| Mahabali Khali - Pro Wrestling boom in India? |
 Mahabali Khali - Pro Wrestling boom in India?
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May. 9th, 2008 @ 01:09 pm 
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As the IPL is raging on and grabbing eyeballs all around India, one more "sport entertainment" related happening is generating buzz and creating a lot of interest, interest which is as equal to the one created by cricketers and cheerleaders. That happening is the visit of the Great Khali aka Dalip Singh to India.
For people not following pro wrestling and/or Hindi news channels, the Great Khali is a pro wrestler working for the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) group wherein he performs for their RAW, Smackdown and ECW programmes. Pro wrestling for the uninitiated is differant from amateur wrestling in that pro wrestling involves more money, louder gimmicks and less stringent rules. However the biggest differance is that pro wrestling bouts are fixed with the main intention being staging a good fight and entertaining rather than winning. Pro wrestling also involves a lot of gimmicks, storylines and feuds between wrestlers which are all aimed at entertaining the crowd.
However pro wrestling also involves actual fighting as in the wrestlers actually hit each other. There are hardcore no holds barred matches wherein a wrestler can be hit by baseball bats, chairs, ladders, tables, dustbins, steel stairs, etc. Blood is spilt in the wrestling ring. In fact wrestlers often cut themselves up using blades to "sell" an injury caused by an opponents' attack to "put them over" i.e. to make them look good. Wrestlers take dangerous "bumps" i.e. they let themselves be picked up and thrown in the ring or outside it. There was one legendary steel cage match wherein one wrestler was thrown from top of a 15 feet steel cage on the announcers' table (the victim incidentally wrote a fantastic autobiography which was on the New York Bestsellers' list!!).
Matches are actually planned prior to being executed by the wrestlers. Main onus is on making sure that the bumps do not hurt too much. Which is why inspite of some dangerous moves, the wrestlers appear ok most of the time after the match. What they do requires immense training. Still accidents happen and careers are shortened.
Pro wrestling in India has a history. Matches used to be conducted in fairs and carnivals. Dara Singh the famous wrestler cum film actor actually was a pro wrestler who was rated as one of the best in his eras. However pro wrestling did not catch up here due to uncertain reasons. Till now there have been a handful of wrestlers of Indian origin who have been active in pro wrestling. They include Tiger Jeet Singh who was quite a rage in Japan in the 60s and 70s and Sonjay Dutt who is wrestling in TNA (Total Non Stop Action) which is one significant competitor to the WWE in the pro wrestling business in America.
The Geart Khali is a differant phenomenon altogether. He seems to have caught the imagination of quite a few Indians. Sonjay Dutt was hyped and advertised by Star Sports which telecasts TNA in India. He does enjoy popularity among the urban kids especially when he had visited India. However Khali has gone mainstream. The Hindi News channels have virtually gone ballistic over him and his exploits are reported and commented on every day. He is given titles like "Mahabali Khali", his image superimposed over a tiger and he is touted as the Indian challenger to the videshi monopoly over wrestling. The Hindi News channel strictly follow "kayfabe" (i.e. potraying the storylines and feuds happening in the ring as real and unstaged) either because they are instructed to or because they are dumb enough not to get the fact that it is all staged. Anyways, Khali's popularity is making WWE go mainstream in India. WWE is getting mentioned on news websites, Khali's photos plastered on hoardings and thousands are lining up to just see him. Not bad for a guy whose wrestling abilities are limited. In fact Khali in the ring leads to chants of "you can't wrestle" in the crowd and you have to agree with them.
However Khali is proving to be a big ticket draw in India and Asia. WWE is not ignoring this. Hence the Khali visit to India. WWE may even schedule a tour to India based on the response Khali gets. And by the evidence of his popularity here it may happen sooner rather than later.I am feeling:  calm |
| From: | (Anonymous) |
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| Date: |
June 26th, 2008 11:29 am (UTC) |
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invitation
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Hi ,
I was reading ur blog posts and found some of them to be wow.. u write well.. Why don't you popularize it more.. ur posts on ur blog ‘My diary - Post a comment’ took my particular attention as some of them are interesting topics of mine too;
BTW I help out some ex-IIMA guys who with another batch mate run www.rambhai.com where you can post links to your most loved blog-posts. Rambhai was the chaiwala at IIMA and it is a site where users can themselves share links to blog posts etc and other can find and vote on them. The best make it to the homepage!
This way you can reach out to rambhai readers some of whom could become your ardent fans.. who knows.. :)
Cheers,
| From: | (Anonymous) |
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| Date: |
July 24th, 2008 04:43 pm (UTC) |
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can you give me address of Pro Wrestling in India???
What?
There is no pro wrestling in India.
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