For the past several months, rumors of a UFC sale have flown, which could possibly help them break into China. They're not the only ones, however, as WWE has their eye on China.
Stephanie McMahon appeared on Fox Sports' Wrestling Compadres Slamcast this week and spoke about several topics, including the WWE's hopeful expansion into China.
?China's been on our radar, rather, for a really long time. Certainly given it's scale and culture, it seems a natural fit for WWE. As a part of the Eisenhower Fellowship last year, I (took) a trip to China, and our executive leadership team has really been invested for quite some time working with multiple partners. The timing was right. It's very exciting and again just to be able to do this,? McMahon said.
McMahon elaborated on the WWE's expansion into China, saying that they had been trying to recruit talent from the area, and that the former Lord Tensai had a lot to do with that.
?We had a whole talent recruitment effort there that took place at the Mercedes-Benz Arena for four days,? McMahon said. ?I believe we're vetting a number of different talents who came out of that tryout. It's the first of it's kind. It's really cool because Matt Bloom (NXT head trainer) actually took Mandarin for about a year so that he could be able to coach these talents as they came through. It was all different athletes from all different backgrounds and they did really well, It's an exciting opportunity from a talent development standpoint as well."