By Femi Solaja, who covered the event courtesy, Multichoice
The recent partnership between SuperSport and the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) late last month was a major highlight of recently concluded Raw and SmackDown event staged at the Barclays centre in New York, USA.
Most of the top stars expressed their excitement of the possibility to expand their popularity to other continents via a major satellite television provider, DSTv.
Early last month, WWE and SuperSport, Africa’s premier sportchannels provider, had announced a new multi-year agreement to broadcast WWE programming live for the first time in more than 50 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
“It’s a welcome development not only to our prime sport, but it will allow me to expand my coast. It will be a great honour to return to Africa and dazzle my fans out there,” the WWE Champion and Indian born super star, Jinder Mahal responded with excitement of the proposed initiative.
In his own remarks, master of free style kicks and Japanese star, Shinsuke Nakamura, noted that SuperSport involvement is a added value to the height WWE has attained over the years and it’s a welcome development to break new grounds.
“It’s an opportunity to make our sport the most popular if over 50 countries in Africa can gain assess to what we do live. In Far East especially my country, Japan, WWE has become very popular and it has been a motivation to young lads out there and same will be the situation for potentials in Africa,” Nakamura noted.
The trio of New Day composed of Big E, Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods, who interestingly have a Ghanaian root all spoke with excitement and ready to flow with SportsSport/WWE partnership.
“Aside our winning formula, it’s a great honour to see our exploits been televised live to African homes. The project will reawaken youths on the continent to embrace the sport just as our follower-ship will also increase,” responded Big E on behalf of the trio.
In his own reaction, Nuufolau Joel Seanoa better known by ring name Samoa Joe said “its has always been a great honour for him to compete outside USA and coming to Africa or have a lot of wrestling fans watch our events live is great privilege for us to expand our coast ,” he responded.
Earlier this week, DStv and GOtv customers all had access to the world’s biggest wrestling entertainment when SuperSport aired WWE’s top shows Raw and SmackDown in the early hours of Tuesday including WWE specials, WrestleMania and SummerSlam.
“We are aware that the WWE Executives are excited to get there foot print on the continent of Africa. Imagine 50 countries and new audience and they are indeed happy  to be involved in bringing new wrestlers out of the continent.
“A lot of stars that we have met here spoke about been motivated by the exploits of previous generation of wrestlers and it will be a good investment if through SuperSport, young and talented Africans be motivated to break into WWE circuit.
“Although it’s along time project and we hope in the next couple of years, through SuperSport, a lot of Africans can feel the excitement that goes with the sports every Monday night and can also catch up with relay telecast much later in the day,” SuperSport Communication Manager, Clinton van dear Berg explained after the event last week.
DStv Premium, Compact+ and Compact customers will enjoy their wrestling drama live while DStv Family and Access will also enjoy same-day rebroadcast of the events which will be available onSuperSport channels S7, S9 and SS10.
Viewers can look forward toRaw on Tuesdays and SmackDown on Wednesdays offering both live telecasts and same-day re-airs, as well as all WWE specials live, including WrestleMania,SummerSlam,
Viewers can look forward toRaw on Tuesdays and SmackDown on Wednesdays offering both live telecasts and same-day re-airs, as well as all WWE specials live, including WrestleMania,SummerSlam,
“We’re delighted to bring our DStv and GOtv customers yet another sport that’s going to keep them glued to their TV and mobile screens. This addition to our sports offering will certainly bring more value for our customers and ensure that SuperSport remains their go-to World of Champion and home to the world’s biggest sports.
This is part of our ongoing efforts to ensure that our platformsdeliver only the best entertainment to our customers,†John Ugbe, Managing Director, MultiChoice Nigeria said earlier before the event in New York.
This is part of our ongoing efforts to ensure that our platformsdeliver only the best entertainment to our customers,†John Ugbe, Managing Director, MultiChoice Nigeria said earlier before the event in New York.
All programs are available with English commentary and on demand. To celebrate the new partnership, SuperSport televised the lastweek’s episodes of Raw and SmackDown on Monday August 28.
