2016 video of a fight between two Indian woman wrestlers goes viral with misleading claims

The video features Kavitha, a former Haryana police officer who is also a powerlifting and mixed martial arts champion, fighting Bul Bul, India's first professional female wrestler.

A wrestling video between a professional wrestler and a woman wearing saffron salwar kameez is going viral on social media. In the video, the professional wrestler is seen throwing an open challenge, within seconds a woman from the crowd clad in salwar kameez enters the wrestling ring and knocks down the trained wrestler. The users who share the video claim that the trained wrestler is from Pakistan and the woman in salwar kameez who accepts the challenge is Kavitha Vijayalakshmi from Tamil Nadu. It was from a women's wrestling championship held in Dubai.

Let’s check the truth.

दुबई में आयोजित महिला कुश्ती चैम्पियनशिप का फाइनल एक पाकिस्तानी महिला पहलवान ने जीता। उन्होंने इस कुश्ती प्रतियोगिता को देख रही भारतीय महिलाओं का मज़ाक उड़ाया और किसी भी भारतीय महिला को मंच पर आकर उनसे मुकाबला करने की चुनौती दी। अचानक तमिलनाडु की कविता विजयलक्ष्मी नाम की एक… pic.twitter.com/zuPuMcYyHk

— Vikash Mohta (@VikashMohta_IND) August 26, 2024

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Fact Check-

We started our investigation by conducting a relevant keyword search, and as a result, we found a report published on IndiaTV on 17 June, 2016. As per the report, the viral video is from 2016 of Continental Wrestling Entertainment (CWE), a professional wrestling promotion and training school launched by Indian WWE champion The Great Khali in Jalandhar in Punjab.

CWE held at The Great Khali Training School at Jalandhar, Bibi Bulbul, the disciple of The Great Khali, openly challenged the audience to wrestle with her, a woman named Kavita accepted the challenge and went into the ring to knock out Bibi Bulbul. Kavita is a former police officer of Haryana. In addition, Kavita has also been a mixed martial arts champion.

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In further search, we also found a report of Indian Express published on the same date. It also states that the video is from the same event organized by CWE. According to the report, “The woman, who’s a former Haryana police officer and power-lifting and mixed martial arts champion Kavita, is seen knocking down the woman wrestler, BB Bull Bull, within minutes as the crowd cheers on”.

Moving forward, we found the same video was uploaded on CWE 's official YouTube channel on 13 June, 2016.

Next, we searched for the details of the professional wrestler and found a video on Facebook page of PTC Punjabi with Caption “watch inspiring story of BB Bulbul (Sarabjit Kaur), India’s first female pro-wrestler.

Taking account of all these evidences, it is clear that the viral video is not recent and not from Dubai. The professional wrestler standing inside the ring is Bibi Bulbul, India’s first female pro-wrestler and the woman in front of her is Kavita, a former Haryana police officer.

Conclusion-

Fact Crescendo found that the claim made along with the post to be Misleading. The video features Kavitha, a former Haryana police officer who is also a powerlifting and mixed martial arts champion, fighting Bul Bul, India's first professional female wrestler. Neither of these women is connected to Pakistan.