Pro Panja League

Last updated
Pro Panja League
Most recent season or competition:
2023 Pro Panja League
Pro Panja League.svg
Sport Arm wrestling
Founded2020
First season2023
MottoAapki Kismat, Aapke Haath (Your Fate, Your Hands) Bharat Ka Khel (India's Game)
No. of teams6
Country India
Venue(s) Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium, New Delhi, India
TV partner(s)Sony Sports Network
Streaming partner(s)Fancode
Official website https://propanja.com/

The Pro Panja League (PPL) [1] is a professional Indian arm wrestling league which had its first season start on 28 July 2023 and end on 13 August 2023. There are separate competition categories for men, women, and specially abled (disabled) players, [2] and the tournament took place at Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium in New Delhi. [3]

Contents

History

The name of the tournament is based on "Panja", a word used in the Indian subcontinent to refer to arm wrestling. [4]

Starting in 2020, there were some exhibition events, tournaments, and matches held, [5] which acquired about 275 million views on social media. [6] Before the first season, there was a ranking tournament held at Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, [2] with the top 18 arm wrestlers in each of the 10 weight categories qualifying for the first season. [6] The first season was won by the Kochi KDs. [7]

Rules

League format

Each team plays each other twice during the round-robin stage, and then the top four teams (based on total points scored) enter the playoffs, which consist of two semi-finals (1st vs 4th, and 2nd vs 3rd) and then a final.

Gameplay

Two players in the same weight category compete to overpower each other and score points over several rounds of a "bout". In an "under card"/"prelim" bout, three rounds are contested, while in a "main card" bout, five rounds are contested. Three under card bouts and three main card bouts take place within a single match between two teams, with each bout featuring a different pair of opponents from the two teams; at the end of the game, the team whose players scored more points wins the match. In an under card bout, the player who wins two out of three rounds earns one point, while the loser gains nothing; in a main card bout, each player earns one point for every round they win. [8] In the final, five main card bouts are contested. [9]

At the start of each round, the players offer each other one of their hands while keeping their elbows on a specially designed table, with a strap being bound around the two players' offered hands if necessary to avoid hand slippage. The players then attempt to force their opponent's hand to hit designated "touch pads" on the table underneath their hands to win the round. There are various rule violations which competitors can perform which can also result in penalties against them. [10] Two bonus points are gained in main card bouts if a player wins the bout without their opponent scoring a point (i.e. a 3-0 victory earns 5 points). [8] Bouts must be completed within 30 minutes. An additional "challenge round" can be called for in main card bouts, in which the player calling for the challenge round can win five bonus points for their team if they beat their opponent within 10 seconds; however, if the player calling for the challenge round fails to win within 10 seconds, then their opponent earns the five bonus points, and the player who called for the challenge round earns either zero points or one point depending on whether they won the round. [11] [8] [9]

Teams

India location map 3.png
Orange pog.svg
Mumbai Muscle
Pink pog.svg
Kochi KD's
Yellow pog.svg
Kiraak Hyderabad
Red pog.svg
Baroda Badshahs
Brown pog.svg
Rohtak Rowdies
Blue pog.svg
Ludhiana Lions
class=notpageimage|
Locations of the PPL teams

Six teams compete in the league, which are Kiraak Hyderabad, Mumbai Muscle, Rohtak Rowdies, Ludhiana Lions, Baroda Badshahs, and Kochi KD's. 180 players in ten different weight categories were drafted for the first season, [12] with six weight categories reserved for men, three for women, and one for physically challenged participants. [13]

The winning team will win ₹2 million (US$25,000), while the runner-up team will win ₹500,000 (US$6,300), with equal money distributed in all competition categories (men, women, and specially abled). [14]

Broadcasters

PPL will be broadcast on Sony Sports Network. [3] In the United States, it will be broadcast on Willow TV. [15]

See also

Related Research Articles

A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses:

  1. One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentrated into a relatively short time interval.
  2. A competition involving a number of matches, each involving a subset of the competitors, with the overall tournament winner determined based on the combined results of these individual matches. These are common in those sports and games where each match must involve a small number of competitors: often precisely two, as in most team sports, racket sports and combat sports, many card games and board games, and many forms of competitive debating. Such tournaments allow large numbers to compete against each other in spite of the restriction on numbers in a single match.
<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pride Fighting Championships</span> Japanese mixed martial arts promotion

PRIDE Fighting Championships was a Japanese mixed martial arts promotion company. Its inaugural event was held at the Tokyo Dome on October 11, 1997. Pride held more than sixty mixed martial arts events, broadcast to about 40 countries worldwide. PRIDE was owned by the holding company Dream Stage Entertainment (DSE).

