The World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) global brand will be coming back to South Africa live in 2018.
WWE Live, a tour in which wrestlers compete around the world, will be touching down in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Pretoria in April.
WWE Live last came to South Africa back in 2013 and the 2018 edition promises to be bigger and better. The three-city tour takes place between 18 and 21 April, with tickets set to go on sale on 13 December.
The cast will include WWE superstars Braun Strowman, Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose, intercontinental championRoman Reigns, Raw women's champion Alexa Bliss, Sasha Banks and Raw tag team champions Cesaro and Sheamus, to name a few.
South Africans love watching the wild and entertaining sport of wrestling and here's three reasons why:
1. It's so entertaining
WWE was an almost instant hit when it was aired on e.tv, the home of WWE in South Africa for 16 years, although the channel stopped airing the brand in September this year. South Africans love wrestling, with consistent viewing figures of two million people plus.
According to the Broadcast Research Council of South Africa, in May 2017, WWE Raw peaked at 2.69-million viewers. In October 2016, the figure was 2.48-million, according to MyBroadband, with WWE eclipsing shows such as "Our Perfect Wedding" and "Isibaya".
2. The celebrity superstars of the sport
Wrestling is arguably more than a sport and the influence it wields is more similar to pop culture brands. Kids, teens, adults and elderly viewers alike come together to watch wrestling and the ultimate Hollywood success of some wrestlers like The Rock, John Cena and Stone Cold Steve Austin is partially down to their popularity as WWE superstars.
Who could forget such legendary catchphrases as "If you smell what The Rock is cooking" (The Rock); "You can't see me" (John Cena) and "Because I'm the Miz, and I'm awesome" (The Miz).
3. It just won't leave our screens
In news that had wrestling fans sobbing into their pillows, e.tv announced earlier this year that it would stop airing WWE from September 2017. It caused a mini-hysteria, with diehard fans panicking about where they would be catching their next fix.
Thankfully, SuperSport came along and saved the day, signing a multiyear agreement to move WWE programming to MultiChoice's DStv in 50 countries throughout sub-Saharan Africa. And just like that, the legacy of WWE continued on our screens.