At the Battleground PPV, former World Champion Great Khali made a big surprise return. He came to help his countryman Jinder Mahal retain the WWE Championship. Listening to the show with English commentary, we heard Byron Saxton and Tom Phillips react in horror as the 7-foot monster shook Orton off the cage and then choked him through the bars.
However, this wasn’t everyone in WWE’s reaction. Reddit user indianwwefan1 listened to the Hindi broadcast team cover the match and their reaction to Great Khali’s entrance was STARKLY different.
When The Great Khali came out, I am pretty sure both commentators jizzed in their pants right there. One of them sounded like the football commentators who scream “GOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLL”. That moment alone was worth watching the match in Hindi
Here’s video and audio of the epic moment.
hindi commentary getting LIT for Khali is everything
the AHHHHH kills me pic.twitter.com/cU7g5dUpVX
— trask bryant (@traskbryant) July 24, 2017
The Reddit post goes on to explain that the Hindi team painted every action of Jinder’s in a positive light.
First thing to make clear, there was literally no question who was the face and who was the heel. Jinder was the all conquering hero and Orton was the evil American
When Jinder came to the ring, both the commentators ran down his accomplishments and ended with “1.3 Billion people are supporting him, and that will lead him to victory today”
When Orton came down to the ring, they barely acknowledged his existence instead focusing on “Jinder agreed to face Randy in this match despite knowing he would have no backup. What a display of bravery”
“India stands with Jinder” was the entire message on commentary
Even the Hindi commentary could not sell “Jinder has an advantage in the Punjabi Prison Match because he is from Punjab” angle
Jinder was addressed by the honorific “Jinderji” or “Maharaja Sahab” which is like saying “The esteemed Jinder” or “The respected Maharaja”
One Match, Two Stories
This is fascinating. We view WWE through our USA lens and we think that’s how everyone else must see it. How wrong we are. This is part of WWE’s new push into the Indian market. They want a top Indian champion who will be a hero to 1.3 billion people. It also shows the layers and hard work WWE puts into their product. We are all watching the same matches and promos, but they way they have presented paints two different pictures. I love it. I might have to listen to more wrestling with foreign language commentary, mostly so I can drown out how annoying JBL can be.
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