The Pro Wrestling League is set to return with its second season. From Sakshi Malik to Sandeep Tomar, top grapplers from India and abroad will be in action at the KD Jadhav Wrestling Stadium in New Delhi from 2 January to 19 January 2017.
54 world-class wrestlers, including Rio Olympic gold medallist Vladimir Khinchegashvili, will be taking part. However, all eyes will be on the Phogat sisters. With Mahavir Phogat’s biopic Dangal having rocked the box office recently, we can expect some extra buzz around the PWL this time round. Olympic bronze medallist Yogeshwar Dutt will be missing the league this year since it’s clashing with his wedding preparations.
In case you missed the first season of the league and want to hop on to the exciting ride this time around, here’s a quick explainer on what you can expect.
One Team, 9 Players
The franchise-based tournament has six sides - Jaipur Ninjas, Delhi Sultans, Mumbai Maharathi, UP Dangal, NCR Punjab Royals and Haryana Hammers.
Each team will have nine players – five Indians and four International players, and five men and four women.
The men will represent their teams in the 57 kg, 65 kg, 70 kg, 74 kg, 97 kg categories. The women, on the other hand, will compete in the 48 kg, 53 kg, 58 kg, 75 kg categories.
Toss System
The captains of the two teams fighting on that day will have a toss. Whichever team’s captain wins the toss gets to block two weight categories of his or her choice. Subsequently, wrestlers from the remaining seven categories fight and whichever team wins more bouts gets all the points accumulated by their players through the day.
At the end of every day’s play, one player is awarded the ‘Icon Player of the Day’.
18 Days, 18 Fixtures, 406 Bouts
All six teams get to complete five times in the playoffs. Like any other league, the top four teams with the most points will make it to the semifinals to be held from 17-18 January.
Log on to The Quint for all the coverage of this season’s Pro Wrestling League.
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