Shaheen will be performing on the card of one of the biggest independent organizations in the world, Progress Wrestling, as his Sons & Daughters of the Desert show comes to Dubai on December 10.
golf today, Staff reporter
Shaheen, the first Emirati wrestler to perform outside the UAE, says Progress Wrestling’s presence in Dubai will make a huge difference to the growth of the local wrestling scene.
Shaheen’s professional wrestling career began in 2019 in the United Kingdom, where he trained and performed on a card before being recruited by WWE for their tryouts in Saudi Arabia.
Although they were unfortunately canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic, this only encouraged him to push forward and help boost the wrestling scene in Dubai.
Now, he is set to perform on the card of one of the biggest independent organizations in the world, Progress Wrestling, as his Sons & Daughters of the Desert show comes to Dubai on December 10. Although Progress is based in the UK, the wrestling show. has acquired a global audience through its partnership with WWE, which sees the shows available to millions of fans around the world on the WWE Network.
Speaking about his desire to grow the local scene after his audition disappointment, Shaheen said: “It made me more hungry to start something here, and I was really passionate about it. I was going to the show at academy we had in Dubai, and it was mainly friends and families of fighters, with a maximum of 20 people present.
That was kind of annoying because I was putting my body on the line, training non-stop, and I needed more eyes on the product, and that’s when we created WrestleFest DXB.”
Wrestlefest DXB has been playing shows in Dubai monthly since March this year, with passionate crowds of around 200 fans at events.
Progress is partnering with Wrestlefest for the show next month, much to the delight of longtime fan Shaheen.
“Having progress notice us is a badge of honor,” he said. “They see what we do, and it’s very rewarding. I’ve been watching Progress for the past few years, and a lot of my favorite fighters come out of Progress, and that’s where I study a lot of matches. I mainly have the WWE Network to watch Progress! I can’t put it into words to be able to perform in the show that made me who I am today.”
He hopes next month’s show will help bring more eyes to Dubai’s wrestling scene and also give local talent like himself a platform to start building a global fan base.
“It will put more eyes on the local scene and that’s why we wanted the partnership with Wrestlefest DXB,” he said.
“Another thing is to be able to highlight the local talent that will be presented. If you look back in history, there is hardly any mention of a fighter outside of Dubai. Even from the Middle East, there are very few. We need someone the fans can relate to, and I want to be that person.“