Professional wrestling in India

Professional wrestling is a popular sport in India. The country have rich history of professional wrestling. Many professional wrestlers from India wreslted around the world in various promotions. International wrestling promotion such as WWE, Impact Wrestling generates high television viewership and have significant fan following.^[1]

History

In early 20th century The Great Gama was a famous professional wrestler in India.^[2] Dara Singh was a notable pro wrestler from India, who won titles internationally. In 1950s, he won world championship against world famous wrestler Emile Czaja, popularly known by his ring name King Kong. He also defeated world champion wrestler Lou Thesz of USA.^[3] Singh participated in almost 500 professional fights and remained undefeated in all of them, he wrestled against George Gordienko of Canada, John da Silva of New Zealand and others.^[4] In 2018 WWE honoured Dara Singh by inducting in WWE Hall of Fame Legacy.^[5] Tiger Joginder Singh, Arjan Singh Das was best professional wrestlers from India, who worked in promotions in Singapore, Japan, USA in 1940s and 1950s.^[3]^[6] Gama Singh did wrestling 1970s– 1990s.^[a] Jatindra Charan Guho, Tiger Daula were wrestled in first half of 20th century.

Star Sports and Ten Sports use to air matches of TNA and WWE promotion in the country respectively. ^[b]

Modern era

The Great Khali in Allstate arena, Illinois at WWE No Mercy, 2007

Dalip Singh Rana, who is widely known by his ring name The Great Khali became WWE World Heavyweight Champion in 2007.^[c] In the 20 man battle royale match, he defeated Batista, Kane and others. At No Mercy 2007 pay-per-view he wrestled against Batista in Punjabi Prison Match.^[d] He defeated WWE legends such as The Undertaker, John Cena and Rey Mysterio in his WWE career. On 7 April 2021, WWE honoured The Great Khali by inducting him in WWE Hall of Fame. Thus he became the first professional wrestler from India who got this honour.^[7] ^[e]Presently wrestlers such as Saurav Gurjar, Rinku Singh, and Shanky are in WWE, formerly Satendra Dagar^[f], Lovepreet Sangha, Gaint Zanjeer, Kavita Devi was part of it.^[9]^[g] ^[10]After WWE, Khali moved back to India and open a pro wrestling promotion, Continental Wrestling Entertainment (CWE)^[h], by which he provide training to the budding wrestlers, organise wrestling events. WWE have been organised some live events in the India so far. CWE academy in Jalandhar, Punjab is made in 3 hector land. It streams its 'Saturday night show' on YouTube. Freak Fighter Wrestling (FFW) of Sampala, Haryana is another wrestling promotion in India.^[11]^[12]^[13]^[i] Indian wrestler Sangram Singh was singed with South African promotion, Guru Raaj completes in WWE NXT, Badshah Khan holds CWE title, Satnam Singh and Mahabali Shera signed with All Elite Wrestling and Ohio Valley Wrestling respectively, later one was one time OVW National Heavyweight Champion. ^[14]^[2]^[15]

Wrestle Square, promotion established a pro wrestling school , Jeet Wrestle Square (JWS) academy, with Jeet Rama (Satendra Dagar) in Northern India.^[16]

Due to the popularity of pro wrestling and India's vast market and economic potential, WWE often held tryouts in India to recruit wrestlers and train them at their Performance center in US.^[17] Presently Sony Ten 1 and Ten Sport 3 channel broadcasts WWE live, exclusively in India.^[18]^[j] Eurosport television channel airs matches of All Elite Wrestling (AEW).

Television shows

Following list contains TV shows created by multiple foreign wrestling promotions with India's professional wrestlers :

100% De Dana Dan - It was aired in 2009, it was made by a South African wrestling promotion World wrestling professionals, it was filmed in South Africa. It had matches between South African and Indian wrestlers. It was aired on Colors TV.^[19]
Ring Ka King - It was a show of Total Non Stop Action (TNA) pramotion. It included foreign and Indian wrestlers. It was aired on Colors TV in India.^[20]
Sunday Dhamaal - It was a weekly wrestling show of Sony Max featuring summary of storylines, matches of WWE in immediate week hosted by Sahil Khattar. ^[21]
WWE Superstar Spectacle - In 2021, WWE created a special episode for WWE fans of India, broadcast it on Sony Ten 1 Sony Ten 2 and Sony Max television channels on the occasion of India's Republic day, 26 January 2021.^[22]
AEW Dynamite and AEW Rampage – the shows of All Elites Wrestling promotion, Eurosport channel run it in India.

