Fact Check: Viral video showing woman wrestler challenging the audience makes a FALSE claim and is not recent
A video shows a woman wrestler challenging the audience to fight her. One among the audience wearing a salwar kameez enters the ring and defeats her.
women wrestlers
A video shows a woman wrestler challenging the audience to fight her. One among the audience wearing a salwar kameez enters the ring and defeats her. The video is viral with the claim that the fighter in the ring is a Pakistani wrestler and has asked persons from India to wrestle and defeat her. Then a lady from Tamil Nadu takes up the gauntlet and defeats her.
The claim in Telugu goes as “*దుబాయ్‌లో జరిగిన మహిళల రెజ్లింగ్ ఛాంపియన్‌షిప్ ఫైనల్లో పాకిస్థాన్ మహిళా రెజ్లర్ విజేతగా నిలిచింది. భారతీయ మహిళలను ఎగతాళి చేస్తూ, తనతో పోటీగా భారతీయ మహిళ ఎవరైనా వస్తారా అని వేదికపైకి సవాల్ విసిరారు. తమిళనాడుకు చెందిన కవితా విజయలక్ష్మి* అనే భారతీయ యువతి అకస్మాత్తుగా తాను సిద్ధంగా ఉన్నానని చేతులెత్తేసింది. చాముండ రూపాన్ని ధరించి, కుంకుమ ధరించి వేదికపై కనిపించిన ఆమె, ఆ తర్వాత పాకిస్థానీ రెజ్లర్‌ను రెండుసార్లు ఓడించి విజయం సాధించింది. చూసి ఆనందించండి. మన దేశాన్ని అవమానించే వారందరి గతి ఇదే అవుతుంది. *”
When translated, it claims that “A Pakistani female wrestler emerged victorious in the final of the Women's Wrestling Championship held in Dubai. Making fun of Indian women, she threw down the gauntlet to the audience, mainly women from India. Kavita Vijayalakshmi, a young woman from Tamil Nadu, suddenly raised her hand and expressed readiness. Dressed as Chamunda and appearing on stage wearing saffron, she then defeated the Pakistani wrestler twice to win. Watch and enjoy. This will be the fate of all those who insult our country.”
This claim is viral on YouTube and Facebook.
Fact Check:
The claim is False. Both the women are Indians and the video shows an old event from the year 2016.
When observed carefully, we could see g8cwe.com on the banners seen in the video. However we could not find any website with that URL. When we searched for CWE, we found a website named khaliCWE.com which explains that that CWE is Continental Wrestling Entertainment (CWE), India’s 1st professional wrestling promotion and training academy, which is founded and owned by Indian-American professional wrestler Dalip Singh aka The Great Khali. CWE was founded by Former WWE World Heavyweight Champion The Great Khali on January 20, 2015.
When searched the YouTube channel of CWE India, we found several videos related to wrestling. The viral video was posted by the channel on June 13, 2016, with the title Kavita accepted the open challenge of BB Bull Bull.
Taking this cue, when we searched using the keywords “Kavita + BB Bull Bull”, we found an article published in DNA India.com, titled Watch: India's first professional woman wrestler, BB Bull Bull knocked down by former MMA champion Kavita. BB Bull Bull, who is the first professional woman wrestler from India, was knocked down by former Haryana police officer, power-lifting and MMA champion Kavita during a duel at the hub of Continental Wrestling Entertainment (CWE) in Jalandhar (Punjab).
Bull Bull was seen challenging the crowd, who gathered at the arena, to fight her and it is then that Kavita accepted the challenge and stepped into the ring. Bull Bull started proceeding by slapping down Kavita but then the former police officer knocked down the experienced wrestler twice to set the stage on fire.
Wrestler Kavita is from Haryana and not Tamil Nadu as claimed in the viral post. Here is her Instagram account.
The viral video was also shared by Telugu TV chancel ABN on Dailymotion 7 years ago i.e., in 2016 with the title Watch India's first professional woman wrestler, BB Bull Bull knocked down by former MMA champion Kavita.
The claim was viral in English a few years back and was debunked by fact-check organizations over the years.
Hence, the video shows a wrestling event that took place in 2016. It shows two Indian women wrestlers competing with each other but not Pakistani and Indian wrestlers. The video is not recent.