SHANGHAI — WWE has signed 22-year-old Bin Wang to a developmental contract, making him the first Chinese athlete to have the opportunity to train to become a WWE Superstar.
Paul “Triple H” Levesque, WWE’s Executive Vice President of Talent, Live Events and Creative, oversaw the historic contract signing, which was held today at a press conference in Shanghai’s Mercedes-Benz Arena.
Hailing from Anhui, Wang has trained for the past two years in Japan at the Inoki Genome Federation, a wrestling and mixed martial arts promotion founded by WWE Hall of Famer Antonio Inoki. The 6-foot-3, 220-pound recruit will relocate to Orlando, Florida, this Sunday to begin training at the WWE Performance Center.
“It is an honor to be the first-ever Chinese talent in WWE history,” Wang said in a press statement. “There are no fans in the world that show the same passion as the WWE Universe, and I look forward to training and developing my skills so I can perform for them in the future.”
The announcement capped off a major week in WWE’s efforts to discover Chinese talent, coming as WWE concluded a four-day tryout — the first it has ever held in the country. WWE also announced at the press conference that it will hold its first Live Event in China in more than three years in Shanghai on Saturday, Sept. 10, as well as that it has signed a new agreement with PPTV to deliver Raw and SmackDown in Mandarin.