Fancy being a professional wrestler? WWE to hold largest open talent tryout in Riyadh

The four-day event will give up to 50 athletes from the kingdom an opportunity to highlight their abilities with the hopes of earning a contract

Mansoor was recruited to the WWE via an open tryout in Jeddah. Courtesy WWE 

Do you have dreams of one day becoming a WWE Superstar? Do you want to hear your name chanted by thousands of fans or hope to one day headline WrestleMania? Those dreams could now be a little closer to reality.

WWE has announced that it will return to the region and host an open talent tryout in Riyadh in early June with the hope of finding a new generation of stars.

While the exact dates have yet to be confirmed, the four-day event will give up to 50 athletes from the kingdom an opportunity to highlight their abilities with the hopes of earning a WWE Talent Development contract and training full-time at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida.

“We are excited to return to Saudi Arabia following the success of our first tryout in 2018 where we recruited a variety of elite athletes from the Middle East, including standout talent Mansoor, who has already played a meaningful role in various WWE events in Saudi Arabia,” said Paul “Triple H” Levesque, WWE executive vice president of talent, live events and creative.

The official WWE recruitment website is also now available in Arabic. Tailored to athletes who are interested in pursuing a career in sports entertainment, the website features information about the recruitment process and provides a detailed look at what day-to-day life is like for members of the WWE Performance Center roster.
"I have a message for every athlete and performer in Saudi Arabia who has a dream of becoming a WWE Superstar: WWE is coming to Riyadh to help you make that happen. This is your chance to take an opportunity and one day you could be walking down the ramp as a WWE Superstar while thousands of fans chant your name," said Levesque.

The first WWE talent tryout in Saudi Arabia was held in Jeddah in April 2018 and resulted in three participants signing WWE developmental contracts: Mansoor, Faisal Kurdi and Hussain Al Dagal. The trio are currently training full-time at the WWE Performance Center while Mansoor has appeared in tapings for NXT and won the first 51-Man Battle Royal at Super ShowDown in Jeddah last June.

When the WWE came to Dubai in 2017, 18 countries were represented at the four-day event, which saw 40 men and women from across the Middle East and India try out at Dubai Opera. It was during the tryout that the company nabbed its first Arab female talent when they signed Jordanian presenter Shadia Bseiso. However, while she trained at the Performance Center, she left the company before making her wrestling debut.

Here's a look at part of the open tryout held in Dubai in 2017:

The upcoming tryout in Riyadh is the latest example of WWE’s search for more global talent.

In recent years, WWE has scouted rugby and football players from Europe, kabaddi and kushti athletes from India, and martial artists and boxers from China. WWE has held similar tryouts in Dubai, London, Tokyo, Jeddah, Cologne, Santiago and Mumbai.