Geeta, Babita and other wrestlers gear up for the real dangal in Pro Wrestling League 2

The reel life ‘Dangal’ has helped Babita and Geeta Phogat in getting the much-needed recognition that they and many other wrestlers like them deserve. While the life on reel has been a smooth journey, it is time for them to return to the mat. The second edition of the Pro Wrestling League commences today and will go on till January 19. The six teams competing in the league are Delhi Sultans, UP Dangal, Jaipur Ninjas, NCR Punjab Royals, Mumbai Maharathi and Haryana Hammers.

The Jaipur franchise is a new entrant this year as they have replaced last year’s semifinalists Bengaluru Yodhas. The tournament will have 15 matches in the league stages which will be followed by semifinals on January 17th and 18th, with the finals on 19th. All the matches will be contested in Delhi’s KD Jadhav Wrestling Indoor Stadium and the winning team will take home a prize money of Rs 15 crore.

54 wrestlers from India, Canada, Cuba, Belarus, Tunisia, Russia, Georgia, Colombia, Sweden, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Mongolia, Nigeria, Venezuela and Azerbaijan will be seen competing in freestyle wrestling in nine categories. The five men’s categories are 57kg, 65kg, 70kg, 74kg and 97kg. The four women’s categories are 48kg, 53kg, 58kg and 75kg. The opening encounter will be played by last year’s finalists Mumbai Maharathi and Haryana Hammers. Here are the full squads.

Mumbai Maharathi: Carolina Castillo Hidalgo, Erica Wiebe, Jabrayil Hasanov, Lalita Sehrawat, Pritam, Rahul Aware, Reineris Salas Perez, Sarita and Vikas.

Haryana Hammers: Abdusalam Gadisov. Indu Chaudhary, Kiran, Magomed Kurbanaliev, Marwa Amri, Rajneesh, Sandeep Tomar, Sofia Mattsson and Sumit Sehrawat.

Delhi Sultans: Alina Stadnyk, Bajrang Punia, Bekzod Abdurakhmonov, Erdenebat Bekhbayar, Mariya Stadnik, Parveen Rana, Sakshi Malik, Sangeeta Phogat and Satyavart Kadian.

Jaipur Ninjas: Betzabeth Arguello, Elizbar Odikadze, Jakob Makarashvili, Jenny Fransson, Pooja Dhanda, Rahul Mann, Ritu Phogat, Utkarsh Kale and Vinod Kumar Omprakash.

NCR Punjab Royals: Jitendra, Krishan Kumar, Manju Kumari, Nirmala Devi, Odunayo Folasade Adekuoroye, Pankaj Rana, Togrul Asgarov, Vasilisa Marzaliuk and Vladimir Khinchegashvili.

UP Dangal: Amit Dhankar, Amit Kumar Dhaiya, Andrey Kviatkovski, Babita Kumari, Elitsa Yankova, Geeta Phogat, Livan Lopez Azcuy, Maria Mamashuk and Mausam Khatri.