The Great Khali: Death & Triumph in the WWE
The giant known as “The Great Khali” (Dalip Singh Rana) was born in Himachal, Pradesh, India, on August 27,1972.
He is one of seven siblings in his family. He does not drink or smoke and has been married since February 2002. The Great Khali is currently on Monday Night RAW and after a long period off, returned at the Royal Rumble only to be eliminated by Mason Ryan.
The Story
The story of one of the biggest athletes in wrestling listed at 7 feet, 3 inches and 420 pounds, is that he started out as a police officer and what would follow was a successful run as a power-lifter.
He made his wrestling appearance in New Japan Pro Wrestling and teamed up with Giant Silva to form the biggest tag team in history at an average height of 72 and a combined weight of 805.
They proved to be a force in New Japan.
The Ong Incident
After embarking on a single’s career, he would be pinned by Giant Silva. On May 28, 2001, The Great Khali would wrestle Brian Ong in All Pro Wrestling.
After delivering a flap jack to Ong, and he would tragically die from that. But as reports would indicate, he already had a previous concussion that the APW already new about and allowed him to wrestle.
Khali knew none of this while wrestling. Afterwards, a settlement would be reached with APW and Ong family to the tune of 1.5 million and APW would be found liable for not protecting the wrestler but also not providing him with adequate wrestling gear.
Joining the WWE
In 2006, The Great Khali would join the likes as The Big Show, Andre The Giant, Giant Gonzalez, Kurgan, and Giant Silva as one of the biggest men to join the WWE . But unlike most big men, Khali would have a very successful career until this day in the federation.
As Khali would go a year in the WWE before losing by submission to John Cena. Afterwards, he would get drafted to RAW and the WWE World Title would be up for grabs in a battle royal in which Khali would win.
He would successfully defend his title against Ric Flair, Dave Batista, and Shawn Michaels.
He would go on to lose his title at the Pay Per View: “Unforgiven” to Batista.
An Acting Career
What would follow for Khali, which is named after the Hindu God Kali, who is associated with eternal energy is a very successful acting career.
In such films as THE LONGEST YARD, GET SMART, MACGRUBER, KUSHTI, RAMAA THE SAVIOUR, THE A-TEAM, and DETONATION.
Khali would work alongside such established actors as Liam Neeson, Adam Sandler, Anne Hathaway, Steve Carell, and Ryan Phillippe.
It is safe to say that The Great Khali has had a career that most people would envy and it seems the best is yet to come for the former world heavyweight champion.