A Swiss-system tournament is a non-eliminating tournament format that features a fixed number of rounds of competition, but considerably fewer than for a round-robin tournament; thus each competitor does not play all the other competitors. Competitors meet one-on-one in each round and are paired using a set of rules designed to ensure that each competitor plays opponents with a similar running score, but does not play the same opponent more than once. The winner is the competitor with the highest aggregate points earned in all rounds. With an even number of participants, all competitors play in each round.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kazushi Sakuraba</span> Japanese professional wrestler and mixed martial arts fighter

Kazushi Sakuraba is a Japanese professional wrestler, submission wrestler and former mixed martial artist, currently signed to Pro Wrestling Noah, where he was formerly one-half of the former GHC Tag Team Champions with Takashi Sugiura. He has also competed in traditional puroresu for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) and shoot-style competition for UWFi and Kingdom Pro Wrestling (KPW). He has fought in MMA competition in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, Pride Fighting Championships, Hero's, Dream and most recently Rizin Fighting Federation. He is known as the Gracie Hunter or the Gracie Killer due to his wins over four members of the famed Gracie family: Royler Gracie, Renzo Gracie, Ryan Gracie, and Royce Gracie. Sakuraba is famous for beating 15 champions of different top MMA organizations; opponents who were often many weight-classes above him.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scholastic wrestling</span> US high school wrestling

Scholastic wrestling, commonly referred to as folkstyle wrestling or wrestling, is a style of amateur wrestling practiced at the high school and middle school levels in the United States. It has often been referred to as the "toughest sport in the world" because of the extensive physical conditioning, mental preparation, complexity, and intense nature of its one-on-one competition that requires physical power, speed, quick mental processing and reaction, and enormous preparation.

<i>Stump the Schwab</i> American sports trivia game show

Stump the Schwab is an American game show that aired on ESPN2 and ESPN Classic from July 8, 2004 to September 29, 2006. The show featured three contestants trying to defeat Howie Schwab, ESPN's first statistician, in a sports trivia contest. Stuart Scott was the show's host. The show also appeared on Canada's The Score Television Network.

A wild card is a tournament or playoff berth awarded to an individual or team that fails to qualify in the normal way; for example, by having a high ranking or winning a qualifying stage. In some events, wildcards are chosen freely by the organizers. Other events have fixed rules. Some North American professional sports leagues compare the records of teams which did not qualify directly by winning a division or conference.

The season structure of the National Hockey League (NHL) is divided into the pre-season, regular season, and the Stanley Cup playoffs. In the pre-season, which is generally held during the last two weeks of September, each team plays several not-for-the-record exhibition games. In the regular season, which generally runs from early October through early April, teams play 82 games which determine their standings. The three highest-placed teams in each division and two wild card teams per conference enter the playoff elimination tournament to determine the Stanley Cup champion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saudi Pro League</span> Top division association football league in Saudi Arabia

The Saudi Pro League (SPL), known as Roshn Saudi League (RSL) for sponsorship reasons, is the highest division of association football in the Saudi league system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shinya Aoki</span> Japanese professional wrestler and mixed martial arts fighter

Shinya Aoki is a Japanese mixed martial artist, professional wrestler and grappler currently competing in ONE Championship's Welterweight division. He also competes in DDT Pro-Wrestling where he is a former three-time DDT Extreme Champion. A professional competitor since 2003, he is noted for being the DREAM Lightweight Champion, former two time ONE Lightweight World Champion, former WAMMA Lightweight Champion and former Shooto Welterweight Champion. Aoki is an A-class Shootist and BJJ black belt, both under his long-term mentor Yuki Nakai, as well as a black belt Judoka. As of 2008, Aoki, along with DEEP champion Masakazu Imanari, and Sengoku champion Satoru Kitaoka have founded the "Nippon Top Team" as a group of elite Japanese grapplers competing in MMA. As well as his MMA credentials, Aoki has garnered several submission grappling accolades including two All Japan Jiu-Jitsu Championships, a Japan Open Jiu-Jitsu Championship, a Budo Open Championship, and an ADCC Japan Championship.

The MLS Cup Playoffs is the annual postseason elimination tournament of Major League Soccer. The MLS Cup, the league's championship game, is the final match of the tournament. Under the current format adopted for the 2023 season, 18 teams qualify for the tournament based on regular-season point totals — the nine highest-placed teams from each the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference. Audi is the title sponsor of this tournament.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2008 TNA World X Cup Tournament</span>

The 2008 TNA World X Cup Tournament was a professional wrestling X Cup Tournament produced by the Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) promotion. It was the third World X Cup Tournament and the last held as of 2024. The competition began on June 10, 2008 and concluded on July 13, 2008 at TNA's Victory Road pay-per-view (PPV) event.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victory Road (2008)</span> 2008 Total Nonstop Action Wrestling pay-per-view event

The 2008 Victory Road was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) promotion that took place on July 13, 2008 at the Reliant Arena in Houston, Texas. It was the fourth event under the Victory Road name and the seventh event in the 2008 TNA PPV schedule. Eight professional wrestling matches were featured on the event's card, three of which were for championships.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yogeshwar Dutt</span> Indian wrestler (born 1982)

Yogeshwar Dutt is an Indian freestyle wrestler. At the 2012 Summer Olympics, he won the bronze medal in the 60 kg category. He was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India in 2013. He won gold medals at the 2010 and the 2014 Commonwealth Games. He is one of only 5 male wrestlers in India to win an Olympic medal.

