If you grew up in urban India in the '80s, '90s and early '00s, there's a fair chance that you've participated in the near-mythic eras of entertainment wrestling. Night after night, names like Bret Hart and The Undertaker graced our television screens, inspiring mock matches between siblings in bedrooms and schoolmates in classrooms, all the while, capturing the imagination of millions.
Mihir Joshi is one such late '80s kid for whom the edgy antics of the then-WWF's 'Attitude Era' meant love at first sight. The musician and presenter continued exploring his lifelong fandom through twenty years in the entertainment industry, nine of which have had an official connection with the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) franchise. Flaunting what might be the greatest collection of related merch owned by an Indian, he now serves as the official WWE India commentator, covering key storylines and developments from the front row of the country's massive fanbase.
On the first weekend of April, the WWE hosted Wrestlemania 39, a marquee event that serves as the cornerstone of modern sports entertainment. Last year's edition pulled in a whopping 1.1 billion digital views, with Joshi claiming that 60 million of them came from India alone.
Despite our enthusiasm for the event, this was definitely not the kind of wrestling we grew up with that one is mired with a long, dark chapter, before it became the example of diversity, inclusion and athletic talent that it is today.
Dirty Business
"The product has changed significantly now. One reason is, of course, the fact that WWE became a publicly traded company," says Joshi, referring to the company's 1999 stock listings. Prior to the 2000s, things were seriously over the top, and set the stage for problematic programming for the next decade.
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