The GMR Group, owners of the Delhi Daredevils IPL team, and yesteryears Bollywood superstar Dharmendra are among the owners of six Pro Wrestling League franchisees for the inaugural edition, which is likely to be held end-2015 or early next year.
The auction for world’s richest Olympic style wrestling league will be held in New Delhi on Tuesday, November 3, the president of Wrestling Federation of India, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh announced.
"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."
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.
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.
An elated owner of the CDR Punjab team, 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.”
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 10 players, including 4 women. The teams can have a maximum of 4 overseas players, and 6 Indians.