The 2011 Indian Premier League season, abbreviated as IPL 4 or the IPL 2011, was the fourth season of the Indian Premier League, the top Twenty20 cricket league in India. The tournament was hosted in India and the opening and closing ceremonies were held in M. A. Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai, the home venue of the reigning champions Chennai Super Kings. The season ran from 8 April to 28 May 2011. This season the number of teams in the league went from eight to ten with the additions of the Pune Warriors India and the Kochi Tuskers Kerala.

<i>WWE SuperCard</i> 2014 video game

WWE SuperCard is a 2014 digital collectible card game featuring WWE Superstars for iOS and Android, and a mobile installment in the WWE video game series, under the WWE 2K banner, developed by Cat Daddy Games and published by 2K.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Er Enish</span>

Er Enish, or Oodarysh, is a traditional Kyrgyz equestrian sport. It is a form of wrestling from horseback.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pro Wrestling League</span> Professional wrestling league in India

The Pro Wrestling League (PWL) is an Indian sport wrestling promotion that was first established in 2015. It was initiated by ProSportify and Wrestling Federation of India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prime Volleyball League</span> Indian volleyball league

Prime Volleyball League (PVL), also known as RuPay Prime Volleyball League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional men's indoor volleyball league in India. The inaugural season took place in February 2022. The league is an initiative of Baseline Ventures with no involvement from Volleyball Federation of India and a rechristened version of the Pro Volleyball League which was held in February 2019. Sony Pictures Networks India is the official broadcaster of the league. RuPay is the title sponsor of the league and signed the contract for three years.

The 2023 Pro Panja League (PPL) was the inaugural season of the tournament. The Kochi KD's won the season by defeating Kiraak Hyderabad 30–28 in the final. 32 million people watched the season on TV.

References

  1. ↑ Rock, Jay (2020-06-22). "Pro Panja League: Fastest growing Arm Wrestling tournament in the World". Sports India Show. Retrieved 2023-07-24.
  2. 1 2 "Pro Panja League to debut on July 28". Hindustan Times. 2023-04-25. Retrieved 2023-07-24.
  3. 1 2 Webdunia. "Preeti Jhangiani announces IGI Stadium as venue for inaugural edition of 'Pro Panja League'". Webdunia. Retrieved 2023-07-25.
  4. ↑ Vijaykumar, Ajit (2023-07-21). "Arm-ageddon: The Sharjah accountant taking UAE arm wrestling forward". The National. Retrieved 2023-07-25.
  5. ↑ "From Handball To Panja, Why Sports Leagues Are Taking Off In India". Forbes India. Retrieved 2023-07-24.
  6. 1 2 M, Hari Kishore (2022-05-10). "Pro Panja League: Asia's biggest arm-wrestling league to commence ranking tournament in Gwalior on July 22". www.sportskeeda.com. Retrieved 2023-07-24.
  7. ↑ "Kochi shines in the final, defeating Hyderabad to win the opening season of Pro Panja League". morningexpress.in. 2023-08-13. Retrieved 2023-08-13.
  8. 1 2 3 Pro Panja League season 1 kicks off with bang; Ludhiana Lions, Mumbai Muscle register wins https://www.aninews.in/
  9. 1 2 "Pro Panja League 2023 - Apps on Google Play". play.google.com. Retrieved 2023-07-29.
  10. ↑ Raja, Vidya (2020-11-05). "Anyone Can Arm Wrestle to Win Rs 15000 at This Inclusive Pro-Panja League". The Better India. Retrieved 2023-07-24.
  11. ↑ "Pro Panja League to kick-off in Delhi". A2zoftrends. 2023-06-06. Retrieved 2023-07-24.
  12. ↑ Desk, The Bridge (2023-07-11). "Pro Panja League drafts 180 arm wrestlers for inaugural season". thebridge.in. Retrieved 2023-07-24.
  13. ↑ SportzConnect (2023-07-06). "Pro Panja League organizes thrilling exhibition arm wrestling match in Mumbai". www.sportskeeda.com. Retrieved 2023-07-24.
  14. ↑ "Pro Panja League announces Rs 20 lakh as prize money for winning team of inaugural season". Sports Digest. 2023-07-24. Retrieved 2023-07-24.
  15. ↑ Mahadik, Gauresh (2023-07-18). "Pro Panja League to expand fan base in US following broadcast renewal with Willow TV". SportsMint Media. Retrieved 2023-07-24.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.