For India, it was the moment of pride when Great Khali defeated THE UNDERTAKER, Batista, Kane and many other professional wrestlers in one of the biggest wrestling platform in the World, i.e. WWE. Not only Khali, but there are many other Indian wrestlers like Tiger Jeet Singh, and the champion, Jinder Mahal, who have raised Indian Flag outside the country. All of them started their career by featuring in small wrestling leagues in India, but their passion and determination for the sport have set a platform for young talent to move on and express themselves on big stage.
Wrestling in India is long-established. Being one of the oldest sports in the World, the game is popular in India since ancient times. Even, one of the Mahabharata characters, Bhima was a great wrestler.
Over the years, wrestling has emerged out as one of the most important games in the Olympics. Indian Wrestlers remarkable performances in the Olympic, the status of Indian Wrestling has improved a lot and has been news headlines for long.
Indian Wrestlers Achievements at Olympics
In the 1952 Helsinki Games, Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav won the bronze in Men’s freestyle bantamweight. However, after this India waited for a long time to get a medal in Wrestling at Olympics. But since 1996, Indian wrestlers managed to get medals in every game.
2008 can be named as the year, that marked the beginning of ‘New Era in Indian Wrestling.’ This year in Beijing Olympics, Sushil Kumar won a bronze in Men’s 66 kg freestyle. In 2012, the performance got even better as this time he bagged Silver medal in 66kg freestyle. Yogeshwar Dutt also won a bronze in Men’s 60 kg freestyle this time.
Apart from this, the two biggest revenue grosser of Bollywood in 2016 were Sultan and Dangal. The two films have one thing in common: Both revolve around the sport of wrestling.
Pro Wrestling league- A initiative to raise Wrestling standards even high
With the introduction of Pro Wrestling League in 2015, the game has gained a new momentum, which is considered as the excellent platform for the wrestlers of India in the world of sports. PWL has completed three editions and during this period and the league has showcased world-class wrestling action.
Would you believe that wrestling viewership is more than that of any other Leagues that is being played in India? The stats prove that. According to Broadcast Audience Research Council (Barc) data, Pro Wrestling league PWL 2015 was watched by nearly 3.5 crore people every day – a bigger viewership than the other leagues in the country, including the Indian Super League (ISL) and the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL).
The fourth season of Pro Wrestling League is set to be bigger and better than previous years with the addition of a new team from Madhya Pradesh – MP Yodha. This time total six teams (Delhi Sultans, UP Dangal, Haryana Hammers, MP Yodha, Mumbai Maharathi, and the NCR Punjab Royals) will compete this year and entertain the fans. Besides this, the Season 4 will also witness participants from 15 nationalities spanning across Asia, Europe, Africa, and the American continent.
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