It’s our smaller-scale, Singaporean version of the Jussie Smollett scandal — sort of.
Local bodybuilder and wrestler Danie Dharma, 33, turned to social media yesterday to share closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage of himself allegedly getting attacked by “an unknown knife wielding person at the gym.”
According to the timestamp on the video, the incident occurred on Tuesday, July 2 around 9.30pm. The video shows a man in a hoodie sneaking up behind Dharma while he’s standing at a gym counter. The mysterious man then suddenly lunges at him with a cleaver, then runs off.
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In the caption of the Instagram post, Dharma stated that he was not injured in the attack: “I am unharmed, but I guess the same can’t be said for my gym bag. A report has been made, and will keep you guys updated,” he wrote.
But before you go off in search of more details on this incident, let us stop you right there. It’s fake news. The incident was not a real attack — it was all just a publicity stunt pulled by the wrestler in an attempt to promote his upcoming Singapore Pro Wrestling match coming up later this month.
And surprise, surprise. He will be going up against the “assailant” in the video, fellow wrestler Butcherman, during that match.
Here’s the promo vid for that.
Coconuts Singapore inquired with Dharma to explain the reasoning behind the stunt, to which he said: “Usually pro-wrestling promos are done in a way where someone is already recording, then guy A attacks guy B. Many fans would say these promos are lame, and stuff like ‘why is someone already recording,’ etc. So we wanted to do something a little different, add in a touch of realism.”
By showing CCTV footage rather than publishing a self-filmed video, it takes away the element of “someone is already recording this,” he said.
The wrestler then went on to say that “the video kind of turned out to be too believable, especially the gyms CCTV footage… so we decided to release the second one the next morning itself. We also didn’t want to implicate the gym that was kind enough to support our promo, in case people think it’s a dangerous place.”
In the social media realm, netizens’ reactions were divided.
Some complimented Dharma for his creative marketing strategy, while others — annoyed by the misleading narrative given in his original post — called him out for the stunt.
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