China may soon experience the thrill of a WWE match. The company's flagship program "Raw" has been touring in large parts of Australia last weekend, but John Cena decided to join a separate group of wrestling stars to travel to Shenzhen and introduce another program of theirs "SmackDown Live." In an interview for the event, he mentioned that he was pumped to go to China that he even took it upon himself to learn Mandarin as the wrestling company began exploring its market presence in China after they made their debut in an expo in Shanghai in 2010.
"I remember the first time we went to China; we were just a footnote in the Expo. But we were off to a good start and we were welcomed by the loyal Chinese fan base which got us another event, another event, and another event." Cena recalls.
The 40-year old wrestling star who also has 16 WWE titles under his belt, can usually be seen as the central attraction on any show he's put into. However, in this event in China for the Shenzhen Civic Centre, Cena worked his schedule around so he can do the event and still make it home for WWE's "Raw."
The wrestling champ has become the global face of wrestling, specifically the World Wrestling Federation, for almost two decades. At this juncture of his illustrious career, the wrestling star has begun to slow down in his wrestling career.
Cena, who also initially pursued a career in acting and is currently filming "Bumblebee" a spin-off from the "Transformer" franchise, wandered into professional wrestling as a part-time gig.
WWE launched its own subscription-based digital service last month called the WWE Network in the Chinese region partnering with PPTV, a Chinese video streaming website.
Aside from China, WWE has also been flexing its muscles in other countries like Canada and India hoping to not only increase their fan base but also inspire other people to like how Cena has inspired his fans through the show.
