Meet Abdulmalik Ali Al-Muwizri, the Saudi graphic designer who has caught the attention of WWE wrestlers

He's been a fan of wrestling since he was a child, but these days he gets to meet his favourite wrestlers through his artworks

Saudi graphic designer Abdulmalik Ali Al-Muwizri, left, and WWE Superstar Bayley pose with Al-Muwizri's latest work. Instagram / Abdulmalik Ali Al-Muwizri

Abdulmalik Ali Al-Muwizri has done it again. The young Saudi graphic designer has created a new poster that’s going viral among the wrestling crowd ahead of WWE Super ShowDown in Riyadh.

The work depicts a young Saudi girl reading a How to be a WWE Superstar with images of WWE female wrestlers in the background. The message below says "this is Reality", with "reality" written above the crossed-out word "hope".

This is a reference to an earlier work that Al-Muwizri created in 2019, based on when Sasha Banks and Alexa Bliss competed in the first women’s match in Abu Dhabi in 2017 and fans chanted “this is hope”.

It also featured a quote by wrestler Natalya, who along with Lacey Evans, competed in the first women’s match in Saudi Arabia last October. The quote reads: “I said to Lacey, one day one of these girls is going to say we’re the reason they became the first-ever female in Saudi Arabia to become a WWE Superstar!”

Although not in Saudi this time around, Natayla took to social media to praise the piece:

With WWE Smackdown champion Bayley defending her title against Naomi at Super ShowDown marking the first time a women’s title defence would take place in the kingdom, Al-Muwizri knew it was time for an update.

"I created the artwork two months ago, celebrating the fact that it's been a year since I created the This is Hope piece made after the first women's match in the Middle East in Abu Dhabi," he tells The National. "One year later, I decided to make this piece because it's not a hope any more, it's a reality. Women from everywhere in Saudi can pursue the dream of being a WWE superstar."

The original This is Hope artwork also presented a powerful message. It showed a young girl looking into a mirror and wearing a similar outfit to the one Banks sported in her match against Bliss.

For Al-Muwizri, the desire to create such inspiring work comes from knowing that there are many women in Saudi who have dreams of making it to the WWE.

“I see tweets and messages all the time from girls asking for women’s matches or even wanting to participate in the first women’s match in Saudi,” he says.

Al-Muwizri’s artistic skills aren’t a surprise to wrestling fans. He’s designed many different artworks over the past couple of years including some for matches, big moments and just for fun. He creates his work on Photoshop and, depending on how intricate the piece, it can take quite a bit of time.

He’s also become the personal graphic designer to former WWE wrestler Chris Jericho. He’s helped design match graphics, podcasts logos and even announcement posters for his band Fozzy.

As a wrestling fan since the age of 5, everything has seemingly come full circle. While he loved wrestling early on, he couldn’t have known back then just how much influence it would still have on him today.

“It’s a family tradition to watch the wrestling shows. My grandfather, who used to be a big Hulk Hogan fan, passed it to my brothers, who passed it to me, and since then I was just hooked,” he says. “I don’t know where I would be in life right now without wrestling. It’s everything.”