The second season of the Pro Wresting League is set to begin from 2 January and the final will be on 19 January. The tournament will be hosted at the KD Jadhav Wrestling Stadium, New Delhi.
With big stars such as Yogeshwar Dutt and Sushil Kumar opting out of the tournament, all eyes will be on Rio Olympics bronze medalist Sakshi Malik and her competitors, Geeta Phogat and Babita Phogat.
There will be six franchises competing in the tournament – Jaipur Ninjas, Delhi Sultans, Mumbai Maharathi, UP Dangal, NCR Punjab Royals and Haryana Hammers.
The Quint takes a look at the top four teams to watch out for in the Pro Wresting League.
1. Delhi Sultans
The Delhi Sultans team have several stars in their side. The spotlight will be certainly on the Rio Olympics bronze medalist Sakshi Malik (58 kg category). As they say, staying successful is tougher than gaining success.
Ukrainian Mariya Stadnik (48 kg category), who won a bronze medal at the 2008 Olympics and bagged a silver at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics, will be the other wrestler to look out for in the team.
Among the men, Uzbekistan’s Bekzod Abdurakhmonov (70 kg category), who finished at the fifth place in the Rio Olympics, will be leading the charge.
2. UP Dangal
The Phogat sisters, Geeta (58 kg category) and Babita (53 kg category), will be at the forefront for the UP Dangal team. Both have won gold medals at the Commonwealth Games and also have participated at the Olympics.
The other teams will have to find a way to counter Belarus’ Maria Mamashuk (75 kg category) as well. Mamashuk, who has a European Championship (2016) gold medal under her belt, clinched the silver medal at the Rio Olympics.
3. NCR Punjab Royals
The NCR Punjab Royals will be riding on their foreign players such as Vladimir Khinchegashvili, Togrul Asgarov and Vasilisa Marzaliuk.
Vladimir Khinchegashvili, who won the gold medal at the Rio Olympics, will be competing in the 57kg category.
Rio Olympics silver medallist Togrul Asgarov will be leading the charge in the 65kg category and Belarus’ Vasilisa Marzaliuk, who finished fifth at the Rio Olympics, will take part in the 75 kg category.
4. Haryana Hammers
The Haryana Hammers have a star team with Russia’s Abdusalam Gadisov, Magomed Kurbanaliev (Russia), Sweden’s Sofia Mattsson, Tunisia’s Marwa Amri and India’s Sandeep Tomar.
Gadisov (97 kg category) has World Championship gold (2014) and silver (2015) medal under her belt.
Kurbanaliev (70 kg category) has won a gold medal each in World Championship (2016), Golden Grand Prix (2016), Intercontinental Cup (2016), World Military Championship (2016) and European Championship (2014).
Mattsson (53 kg category) bagged the bronze medal at the Rio Olympics and the gold medal at the European Championship in 2016. Marwa Amri is the other Rio Olympics bronze medalist in the team.
And among the Indians, Sandeep Tomar (57 category), who participated in the Rio Olympics and won a gold medal at the Commonwealth Championship in 2016, will be the wrestler to look out for.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)