The Great Khali

The Great Khali married wife Harminder Kaur on February 27, 2002. Their daughter Avleen was born on February 26, 2014, twelve years after the marriage. On February 20, 2014, he was granted naturalised US citizenship alongside 1,614 others in a session of court held at the ‘M.O. Campbell Educational Center’ in Houston, Texas.

He underwent a surgery on July 26, 2012 to remove a tumour on his pituitary gland that caused his acromegaly. He displays some of the most obvious signs of the disorder, including prominent eyebrows, chin protrusion, and massive ears.

He is a devout Hindu and was an ardent follower of the Indian spiritual leader Ashutosh Maharaj. He neither smokes nor consumes alcohol.

Dalip Singh Rana was born on August 27, 1972, in Dhiraina, a small village in Sirmour district in Himachal Pradesh, India, to parents Jwala Ram and Tandi Devi. They have six other children beside him.

He grew up with little education and had to support his family from an early age. He worked as a roadside labourer for a time and then relocated to Shimla to serve as a security guard. Here he was noticed by Punjab’s former police chief Mahal Singh Bhullar, who is renowned for helping several players from Punjab Police attain international recognition. He offered Rana a job with the Punjab Police.

Though at first reluctant to leave his home state, Rana accepted the job in 1993 when his brother was also offered a similar one. They moved to Jalandhar together, and Rana took up wrestling which he practised at the local gym.

Dalip Singh Rana immigrated to the US in 1999 and joined All Pro Wrestling (APW) boot camp as a trainee. Billed as Giant Singh, he made his wrestling debut on October 7, 2000, teaming up with Tony Jones in a match against ‘West Side Playaz’.

On May 28, 2001, Singh was training with Brian Ong. He performed a wrestling move called flapjack on Ong, and Ong, instead of pushing off Singh’s back as per the prior instruction, grabbed Singh’s shirt.

Ong landed on his coccyx or tailbone, violently whipping his head back against the mat. Coupled with the concussion he had suffered earlier that the APW trainers had underdiagnosed, the move resulted in Ong’s death. Ong’s family sued APW for liability and was rewarded $1.3 million for damages after a day of deliberation.

After moving to San Francisco, Rana was signed by WCW in 2001. His time there was cut short by Vince McMahon, the owner of WWE, buying out the promotion.

Rana used the Giant Singh gimmick in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) as well. Under the leadership of Masahiro Chono, he and Giant Silva formed ‘Club 7’, the tallest tag team in wrestling history. On October 8, 2001, they scored an easy victory over Yutaka Yoshie, Kenzo Suzuki, Hiroshi Tanahashi and Wataru Inoue in their debut match. The pair eventually split when Silva turned on Singh and defeated him in a singles match in August 2002.

The Great Khali is a one-time ‘WWE World Heavyweight Champion’. He received the belt on July 17, 2007, after winning the 20-man battle royal. The ‘SmackDown’ episode was aired on 20 July.

He won a ‘Slammy Award’ for the ‘“Damn!” Moment of the Year’ in 2008 for ‘Khali Kiss Cam’.