’s something within WWE that doesn’t disappoint or raise more than enough questions. Few fans sit and hate-watch NXT. Establishing the brand in markets that result in big money for them makes sense.
The only bet safer than NXT Saudi Arabia would be NXT in the U.S and UK—and we have those already. Also, wrestling pops big in the most unlikely markets. Just look at OWE in China or Ring Ka King which should still be open and was better than the main TNA product at the time.
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