India’s Wrestle Square Has A Secret Weapon For NXT
Contrary to the common Western perception, India has a thriving, authentic wrestling culture.
WWE is coming to India. If you buy the hype, it’s Australia in the ‘60s – a virgin territory where there’s a fortune to be made on credulous newer fans and no competition for a thousand miles in any direction, where they’ll turn local circus performers and strongmen into larger-than-life superstars and introduce a country of nearly a billion people to the spectacle of professional wrestling.
The only problem? “Wrestling has been here in India since the age of kings and maharajas, since the time of the Taj Mahal and the Mahabharata,” explains Abhishek Aneja, commentator and on-camera GM for Wrestle Square, the country’s largest independent wrestling promotion.
Contrary to the common Western perception, India has a thriving, authentic wrestling culture. “Here, we know wrestling as either mat wrestling/amateur wrestling, mud wrestling, which is very famous and known as Akhara (which is mostly based in the state of Punjab), and then, of course, there is pro wrestling,” Abhishek explains.
The wrestling tradition in the Punjab has produced stars like The Great Gama (who was a key rival of Stanislaus Zbyszko and in 1910 wrested him to a near three-hour draw in a shoot), Dara Singh (who was a favorite opponent of Lou Thesz and a cult movie star in his home country several years before Mil Mascaras broke out in Mexico), and Tiger Jeet Singh (who was a major antagonist of Antonio Inoki in the mid-70s). With names like that, it’s clear that the State of Punjab deserves a place on the list of great wrestling training centers like Calgary, Minneapolis or Wigan.
In the modern era, however, professional wrestling stagnated in India while it was exploding elsewhere. Due to poor distribution throughout the ‘90s (hampered in no small part by the coarse content of the time and the perception that wrestling was fraudulent), only a small number of ultra-hardcore Indian wrestling fans experienced the Monday Night Wars and Ruthless Aggression eras in real time.
“Here in India, we’ve seen Ring of Honor, New Japan Pro Wrestling, ECW and even WCW in the ‘90s, but nobody’s ever gotten a strong grip in terms of smooth distribution – that’s the main factor to build an audience.”
One of those fans was named Vinayak Sodhi. “He resides in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, which is the home base of Wrestle Square,” Abhishek explains. “He grew up in a small family. Like us, of course, he was watching pro wrestling growing up and his dream was to be a wrestler, but there were no wrestling schools here in India, so it basically crushed his dreams and those of many teenagers – male and female – who wanted to be professional wrestlers in the 2000s.”
While Sodhi was struggling to find training in India, American promoters got very interested in the potential of the country as a marketplace. WWE toured the major cities in 2002 and signed The Great Khali (a native of the State of Punjab) in 2006 with an eye toward expanding its footprint in India. Then, Vince McMahon’s company signed a major TV deal that began in 2007 and instantly gave the WWE the biggest wrestling penetration in Indian history. Jeff Jarrett partnered with Jeremy Borash and a Dutch production company to create a single season of Ring Ka King in 2011. They used some home-grown Indian talent but mostly featured TNA regulars like Scott Steiner and Magnus. (Chris Adonis, who was introduced to India during that era, is still a major star in the country.)
Knowing India was an incredible potential market for wrestling and wanting to establish an authentically Indian promotion rather than leaving his home country to outside established promoters, Vinayak Sodhi realized he had a new dream: to promote. Once he made that decision, Sodhi began studying wrestling from every conceivable angle, developing his company concept and setting up pieces on the board between 2013 and 2015.
Abhishek explains, “He researched professional wrestling and how things work – basically, he was trying to learn the mindset to help him build a wrestling promotion. Then, in the year 2015, Wrestle Square came about. In the same year, Wrestle Square held a show in Jaipur, Rajasthan. The tickets were free, and we drew 300 people. That was the first show. They started doing pop-up shows, but we also did an indoor show, which had an attendance of about 4,000 people – that was one of the biggest shows we’ve had. After five years of time, today Wrestle Square is the only Indian-made independent wrestling promotion with no affiliation to famous wrestlers or companies. Everything is learned and made on Indian soil – including our two rings.”
Asked to describe the personality and in-ring style Wrestle Square had developed over the last five years, Abhishek says, “Initially, it was very old school, with hardcore matches, and the wrestlers were mostly from either amateur or mud wrestling background and had only seen pro wrestling on TV. The mindset of the promoter is such that he focuses more on the old school wrestling, and he is not a very big fan of the modern style, which is more about acrobatics and less about storytelling. Right now, we have all the styles — you can see the Japanese style or the American style, Indian Strong Style (which comes from the mud wrestling); everything is transitioning into one style, and that’s what’s being shown on Wrestle Square.”
Although Wrestle Square has only been operating for five years, old school values rule the day there. Abhishek isn’t shy when describing what differentiates their organization from the local competition.
