JEDDAH — The Greatest Royal Rumble to be held in Saudi Arabia for the first time not only has brought the best wrestlers in the world to the Kingdom, but also provided a golden opportunity for 25 young Saudi athletes to showcase their capabilities in the ring.

On Saturday, eight young Saudi athletes were announced as the winners the WWE KSA Tryouts ahead of the coming Friday's Greatest Royal Rumble to take place here.

The tryout, which was hosted at the King Abdullah Sports City Sports Hall, gave young Saudis the opportunity to showcase their abilities with the goal of being selected to begin training at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Fla.

The young athletes comprised of elite performers with a diverse background in sports, including soccer, powerlifting, volleyball, boxing, jiujitsu, gymnastics, CrossFit and taekwondo.

Paul “ Triple H” Levesque, executive vice president of talent, live events and creative who attended the fourth day of WWE tryouts, spoke to Saudi Gazette at the tryouts and said he was impressed at the quality of the participants.

“It’s only a matter of time before we see someone from Saudi Arabia really make it in the professional wrestling industry,” he said.

He added the tryouts was a huge success due to the hard work of such young talents from Saudi Arabia.

According to the agreement signed between WWE and Saudi Arabia’s General Sport Authority (GSA), Triple H, who will take on John Cena at Greatest Royal Rumble next Friday, said for the next 10 years Saudi wrestling fans will enjoy a number of WWE events around the Kingdom, include their famous “Royal Rumble” and “Raw title” events.

Meanwhile, Canyon Ceman, WWE’s Vice President of Talent Development, said: “We are committed to hiring the best and most charismatic athletes from around the region to super-serve this large and growing fan base with local future WWE Superstars.”

He added “ We have seen several Saudi athletes for the last few days and they have shown a good potential but still need training. Why not we might see a Saudi WWE wrestler joining the WWE fights soon.”

Mojo Rawley and 2018 WWE Hall of Famer Mark Henry also attended the day 4 of the WWE tryouts in Saudi Arabia. — SG