Inas Mazhar reports on the WWE World Tour coming to Egypt for the first time, while Ahmed Hamdi has his own scoop on how pro-wrestling's popularity in the country has hit the roof Ever since Creative Design broke the news that for the first time professional wrestling will be brought to Egypt for three nights next month there has been an air of excitement across the country. The WWE is one of the most watched entertainment shows in Egypt and many Egyptians including surprisingly women know the players by heart. The event is scheduled to take place from Thursday October 18 through Saturday October 20 at the 40,000-seat Cairo Stadium Indoor Complex. The WWE World Tour will bring some of its biggest superstars to fans in Egypt, including Sheamus, Alberto Del Rio, Zack Ryder, Kofi Kingston and Dolph Ziggler. With its debut in Egypt, WWE continues to expand the reach of its business, including live events in six new countries in 2012. The Egyptian tour comes on the heels of a successful WWE Raw World Tour in Abu Dhabi this past February, where more than 16,000 fans packed the International Tennis Complex in the Zayed Sports City. WWE will be working with Egyptian live events promoter, Creative Design, to bring the tour to local fans. Creative Design brought WWE to Doha, Qatar last year. "WWE is one of the largest names in family entertainment, and it's a great honour to hold such an enormous event in such a wonderful country like Egypt," said Assem Al-Sheikh, chairman of Creative Design. "We're thrilled to announce this three-day, live event tour in Egypt," said Ed Wells, managing director and senior vice president of WWE International. "These shows in Cairo are further testament to the strength and popularity of the WWE brand throughout the MENA region and build on our efforts to expand our business internationally." Tickets went on sale starting 8 September and can be purchased from Ticketsmarche.com WWE, a publicly traded company (NYSE: WWE), is an integrated media organisation and recognised leader in global entertainment. The company consists of a portfolio of businesses that create and deliver original content 52 weeks a year to a global audience. WWE is committed to family-friendly entertainment on its television programming, pay-per-view, digital media and publishing platforms. WWE programming is broadcast in more than 145 countries and 30 languages and reaches more than 600 million homes worldwide. The company is headquartered in Stamford, Conn with offices in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, London, Mumbai, Shanghai, Singapore, Istanbul and Tokyo. WRESTLING HUNGER FED. "What a power slam from John Cena!" Don't be surprised if you hear those words coming out of a supermarket's television as you shop or at the barber while getting your hair cut, or out of your neighbour's window. With four new pro-wrestling channels on the Egyptian Nilesat, it looks like a crave for many Egyptians has just been fulfilled Pro-wrestling has always had a fan base in Egypt. Since Hogan and The Ultimate Warrior, passing by The Rock and Austin, and until we reach the recent era of John Cena, that fan foundation has been increasing. It's all being watched on TV. The 90s generation might remember the wrestling match at the end of the evening sports show on the third local channel. Those who started watching pro-wresting in the last few years would most probably link the sport to Mamdouh Farag's TV show. Building on that, it looks like as the fan base increased, serving the fans would increase as well by providing them with 24 hours of pro-wrestling channels. And so it has with four new pro-wrestling channels airing on the Egyptian Nilesat. "I spend most of my working shift in front of these channels," said Hamada Badran, a security man. "I've been following Mamdouh Farag's show on ART and then on Modern Sports and after that on Nile Sports but having 24-hour channels of pure wrestling is so much better," he added. Badran wasn't the only happy wrestling customer. Youssef Abdullah, a worker at a private company, was thrilled. "They are truly entertaining, the kind of entertainment that doesn't make you feel the time passing," Abdullah explained. "The only thing that spoils the mood though is the trivial ads that come in between the matches and those scrolling on the bar down the screen." Advertisements on pro-wrestling channels are mainly about cell phone games and programmes which the viewers can order by calling a certain number. There are also ads for ringtones, SMSes and herbal tea brands. Viewers can also find ads for sexual revitalisation products on the scroll bar down the screen. "Ads are not the only turn-off for audiences," Mohamed Eid, a designer, told Al-Ahram Weekly. In Eid's opinion, commentary has been "awful" since the launch of pro-wrestling channels. "On one channel, there is this commentator who gives the players Egyptian names," said Eid. "For example, he would call the referee Shalabi and call a female character, named Sharmell, Fardous!" Sharmell is the wife of WWE's legend and current Smackdown general manager, Booker T. She appeared on the Smackdown show as her husband's valet from 2005 to 2007 before being released by the WWE. Matches from that time period are commonly aired on the 24/7 pro-wrestling channels. Those were the last few years before WWE went PG after years of a TV-14 rating. The PG era, though, has failed to impress a generation who were brought up watching the Attitude era which was the best in the eyes of many, including superstars from the WWE. That generation wouldn't mind spending a few hours refreshing their memories as they watch a match from "the good old days" on those pro-wrestling channels. "For me, wrestling has always been about seeing the blood," said Hisham Hamdi, an unemployed 24-year-old. Hamdi has been watching wrestling since 1995 and finds the current era the worst ever. Hamdi believes one of the reasons people watch the new wrestling channels is because they air a lot of old matches. "Despite all the turnoffs they have, the old matches that these channels put on are what I call real wrestling," he explained. "That catches the viewer's attention, not the childish matches of today." Those matches which Hamdi referred to as "childish" do air on the four channels. They catch the attention of teens, especially who the older WWE fans call "the John Cena generation". Cena, who is the face of WWE today, has indeed been the hero for most teen fans around the world as the Weekly was told by 15-year-old Ahmed Magdi. "When I switch TV channels sometimes I find a Cena match on wrestling channels called Al Halaba or Gladiator. I have to stop and watch," Magdi stated. "No one can argue that pro-wrestling has become so popular these days, especially among teens," said Mohamed Nagi, a mass communication graduate and an old pro-wrestling fan. "It's not only like that in Egypt, but in the whole Arab world. You could have sensed it from the number of calls Mamdouh Farag used to receive on his show." In Nagi's opinion sooner or later these wrestling channels had to start. "The Arab world was like a market where many people are demanding a certain product but it was offering so little." He gives an example. "If you are a good businessman and you see this what do you do? You get that product and sell it to them because that's a good business." With all this pro-wrestling craziness happening around them, don't be surprised if one of your children asks you to buy him or her a John Cena T-shirt. You won't have to go far to find one. They're being sold on the sidewalks of Tahrir Square.
