Canyon Ceman Discusses WWE’s Long-Term Plans for India, His Thoughts on the Progress of Indian Wrestling Talent, and 2019 Tryouts

– Times Now News recently interviewed WWE Director of Talent Development Canyon Ceman. You can check out some highlights below.

Canyon Ceman on why WWE chose India for 2019 tryouts: “2019 is really important to WWE for long-term India plans. This is the year where our next TV deal will be renewed and negotiated. We have four talent in the pipelines who are progressing well but we want to get more depth because we want out Indian talent pipeline to be the most robust of any our international markets. We want to serve this passionate fan base with localized content. 89 million Indians watched WrestleMania, 50 million watch RAW and SmackDown every week, 25 million watches Sunday Dhamaal and we know that audience needs to be super served with localized content and athletes.”

Ceman on what they are looking for at tryouts: “There is no specific goal or answer to that question. We are targeting 70 athletes for the tryouts and from those 70 we could hire 2-5. Those will be the most deserving of a WWE Performance Center opportunity and a main-roster material. But we could also hire a larger number like 10-15 for our long-term plans. They could go the UK Performance Center and even an India Performance center. That’s not an announcement but definitely a long-term plan.”

His thoughts on the progress of Indian wrestlers and the Indian wrestling scene since he joined WWE: “What has evolved in the Indian market in the last seven years that I have seen is that interest in pro-wrestling at the grass-roots level has increased. There are a variety of schools and promotions here now that did not exist in 2012 and that is a good thing for WWE as we are a part of causing that. There are opportunities for Indian athletes so they are trying to pursue their goals and we have schools to serve that need. There has been an explosion at grass root level from the athletic population in pro-wrestling. There companies here that are putting on wrestling shows on a weekly and monthly basis. All of that is good for the rise of this industry. ”

Canyon Ceman on the Indian talents at the WWE Performance Center: “I am not going to pick a favourite. We have four talents at the Performance Centre right now because we believe in all of them. I like the chances of Kavita Devi because she is the first and only Indian woman in the WWE. She has also had good performances in the Mae Young Classic and WrestleMania. On the other hand, Jeet Rama has been there the longest and has the most sophisticated skill-set but he needs to find the right performance-energy and consistency. Then Saurav Gurjar and Rinku Singh have the least experience in the program but in my opinion the highest potential because of their natural athleticism and charisma.”