WWE in India


, an American professional wrestling promotion based in Stamford, Connecticut in the United States has been promoting events in India since 1996 when they were the World Wrestling Federation.

History

WWE first toured the country in 1996. The next time WWE came to India was in November 2002, visiting New Delhi, Mumbai and Banglore. The company returned to New Delhi in January 2016 for the two days event what was the first WWE event in India in 13 years. Also a special event titled WWE Live India Supershow was held on 9 December 2017 in New Delhi.
In January 2019 Triple H stated that the WWE will eventually open a performance center in India. Two months later, the first ever WWE tryouts in India were held, in which 60 men and 20 women were shortlisted.
Beginning in 2019, an Indian edition of WWE Now was launched on WWE's YouTube channel and other social media platforms hosted by Gaelyn Mendonca.
A number of WWE superstars have also visited India as part of promotional tours.
SuperstarYear
John Cena2006
Kane2009
Mark Henry2015
Alberto Del Rio2016
Kofi Kingston and Big E2017
Triple H2017
Matt Hardy2018
The New Day, Kavita Devi, Jeet Rama, Saurav Gurjar, Rinku Singh and Jinny Sadhu2019
Charlotte Flair2019

Events in India

DateNameVenueCityMain event
3 February 1996WWF Tour of IndiaN/ABangalore, KarnatakaBret Hart vs. Tatanka for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship
22 November 2002WWE Raw Tour of IndiaJawaharlal Nehru StadiumNew DelhiKane vs. Test
23 November 2002WWE Raw Tour of IndiaMMRDA GroundsMumbai, MaharashtraChris Jericho & Christian vs. Rob Van Dam & Jeff Hardy
24 November 2002WWE Raw Tour of IndiaPalace GroundsBangalore, KarnatakaKane vs. Chris Jericho
15 January 2016WWE Live Tour India 2016Indira Gandhi Indoor StadiumNew DelhiRoman Reigns vs. Big Show
16 January 2016WWE Live Tour India 2016Indira Gandhi Indoor StadiumNew DelhiRoman Reigns vs. Rusev
9 December 2017WWE Live India SupershowIndira Gandhi Indoor StadiumNew DelhiTriple H vs. Jinder Mahal

Television series

WWE produced several Television series for Indian audience. WWE also started airing live telecast of Raw and SamackDown in Hindi since 27 February 2018.
WWE 24X7, a show that was catered to the children's demographic in India. The show aired matches from WWE library and premiered on 7 May 2007 on Jetix in India.
For the next 8 years, WWE had no television in Indian until Raw Sunday Dhamaal debuted, which ran from 2015-2017. The show was a recap and talk show, available in both Hindi and English, the program aired exclusively in India and the Arab world. It was replaced in 2017 by WWE Sunday Dhamaal, which airs in English on Sony Ten network and in Hindi on Sony Max.
Also from 2015-2017, Action Mania, a recap show produced by WWE, aired on Zee Cinema in Hindi exclusively in India.

Other shows

Several WWE superstars made special appearances in various shows during their promotional tour in India. Jinder Mahal appeared in an episode of Sony SAB's sitcom Sajan Re Phir Jhooth Mat Bolo in 2017, Kofi Kingston and Big E appeared on the 10 May 2017 episode of Extraaa Innings T20 while Matt Hardy made a special appearance in singing reality show Indian Idol in 2018.

Indian flag controversy

An episode of Sunday Night Heat was criticized for a segment featuring Kurt Angle and Tiger Ali Singh in which Angle blew his nose in the Indian flag. In 2016 a group Aadvanshi Veer Sena threatened to protest against the company's tour unless they apologize. Gerrit Meier, Executive Vice President of WWE International apologized for the incident saying "This case is about 20-years-ago and we did not deliberately did that. We have a great respect for the country,".