Gallery

The Great Gama

The Great Khali with WWE belt

Footnotes

^ Gadowar Singh Sahota better known by his ring name Gama Singh was born in India in 1954, his nephew Jinder Mahal is signed with WWE
^ Ten Sports was a foreign channel use to air in India. It was sold to Indian media company, Zee media in 2000s. Later Essel group sold it to Sony Sports Network.
^ The Great Khali is the first professional wrestler from India who signed–wrestled in WWE, later Kavita Devi, Saurav Gurjar, Rinku Singh etc joined it.
^ Khali was the pioneer of Punjabi prison match. Jinder Mahal wrestled against challenger Randy Orton for WWE championship belt in this type of match, in it Khali helped Mahal by stopping Orton from escaping from the prison.
^ The Great Khali has been inducted into WWE Hall of Fame (2021), it also called as WWE Hall of Fame class of 2021.
^ Satendra Dagar was signed with WWE's NXT brand, performed by ring name Jeet Rama only in NXT, Superstar Spectacle episode and some house shows, he was not part of main roaster.^[8]
^ Many wrestlers learnt wrestling from The Great Khali at his CWE promotion and later signed to WWE, NXT and further trained in WWE performance center in USA such as Shanky, Kavita Devi, Gaint Zanjeer.
^ CWE is India's biggest professional wrestling promotion, per their website.
^ So far the live events organised by WWE in India were not live shows of WWE Raw or SmackDown, they was un-televised House shows
^ Sony Ten is the official broadcaster of WWE in India.

References

^ "New Report claims WWE RAW's average viewership in India for the month of January 2021 exceeded 4M viewers, more than doubling the 1.85M viewers in the U.S. during the same timeframe. While SmackDown averaged 3M viewers in India, NXT surpassed the 1M mark in the country for the month of January 2021". February 28, 2021.
^ ^a ^b yadav, Piyush. "5 current WWE Superstars billed from India". www.sportskeeda.com.
^ ^a ^b Rampal, Nikhil (November 19, 2018). "Remembering Dara Singh: The wrestling champ who switched careers and excelled at them all".
^ "Dara Singh's fight against..."
^ "Dara Singh". WWE.
^ "The lord of the ring". Hindustan Times. July 13, 2012.
^ "The Great Khali formally inducted in WWE Hall of Fame". March 24, 2021.
^ https://www.wrestling.org.in/jws-wrestling-academy/
^ "Kishaan Raftaar".
^ https://hindi.sportskeeda.com/wwe/5-things-know-former-wwe-indian-superstar-giant-zanjeer. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
^ "Stop, drop and roll: Inside India's pro-wrestling academies". Hindustan Times. June 16, 2018.
^ [1]^{[dead link]}
^ [2]^{[dead link]}
^ https://www.cagematch.net//?id=5&nr=4745. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
^ www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tv/news/hindi/Sangram-Singh-Its-not-only-my-win-its-also-the-win-of-those-who-supported-me/articleshow/48238513.cms. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)CS1 maint: url-status (link)
^ "JWS".
^ "Earlier India used to run after WWE but now WWE is coming after India: Jeet Rama and Kishen Raftar".
^ "How do I watch WWE in India?".
^ "100% De Dana Dan..."
^ http://www.wrestleview.com/viewnews.php?id=1323450315. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
^ https://www.exchange4media.com/amp/industry-briefing-news/sony-max-to-air-exclusive-new-weekly-hindi-showwwe-sunday-dhamaal-69368.html&ved=2ahUKEwiqqprO-v_6AhUL3HMBHXWaA6w4ChAWegQIBhAB&usg=AOvVaw3Pwbz8rSyjibh9OZhxZPAl. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
^ "WWE superstar Jinder Mahal promises best version of morden day maharaja in Republic day special event".