“The primary aim of the promotion is to develop skilled wrestlers and original personas/characters. We do not need imitations of wrestlers or characters from other promotions – even the big promotions, so to speak, like WWE and AEW. Many of the other promotions here in India, we see people doing Roman’s finisher and Cena’s finisher – that is a big no-no here. The focus is on creating your own and working on your skill base.
“Other companies here in India – it is a practice in the world to bash your competition, but I’m just saying how it is – we see other independent promotions here in India doing shit to try and go viral so they can monetize it. That damages the image of professional wrestling, and I do not know what the others think or what my promoter thinks, but me – personally – it hurts my brain. I am not of the opinion that you should do viral shit that brings down the image of professional wrestling and stokes fuel to the fire that it’s ‘fake’ or it’s ‘scripted’ – it is not. It is basically very real at many times.
Here at Wrestle Square, it is authentic professional wrestling at the international level. We are not here doing random shit for the sake of getting laughter out of people. We have to get professional wrestling developed here.”
That commitment to building a foundation for modern Indian pro wrestling from the inside out is what makes Wrestle Square truly unique. Obliquely referencing the impending arrival of NXT, Abhishek says, “The perception is that we should be gunning for a better job in a better place in the big leagues. I ask myself: Why should I try to go to AEW, going to WWE or New Japan Pro Wrestling when there is a market here that is untapped? If the finances come about, why couldn’t you make a promotion here that’s just as big as the promotions in the other countries? You should strive to do that!”
Their team knows that the next step in that journey is getting back on regular television, although they still deliver new original content weekly as part of their Explosion show on YouTube.
“We had one season of Dangal Ke Soorma on Discovery Sports, but the fact is, there was a change of management, so the second season didn’t manifest,” Abhishek explains, “but Season 2 of a TV show, that’s the main goal that we have that should be happening very, very soon. Another goal of ours is to distribute Indian wrestling on international TV – that could be via streaming services like FITE or a television deal. Who knows what will come about in the future? India is right now one of the top markets, both in terms of content producing and content consumption – we’re joining the ranks of the U.S., Mexico and Japan.”
Like all wrestling companies, Wrestle Square’s ability to grow is closely connected to its talent. They believe they have several future international superstars on their hands.
“Right now, I’d like to say that the person who’s ready for the big leagues is named Baliyan Akki. Baliyan Akki is right now in Japan, working with the promotion Gatoh Move ChocoPro, and he is under the learning tree of AEW superstar and Joshi legend Emi Sakura. He is learning there, and he is also transitioning toward partner promotions there in Japan. MichiPro, he just made his first appearance there today, and he has made an appearance once or twice in the past year in All Japan Pro Wrestling. He is a fully developed product of Wrestle Square, and he was one of the founding stones of Wrestle Square who made this promotion famous, and he has been one of the cornerstones and a mentor to many of our students.
One of the other wrestlers I’d like to name is the current reigning, defending Intercontinental Champion, and that is the Limit Breaker Skyler. He is very technically skilled, and he is one of the best right now here is India. Others: Neal the Hector, who is one half of the reigning, defending Wrestle Square Tag Team Champions and his partner, of course, Major X, they are indeed very talented – one is the powerhouse and one is the mastermind, so to speak.
Another one is Dr. Smash, who fought with Baliyan Akki – they have fought throughout India, even on television – and they have a rivalry that goes beyond levels. Lastly, I’d like to mention Shane the Insane, who also answered the MasterLock challenge on Dangal Ke Soorma; he is one of the best we have here. He is also billed as a powerhouse, and he is a tag team specialist.”
Asked to mention a few other promising wrestlers in Wrestle Square’s pipeline, Abhishek called out Amit “The Assassin,” who recently used COVID quarantine as an opportunity to bulk up and change his look and Mona, a female wrestler who currently works primarily with men.
“You can say she is still in transition and training to be a better wrestler every day. Other women wrestlers are in training, and we’ll be seeing many more women wrestlers very soon in the near future.”
With a core cast in place, five years of planning and infrastructure, and a promising talent of home-grown talent at hand, Wrestle Square is poised to lead the way in authentically Indian wrestling, even as WWE looms on the horizon.
“We cannot think about competition or say, ‘Oh no, there’s no hope! The monopoly is coming in the future,’” Abhishek says. “Right now, your goal should be making the best and producing the best. We want to produce television and distribute it internationally. That is the basic goal of Wrestle Square.”
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You can watch Wrestle Square’s show Explosion for free on their YouTube channel, which also contains highlights from their Discovery Sports show Dangal Ke Soorma and other promos and matches. You can follow them on Twitter @wrestlesquare. You can follow Abhishek Aneja on Twitter @AbbyManiac.
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