Talent, Adversity, Opportunity: Kajal, Nisha Raring To Go In Revamped Pro Wrestling League

How can a pre-teen Indian girl prove to her uncle, a former international wrestler, that she is serious about the sport? She can show him her moves on the mat. Kajal Dochak did just that.

“He (Krishan Malik, younger brother of Kajal’s father Ravinder) wasn’t convinced initially. He used to say, 'I won't put you in training'”, Dochak, now 17, tells Outlook. “But I kept at it, and insisted that I want to wrestle like him, emulate him. Then he took me along one day and seeing my passion, gave me a shot, with a message: 'Let's see if you follow through on it.'”

The Sonipat girl did, indeed, and eight years later (in August 2025), became the under-20 world champion in women’s 72 kg. But that crown wasn’t enough to sate her. Asked how she would rate 2025 in terms of her performance, Kajal calls it “a good year as well as bad”.

The fact that she lost the U-17 World Championships final rankles, despite the gold in the U-20 tournament in Bulgaria. She went down against China’s Qiu Wenjin, the same wrestler who had prevailed over her in the Asian Championships.

The talented teenager rues: “I had thought after the Asiad that I would defeat her in the Worlds; I even had a 4-0 lead in the first half. I don't know what happened.”

Exposure Against Foreign Wrestlers In PWL

Kajal later alludes to a possible reason. “We (Indians) are often unable to wrestle freely in major competitions against overseas opponents, intimidated by their experience and prior medals.” And that is where the Pro Wrestling League (PWL), back after a seven-year hiatus, can change the game.

“In PWL, international wrestlers will also compete, which will give us valuable exposure against them. That will help normalize our bouts against them mentally, when we eventually face these players at global tournaments.”

She will soon get a fair chance to do that, having been snapped up by Haryana Thunders for INR 8 lakh in the auction. The fifth season of the six-franchise league starts January 15, with 63 foreign and home grapplers facing off.

Watching PWL on television in its inaugural year (2015) is what had sparked a young Kajal’s initiation to the sport. “My uncle later said, "Teri bhi aise hi karwayenge (We'll get you wrestling at that level)."

Today, Malik devotes all his time with Kajal, doubling up as her manager, while her father runs a small transport business. The prodigy considers her chacha a role model, having seen him plying his trade in her formative years and learning most of her moves from him.

Nisha Dahiya’s Resilience Amid Repeated Setbacks

While Krishan Malik has been the central figure anchoring Kajal’s career, for Olympian Nisha Dahiya, that role is essayed by Rio 2016 medallist Sakshi Malik. Nisha’s journey has been arduous to say the least, time and again derailed by injuries and other obstacles. When a doping ban in 2017 threatened a premature full stop, Sakshi backed her like nobody else did.

“For a couple of months I thought that leaving the sport is the best… My friends cut off from me and said bad things about me like don’t drink water with her or train with her,” Nisha had told Scroll back in 2019.

At that juncture, the senior wrestler trained with Dahiya and even took her along to the national camp in Lucknow, in a bid to cheer her up. The support helped Nisha overcome the ban, and bounce back to eventually claim a Paris 2024 berth. Her valiant Olympic campaign ended in tears in the quarter-finals, however, leaving her painfully short of a medal.

Having already suffered multiple injuries and undergone a knee operation early in her career, Nisha had a nose fracture from Paris to contend with. The battle-hardened athlete got that operated upon too and focused on rehabilitation, rather than regret. She has since emerged as the 68kg national champion (2025), and now been acquired by UP Dominators for 12 lakh in the ‘A’ category for PWL.

“It is my first PWL experience; I am happy that I got the opportunity in the revamped league. Seniors like Sakshi and Vinesh (Phogat) got the chance to make their mark here, and we are also getting it now,” Nisha says.

How does she wrestle uninhibitedly at the top level after all the toll her body has taken? The answer lies in strength training. “Having had a knee operation, I need to be very careful while practising. I need to do separate strength training for the knee to build enough power that helps reduce chances of another injury there. I do this 3-4 times a week, apart from the regular practice,” the 27-year-old explains.

Shared Experiences, Special Goals

Amid all the adversities, both Kajal and Nisha have been fortunate to receive unconditional support from their families. Kajal’s parents have championed her “right from the start”, while Nisha draws strength from her elder brother and mother; her father, who was a big backer too, passed away in 2024.

As for the rest of society, the adage “success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan” holds true for the duo. The wrestlers narrate similar experiences of facing gender-based resistance from people around them, before the laurels changed it all.

“Now everyone is supporting, but in the beginning, when there was nothing, none of them were standing by me.

“First they told my parents, 'This will not yield to anything. Better keep her limited to studies. Wrestling is a boys' game, not for girls.’ But now that medals are trickling in, they are saying, ‘Bahut badi banegi. Olympics mein medal aayega (She'll make it big, bag an Olympic medal too)’,” Kajal says matter-of-factly.

Nisha avers: “When I started, no girl around me used to wrestle. ‘It's a boys' game’, they said. As I started winning, those same people began to encourage me.”

Shouldn't sportspersons be respected for their humanity, not just their success? “Everyone has their own thinking, their own perspective," Nisha philosophically responds.

What is undeniable though is a greater respect for women’s choices in both players’ villages. “They are even bringing younger girls to the mat in my village, motivating them to train and shine like us. There's a lot of respect now,” Nisha says with pride.

Future competitions motivate the wrestlers to amplify this pride. For 2026, Kajal and Nisha have their sights set on the Asian Games and the Senior World Championships after PWL. Meanwhile, Los Angeles 2028 remains Kajal’s long-term goal, for which she has already made the switch to the 76kg Olympic weight class.

Ambitious, unforgiving quests like these often need hobbies and non-sport pursuits along the way to avoid burnout. Kajal has adopted a dog in Sonipat, and enjoys spending time with it. But for Nisha, a single-minded devotion is what works best. “My whole life revolves around wrestling. It is all I like to do.”