A Wrestling match between two Indian ladies, viral as an Indian spectator knocking down a Pakistani wrestler!

Rivalry between India and Pakistan is a common sight in the sporting arena. We recently noticed a recurring viral post, claiming that a Pakistani wrestler who challenged any Indian to fight with her, was defeated by an Indian lady, who was one of the spectators. However, it turned out to be misleading as both the ladies were Indians.

Let’s take a look at the claim first.

Social Media Posts

Viral video showed that an Indian woman, who was one of the spectators at a wrestling match in Dubai, had accepted a challenge and easily knocked down the Pakistani wrestler. The video post was shared with the below caption.

“A Pakistani lady boxer after winning the match in Dubai challenged with pride for any one from India to come forward to defeat her. A Spectator lady Vijaya Lakshmi from Tuthukudi in Tamil Nadu freely moved to the boxing ring with determination and accepted the roaring challenge. What happened ?? See the scene.”

Facebook

These videos were shared virally among Facebook users

Fact Check

We first tried to identify the origins of the video by carrying out a reverse image search on the video frames and noticed that the incident was not a recent one and had taken place back in 2016.

In fact, both these women were Indians and there was no connection to Pakistan wrestlers in this instance. Also, this match was not held in Dubai, but in an area called Jalandhar in the Indian state of Punjab. The organizers of the match known as Continental Wrestling Entertainment (CWE), is an organization that promotes professional wrestling and conducts matches in India.

Web | Archived

The lady wearing an orange/yellow colored salwar, who had accepted the challenge, is an Indian woman named Kavita Devi. She is known as a weightlifter and had been involved in wrestling training with CWE since February 2016. Her wrestling and professional career started with this match and then she joined the famous WWE and she made history as the first Indian woman to join WWE. You can read more about her here. Archived

The other woman seen in this video is BB Bull. She is considered to be India's first female professional wrestler. You can read details about her here. Archived.

The original video of the wrestling match held between the two female fighters in June 2016 can be watched below.

We asked the FactCrescendo India team on this viral video and they also confirmed that both these women were Indian wrestlers and the claims had also been shared previously in India with similar misleading narratives linking the incident to the rivalry between India and Pakistan.

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Conclusion

Our investigation confirmed that both the women seen in the viral are Indian professional wrestlers and this fight had taken place in Punjab, India, in 2016 and not in Dubai as claimed. Also, this matchup had nothing to do with Pakistan.