WWE Wrestling Smackdown in Cario

There is a smackdown underway in Egypt. Not because of political unrest, but WWE wrestling.

Thursday night, a three day WWE event got underway in Cairo, the first on Egyptian soil.

Anchor Marco Werman talks to a young Egyptian who was in the crowd fulfilling a childhood dream.

Read the Transcript
The text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

Marco Werman: Meanwhile in Egypt a three day smack-down is underway. No we’re not talking about political unrest, the Arab spring or anything like that; we’re talking about the surreal spectacle of American Pro Wrestling.Yeah that right, Surprisingly, the showmanship of World Wrestling Entertainment or W.W.E. has quite a following in Egypt and yesterday a three day W.W.E. event began in Cairo the first ever on Egyptian soil. One of those in the crowd was 17 year old Hussain El-Kutarni he went with half a dozen members of his family. Hussain how long have you been a fan?

Hussain El-Kutarni: I’ve been a fan since about I was six years old.

Werman: Six years? You’ve been a fan for over ten years?

El-Kutarni: Yes sir.

Werman: And are you one of a few fans in Egypt or one of many?

El-Kutarni:One of many.Its actually an incredible amount of people actually who support W.W.E. It wasn’t a full crowd, but there are many fans of W.W.E. in Egypt, It’s was very surprising.

Werman: And so when you went to get your ticket were you on-line with tons of people like fighting to get up to the box office?

El-Kutarni: No actually one of my sisters fiancee actually did a really cool move.He knew my brothers and I we were huge fans and he went himself and got us the tickets and surprised us with the tickets, we were very surprised and very happy when he told us that he got us tickets and very excited.

Werman: Wow what a great gift.So you went with your brothers and sisters?How many women were there?

El-Kutarni:It was mostly men.

Werman: Right.

El-Kutarni: Way more men I got to go in line with my sisters and I went right away and then there was a whole line of men that had to wait definitely more men than women.

Werman: Does Egypt have a culture of wrestling? Are there local forms of hand-to-hand, you know not boxing, but some other kind of wrestling sport?

El-Kutarni: Yes definitely, We have wrestling, we have Judo, We have Karate, We have M.M.A.

Werman: Right, So there is a way to kind of understand this American wrestling entertainment sports which a lot of people don’t really consider sports, What do you consider it?

El-Kutarni: It definitely entertainment but if you look at it also a sport because it takes a lot of athleticism to do all stunts they do, The flips, the off the ropes jumps all the different jumping off the ring, Jumping in and being able to do all the stunts i think would be a high level of athleticism.

Werman: So like what happens when everyone got out of the arena?Was everyone kind of like jumping on each other? You know Kids love to imitate the wrestling moves.

El-Kutarni: Oh everyone was cheering we were so, we were happy like we’d jump on each other It was like it was really entertaining to watch.

Werman: Sounds like it was everything you imagined it would be?

El-Kutarni: Yes because actually we have been waiting most of my life to see W.W.E. live; when I was little I wanted to go to the U.S. and watch W.W.E. for myself but my luck was that they came to me and I got to see them live which actually made me very happy.

Werman: Well I’m glad to see that your dream came true Hussain. Hussain El-Kutardni who went to Egypt’s first W.W.E. event held in Cairo last night. Good to speak with you Hussain.Thanks.

El-Kutarni: Good to speak with you too

Copyright ©2012 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.