The WWE have officially announced that Kavita Devi (real name Kavita Dalal) has been selected to be a part of their 32-woman Mae Young Classic tournament. The news is one of jubilation for the Indian contingent of the WWE Universe, as this is the first time that an Indian woman has been selected to be a part of the WWE in any capacity.
The 34-year-old Kavita has made a country of 1.3 Billion people proud after she was signed by the WWE following her Dubai tryout. However, her success has not come without its own trials and tribulations.
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Kavita, who hails from a modest background, has gone through many struggles to get to where she has reached and today we’re going to take a look at some facts about her life that will help us get to know her better.
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So without further ado, let’s first begin with a few facts about Kavita that take us to the very beginnings of her life.
#1 She hails from a small village in Haryana, India
Kavita Dalal hails from a small village called Malvi (Julana) of the Jind district in the state of Haryana. The village has a population of under 6000 people according to the 2011 Indian Census and doesn't exactly have the best facilities for budding women athletes.
While this may not seem like a significant detail, Haryana is India’s second-worst state in terms of child sex ratio, with female foeticide being a major issue. For a girl to be born in a small village in the state and for her to go on to achieve everything that Kavita has, in itself, is inspirational.
Kavita grew up in the village and completed her schooling from Julana’s Girls Senior Secondary School. Kavita has stated that she grew up in a society where girls weren’t expected to study beyond 10th standard.
Kavita defied all odds, however, and would subsequently also go on to complete a B.A. degree. She credits her elder brother Sandeep Dalal for encouraging her to complete higher studies and to become a weightlifter.
#2 She is an ex-Armed Border Forces Sub Inspector
Upon her graduation, Kavita Devi decided to join the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), where she was recruited as a constable in the sports quota. The Sashastra Seema Bal is a border guarding force under the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. The name of the force literally translates to “Armed Border Forces”.
Constables and officers of the Sashastra Seema Bal are deployed on the Indo-Nepal and the Indo-Bhutan borders. The cadres of SSB are trained in various techniques of armed warfare and are given specialised training in Guerrilla warfare, counter-insurgency measures, intelligence operations, demolitions and survival in extreme weather.
Kavita was a posted constable with the SSB and retired as a Sub Inspector, which means that she has had all of this training. We hope nobody messes with this badass woman, for their own sake!
#3 She comes from a multi-athletic background
Being a sportsperson has always been a top priority for Kavita throughout her life. She has been a national-level champion in Weightlifting, Wushu as well as Mixed Martial Arts (MMA).
Kavita’s primary focus, however, has always been weightlifting. She had started training in the sport in 2002 at Faridabad, Haryana, eventually moving to training facilities in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. She has been a multiple time National Senior Weightlifting Champion since 2007.
Kavita left her position as a Sub Inspector at SSB to focus on her sporting career in 2010, as she wasn’t being given permission to compete in several tournaments by the government, even causing her to miss out on an international tournament in Russia, which was the last straw for her.
The pinnacle of her weightlifting career was perhaps her performance in the 2016 South Asian Games, which was held in Guwahati, Assam. Kavita bagged the Gold Medal in the 75 KG category after she posted a total of 210 Kilos (92 Kilos Snatch and 118 Kilos Clean & Jerk).
Kavita’s total was the highest by a woman in the tournament in any category (including the one weight class higher than hers) and she had comfortably beaten Silver medalist Wickeramasinghe Selage of Sri Lanka by a margin of 50 Kilos.
The difference by which she had won the Gold Medal was the highest in any weight class regardless of gender at the tournament, a dominant display of sheer strength and technique unmatched by anyone else.
#4 She has been trained by The Great Khali
Kavita Devi has been trained in professional wrestling at the Continental Wrestling Entertainment (CWE) Academy, which is owned and operated by former WWE World Heavyweight Champion, The Great Khali, in Jalandhar, Punjab, India.
According to Kavita, Khali (who she refers to as Khali sir) has been instrumental in training her as a professional wrestler. Kavita has stated in interviews that she has a lot of respect for Khali for providing her and her fellow academy students with all the facilities that they could ever need to become pro wrestlers.
Kavita has also stated that Khali frequently dedicates a lot of his own time into ensuring that the Academy students are trained properly and that he also hires foreign trainers to help the students perfect their techniques.
Kavita, since she joined the academy in 2016, has performed at several of the academy’s house shows and other events as “Hard KD”. Including her infamous appearance against a challenge by fellow CWE Superstar BB Bulbul, where Kavita had shown up wearing the traditional Indian Salwar Kameez dress and had beaten Bulbul down.
The video of her brawl with Bulbul, while she was dressed in traditional Indian clothing, has gone viral on social media, and had even gotten her an offer from Bigg Boss, India’s version of Big Brother. Kavita had rejected the offer due to her disapproval of the show’s format.
#5 She is married and has a 5-year-old son
Kavita Devi has taken care of not only her sporting responsibilities but also her personal life very well. She fell in love with Volleyball player Gaurav Tomar and the two are married now. Gaurav is from Baghpat in Uttar Pradesh and has been nothing but supportive of Kavita and her sporting endeavours.
Gaurav also works at the Sashastra Sena Bal (SSB). He gave up his own sporting career to support his wife and has made her success his primary goal. Kavita credits Gaurav for being her pillar of strength.
Kavita also has a 5-year-old son named Abhijeet who was born in 2012. Kavita says that her son is the source of her inspiration and that he motivates her to continue training.
In interviews, Kavita has said that she is extremely fortunate for her in-laws being very supportive as well. Her father-in-law was a former Kabaddi player who had encouraged all his children to become sportspersons. He is very proud of Kavita and her achievements and has vowed to continue supporting her.
Her mother-in-law, who is a housewife, takes care of Abhijeet while Kavita is away for training and also manages all domestic responsibilities in her absence, despite her old age.
Kavita Devi’s life story is one that is inspirational, motivational and absolutely jaw-dropping. She has gone through an incredible amount of struggle for every single step that she has had to take to reach where she is today.
As fans of WWE and other professional wrestling organisations, we are used to seeing Superstars who have also struggled and toiled to get to where they’re at, but nothing beats the struggle of an Indian woman, who has faced every obstacle imaginable in her life and has triumphed over all of them to finally achieve her dream of being in the WWE.
Despite all her success, Kavita had claimed before her tryout that she was still not satisfied and that signing a WWE contract was her ultimate goal. I, for one, certainly hope that she puts up a good display at the Mae Young Classic so that the WWE sign her up.
I wouldn’t be saying these words if it was for anyone else in Kavita’s place. Knowing her, however, if there is one person who can achieve the impossible in the face of insurmountable odds, it is, indeed, Kavita “Devi” Dalal.
And so she will.
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