A marathon semi-final match of Naga Wrestling (Heavy Weight 80kg Plus category) between Menuosetuo Yiese and Dzieselatuo Keretsu lasted 1hr 45 min, drawing sharp criticism.
It happened during NagaWrestleMania-9 (King Of The Ring Series 2022) which is being organised by 3E Nagaland under the aegis of Nagaland Wrestling Association (NWA).
Naga Wrestling is conducted following the rules framed by Naga Wrestling Association.
Naga Wrestling matches are held in best-of-three bouts of two minutes each. When there is a deadlock in any round, the players are made to stand toe-to-toe and prevented from bending knees. In addition, the players are fouled if they do not apply tricks to attack. If both players fail to apply tricks, both are penalised. If any player is penalised with three fouls, he loses the bout/round.
In the semi-final match, both the players could not put down his opponent in each of the three rounds/bouts of two minutes each. Therefore, all the rounds went to extra-time toe-to-toe format.
Even in toe-to-toe format, an over-defensive Dzieselatuo was penalised twice in the 1st bout, twice in the 2nd bout and once in the 3rd bout; thereby being penalised five times in the entire match.
In comparison, Menuosetuo was penalised with one foul in the 2nd bout.
The marathon match in the semi-final of 1 hr 45 minutes is said to be the longest Naga Wrestling match in history.
The organisers had scheduled to complete day 2 events by 4:30pm but the second day could be completed only at 5:45pm.
The marathon match drew sharp criticism on various aspects.
Experts called on Naga Wrestling Association to review the rules in place so that such instances do not happen again, saying it is bad for the sport, for the organisers, for the players and for the viewers too.
One of the commentators minced no word in saying that it was boring to watch such a prolonged match and that it was high time for a new rule to decide matches that are in dead-lock.
One other expert, who is also multiple time Naga Wrestling Champion (Open) questioned the referee’s performance and said he could not understand why the referee was so hesitant to penalise players during toe-to-toe format.
Being a breezy and foggy day, the prolonged match stretched into the night and players were in immense stress. The experts said that the safety of the players is of utmost importance and that there are more chances of injuries when weather gets cold.
The marathon match might have taken a toll with Dzieselatuo conceding the 3rd place in the 1st bout of play-off itself; while Menuosetuo also had to concede the finals (having lost the 1st bout), due to complications on the injury he had picked up in the marathon semi-finals.
Spectators and online viewers were also left disappointed as both the finals and 3rd place play-off of the high-voltage Heavyweight Championship ended in an anti-climax.
