Big biceps, hard training, stunts, unusual objects and a ring are the ingredients of the experience of Freak Fighters Wrestling, a team of wrestlers who train in Bawana, Delhi. The aim of the group is to create a wrestling circuit similar to WWE, the well-known American wrestling company.
“It is fusion wrestling in which every kind of wrestler can participate. What we thought is that we should have this kind of model in India,” says Manish Kumar, their 25-year-old trainer.
Many people think that this kind of wrestling, unlike martial arts, is fake and the wrestlers are only acting, but while the matches are script-based, the stunts are real. “Imagine falling down from a ladder that is two meters high. Even if you know that you have to fall, a fall from two metres is a pretty real thing,” Manish added.
Most of the wrestlers come from economically disadvantaged families and used to live in poor neighbourhoods across different Indian States. Explaining how he found them, Manish says, “I used to go on the streets, from people to people, asking if they knew particularly strong guys. Then I used to travel to the places where I could find them and struggle to convince them to join me.”
According to the wrestlers, if one is living in a slum and has particular physical gifts such as an unusual height or an unusual strength, it is common for local criminals to try to hire them as hit men or body guards and, since they have no good job opportunities, they are forced to accept. “We are trying to give people who have passion and strength but not the money, an opportunity, making them understand that through this experience they can drive their energy in the right field,” told Manish. It is not always easy to take away these guys from the path of the easy money, but once done they become extremely disciplined athletes, completely dedicating themselves to the sport. Yeti, who is more than two meters high and Big Bully, who weighs 150 Kg and claims to have the largest biceps in Asia, says that since many of them come from similar situations, they have also become a group of friends.
There is, indeed, also some tenderness behind all those muscles.
