New Delhi: It’s all set for the Pro Wrestling League. Auction for world’s richest Olympic style wrestling league will be held in New Delhi on Tuesday, November 3, 2015. President of Wrestling Federation of India Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh announced the auction date here on Wednesday.
"The PWL Players' Auction will be a big landmark in the history of sport. It will give the six franchises the opportunity to bid for the best players and complete their squads," said Singh. "The player pool is so rich in talent that after the auction we will have six squads to offer highly competitive action for wrestling lovers."
About 100 top international wrestlers from 25 countries, including Olympic and World Championship stars, and over a 100 Indian wrestlers will come under the hammer. The wrestlers include more than 20 medal winners from the World Wrestling Championship held in Las Vegas last month. There are current European Games, Asian Games and Commonwealth Games champions and other international medal winners.
Indian film Industries’ rocking Deol family and GMR Group, who also won the Delhi Daredevils IPL team, are among the six PWL Franchisees.
An elated star Dharmendra said: “I’m extremely happy that Wrestling is being presented in a world class manner at a global platform, with Pro Wrestling League. I’m sure that Indian wrestling lovers will get abundant opportunities at a grass-root level.
“I’m personally very fond of Wrestling as a sport as I played it in my youth and now I embark on a new journey through Pro Wrestling League”, added Dharmendra, Owner of the CDR Punjab team.
Three-time women’s world champion Adeline Gray from the US has called the League as “historic move in International wrestling’’. Gray said that “by bringing Pro event with huge sums of money, Indian organizers have taken a bold step in popularizing wrestling at the world level’’.
Mood is upbeat in India too. Double Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar is confident that the League would be a big boost to Indian wrestling.
“It will be a great boost when the cream of world wrestling comes to India. This will be a great opportunity for our players to travel with them and learn a lot. Besides the League will keep the focus on the sport and motivate the upcoming wrestlers,’’ said the legend.
The bid for the Olympic and World Championship winners will start at the base price of US$50,000. "Each team has a player auction purse of Rs 2 crore. We are sure that all players picked will be delighted with the financial reward to play in the league," Singh added.
Each team will have a marquee player. The bid for marquee player too will start at the base price of US$ 50,000. As many as 60 players will find buyers since each of the six teams will have a 10 players, including 4 women – a maximum of 4 overseas players and 6 Indians.
The PWL is a joint venture of Wrestling Federation of India and their commercial partners – Pro Sportify Pvt Limited, who are the promoters and organizers of the league.