[7] Gadowar Singh Sahota better known by his ring name Gama Singh was born in India in 1954, his nephew Jinder Mahal is signed with WWE

[8] Ten Sports was a foreign channel use to air in India. It was sold to Indian media company, Zee media in 2000s. Later Essel group sold it to Sony Sports Network.

[9] The Great Khali is the first professional wrestler from India who signed–wrestled in WWE, later Kavita Devi, Saurav Gurjar, Rinku Singh etc joined it.

[10] Khali was the pioneer of Punjabi prison match. Jinder Mahal wrestled against challenger Randy Orton for WWE championship belt in this type of match, in it Khali helped Mahal by stopping Orton from escaping from the prison.

[12] The Great Khali has been inducted into WWE Hall of Fame (2021), it also called as WWE Hall of Fame class of 2021.

[14] Satendra Dagar was signed with WWE's NXT brand, performed by ring name Jeet Rama only in NXT, Superstar Spectacle episode and some house shows, he was not part of main roaster.^[8]

[16] Many wrestlers learnt wrestling from The Great Khali at his CWE promotion and later signed to WWE, NXT and further trained in WWE performance center in USA such as Shanky, Kavita Devi, Gaint Zanjeer.

[18] CWE is India's biggest professional wrestling promotion, per their website.

[22] So far the live events organised by WWE in India were not live shows of WWE Raw or SmackDown, they was un-televised House shows

[28] Sony Ten is the official broadcaster of WWE in India.

[1] "New Report claims WWE RAW's average viewership in India for the month of January 2021 exceeded 4M viewers, more than doubling the 1.85M viewers in the U.S. during the same timeframe. While SmackDown averaged 3M viewers in India, NXT surpassed the 1M mark in the country for the month of January 2021". February 28, 2021.

[A-2] yadav, Piyush. "5 current WWE Superstars billed from India". www.sportskeeda.com.

[:4-3] Rampal, Nikhil (November 19, 2018). "Remembering Dara Singh: The wrestling champ who switched careers and excelled at them all".

[4] "Dara Singh's fight against..."

[5] "Dara Singh". WWE.

[6] "The lord of the ring". Hindustan Times. July 13, 2012.

[11] "The Great Khali formally inducted in WWE Hall of Fame". March 24, 2021.

[B-13] ttps://www.wrestling.org.in/jws-wrestling-academy/

[15] "Kishaan Raftaar".

[17] ttps://hindi.sportskeeda.com/wwe/5-things-know-former-wwe-indian-superstar-giant-zanjeer. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)

[19] "Stop, drop and roll: Inside India's pro-wrestling academies". Hindustan Times. June 16, 2018.

[20] [1]^{[dead link]}

[21] [2]^{[dead link]}

[23] ttps://www.cagematch.net//?id=5&nr=4745. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)

[24] www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tv/news/hindi/Sangram-Singh-Its-not-only-my-win-its-also-the-win-of-those-who-supported-me/articleshow/48238513.cms. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)CS1 maint: url-status (link)

[25] "JWS".

[26] "Earlier India used to run after WWE but now WWE is coming after India: Jeet Rama and Kishen Raftar".

[27] "How do I watch WWE in India?".

[29] "100% De Dana Dan..."

[30] ttp://www.wrestleview.com/viewnews.php?id=1323450315. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)

[31] ttps://www.exchange4media.com/amp/industry-briefing-news/sony-max-to-air-exclusive-new-weekly-hindi-showwwe-sunday-dhamaal-69368.html&ved=2ahUKEwiqqprO-v_6AhUL3HMBHXWaA6w4ChAWegQIBhAB&usg=AOvVaw3Pwbz8rSyjibh9OZhxZPAl. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)

[32] "WWE superstar Jinder Mahal promises best version of morden day maharaja in Republic day special event".

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