10 WWE Firsts We'll See In 2017

5. An Episode Of WWE RAW Or SmackDown Live From China

Bin Wang
wwe.com

WWE has taken RAW and SmackDown on the road for the last few years, putting together episodes in Europe two or three times a year. RAW has had just the one Japanese episode to date, but with aggressive expansion into Asia on the cards one can assume that future shows will be filmed in the Far East.

The major market in this region is China, and 2016 saw WWE sign its first ever Chinese wrestler in the shape of Bin Wang. This came with news of further co-operation between WWE and China, and nobody would be surprised to see the company film an episode of RAW and SmackDown Live in the country.

Failing this, one could expect the company to film a Network special in the next year. Whilst WWE may want to wait until they have a stronger hold in the market there, or even for Wang to be TV ready, but China remains a major prize in the international market.

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Contributor
Contributor

Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.