The WrestleVerse Fest is the next revolution in sports and entertainment in India. It started as the first-ever and most unique fan engagement for WWE’s passionate fanbase, having done two mid-scale events that mesmerized the fans like no other and ignited a new wave of entertainment in the country, which is the second largest market for WWE outside the USA.
The concept was conceived by Nikunj Walia, the founder of the unique platform WrestleFanent. He has been a die-hard WWE fan since 1999. The first match he watched was The Rock vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin, which instantly hooked him to WWE. Since then, he has been a passionate fan who decided to make a living by creating a platform and opportunities for fans like him in his country of India.
So far, the company has produced two WrestleVerse Fest events in New Delhi, India, in 2022 and 2024. Both events had a good success rate and received a positive response from the audience. Multiple brands like TNA Wrestling, Decathlon, Souled Store, and Amazon have sponsorships for the show.
Have any WWE superstars been a part of WrestleVerse Fest?
The WrestleVerse Fest has seen two of the popular names from WWE as its special guests. The event saw former WWE superstar from India, Jeet Rama, as the live-in person guest who met with the fans and did an autograph signing for the fans.
The biggest name to appear at the WrestleVerse event was the online appearance of WWE Hall of Famer Rob Van Dam. Some lucky fans got to interact with RVD live, while many fans were very excited to see Mr. Monday Night.
What happens at the WrestleVerse Fest in India?
WrestleVerse Fest has a lot of engaging, exciting, and unique activities for wrestling fans in India. The event focuses on giving unique on-ground activations that the fans can relate to. One of the biggest and exciting attractions is seeing the talented Indian wrestlers perform inside the squared circle and getting excited to see real life in-ring action that they often don’t see.
A notable engagement at the WrestleVerse Fest is the Drink 3:16 Challenge inspired by two of the biggest WWE superstars of all time, Stone Cold Steve Austin and CM Punk. The challenge invites players to finish their drink the quickest and set a record for finishing the drink fast. For the alcohol lovers like Steve Austin, we provide beers. For the Straight Edge ones like CM Punk, we provide soft beverages to do the challenge at the counter.
Another exciting engagement for the wrestling fans to connect with their childhood memories is the WWE Trump Card tables. Fans who grew up playing trump cards with friends and family love those tables and want to become kids again. They also want to find other board games for a change.
A highly popular fan engagement zone is our Superstar Entrance area. Fans come and request their favorite theme song, either from WWE, AEW, or TNA, and channel the superstar inside them in front of the entire fan community. The last popular engagement area is the Gaming Section, where fans can come and play their favorite WWE games on Playstation, and some systems even have AEW video games, too.
Apart from these, some of those include video games, stalls, food and beverage counters, interesting photo-ops, and the excitement of fans.
What is the USP activation for the wrestling fans at the WrestleVerse Fest?
The unique selling proposition of fan activation in the WrestleVerse Fest is bringing out the competitive spirit for custom-made wrestling championships, which is unaffordable to the majority of fans. The Wrestlefanent championships are contested in two formats: Trivia and Gaming Competitions.
For the nerdy wrestling fans who know it all, the winner gets to become the WFE World Heavyweight Champion. For the extreme and power-packed WWE 2K Gamers, the winner gets to become the WFE Game On Champion. Both competitions are conducted based on multiple wrestling show themes, superstars, and historical data.
This type of unique engagement and competition among fans has been widely popular in India and started by us with the mission of making the fans the champion and giving a feel of the superstars they see on television.
What is the future of the WrestleVerse Fest in India?
Following two successful editions by Wrestlefanent, alongside multiple on-ground and online activations, the company plans to present a large-scale fan fest titled ‘WrestleVerse: Welcome to the Big Time.’ The company is slowly onboarding brands for sponsorships to fill the funding gap that has prevented it from happening so far.
Moreover, popular Indian investor and Shark Tank India judge Anupam Mittal has endorsed the idea of a large-scale event. Wrestlefanent submitted the idea in his grant competition, ‘Dreamdeal.me,’ where it placed in the top three and earned a grant and mentorship session from Anupam Mittal.
One of the biggest endorsements for this idea has come from none other than the WWE Hall of Famer, The Great Khali. The Wrestlefanent team met with him for a discussion about being the main celebrity attraction for the large-scale event, to which he has expressed excitement and enthusiasm.
With the young startup trying to build a new culture of entertainment for Indian wrestling fans, it remains to be seen if they will be able to achieve the dream that the founder, Nikunj Walia, saw four years ago and has worked toward since then.
Do you want to see a large-scale wrestling fan festival event in India? Share your thoughts and opinions in the comments!