The Great Khali stats:
Height: 7 foot 3
Weight: 420 pounds
Career Highlights: World Heavyweight Champion
Early Life:
Dalip was born on 27th August 1972 in Dhiriana, Po: Nainidhar, Teh: Shillai, Dist: Sirmour, Himachal Pradesh, India. Personally, Dalip belongs to a lower-class family. Dalip's father 'Shri Jwalaram' was a farmer and Dalip's mother 'Shrimati. Tandidevi' was a housewife. Dalip was the 3rd child in the family of seven brothers and one sister. In young age, Dalip started working as a labor for a road construction and used to work 18 hours daily. When Dalip was working on the sites, local villagers used to make fun of Dalip & used to bullied in all the aspect they can but, like always Dalip used to ignore them. Dalip worked hard & never loosed focus from his work and actually his mind was full of ideas but, due to lack of proper guidance and platforms for the opportunity, Dalip was not able to prove himself. Still, above all those circumstances, Dalip never lost his faith in God. Dalip always knew that one day he will get that golden chance to prove himself. On 15th February 1994, Dalip got an offer from Punjab police. Because of this Dalip's family was very happy but at the same time they were worried because of Anti-Sikh riots, but Dalip didn’t worried about that. Dalip's thoughts were “One Life – One Chance”. So, Dalip accepted the once in a lifetime opportunity and everything was going fine from then. Bodybuilding and Professional Wrestling Career:
During Dalip's tenure in Punjab, M.S Bhullar (I.G of Punjab Police) saw him and advised to start playing discus throw and shot-put. Then Dalip replied that " I am much more interested in boxing and karate rather than these sports." Bhullar denied and started convincing hard, towards stepping up into sports world like discus throw and shot-put. As a result, within six-months Dalip became interstate shotput champion. Dalip's achievement raised the happiness of Mr. Bhullar but, Dalip didn’t want to limit his goals. So, after a while, Dalip started bodybuilding without letting anyone knows and also continued his shot-put practice. In Dec 1994, Dalip participated in his first bodybuilding competition where Mr. Bhullar was the chief guest. There, Dalip earned the 5th position in the overall open category, which made M S Bhullar proud of him and later, Dalip got promoted in Punjab police as "a head constable". After that Dalip realized, that he is on the right path of his career. Bhullar also supported Dalip in pursuing his career. In 1996, Dalip was crowned as Mr. Punjab and Mr. North India in 1997. Dalip broke his own chain of titles and became Mr. India which was a very big achievement at that time. During Dalip’s bodybuilding career, he became so famous that people invite him as a guest poser in their shows in all over India. Day by day, Dalip became India’s most famous bodybuilder of all time and still, he holds the record of world's tallest bodybuilder. In 1998, Dalip borrowed a black and white TV worth Rs. 1,000. One day, when he was getting ready for the gym, he noticed a program named WWF (World Wrestling Federation) which grabbed his attention to the extent that he thought this is the thing he was made for. After that, he started collecting information about WWF but unfortunately, Dalip came to know that it’s an America based wrestling federation. Dalip was so into WWF that he started having dreams of becoming WWF wrestler. Somehow, Dalip managed to get the visa for America. That makes him very excited and he went to share this with Mr. Bhullar. But, Mr. Bhullar totally denied for that and took his passport under his custody. Dalip started begging continuously to get Mr. Bhullar permission for only one chance to prove himself. Bhullar said no because he thought that he will do the same like others sportsman, who went to America and never came back. Bhullar knew few sportsmen who were doing labor jobs over there for rest of their life, so he doesn’t want Dalip to be one of them. Still, Dalip didn’t give up on his dream and tried to convince Mr. Bhullar to give him one chance, and he will come back with success. A year later, Dalip got selected for Asian Bodybuilding competition in Malaysia but, for this IBBF was asking for 40,000 INR for the expenses over there. Again, he told everything to Mr. Bhullar that he needs 40,000 INR and his passport for all the expenses to go there. Bhullar denied for the money but, gave Dalip’s passport and said go there and take part in the competition. But, Dalip had a different plan in his mind, he took the passport, went to the American embassy to get the visa. When Dalip arrived in the USA for pro wrestling training in California, the coach and promoter of APW (All Pro Wrestling) school were waiting for him. Coach Morgan & owner of the APW school were shocked when they saw Dalip at the airport. They were so scared when Dalip wanted to shake hands with them. Dalip started his training, the biggest challenge for Dalip was the English language. To explain things in English was quite hard and difficult for Dalip because he was never familiar with that language. Learning English was one of the biggest tasks of his life but, people at APW always helped him out. Dalip second challenge was accommodation & conveyance. Dalip did not have any vehicle over there and he remembers how tough it was. But every problem has a solution, his solution was his passion, hard work, honesty. Dalip always asked himself if he can break stones then why can’t he overcome these challenges? In front of his passion, these problems were so small. It was difficult, painful, he walked, ran, got hurt but he never gave up. After six months training in APW, Dalip got an offer from WCW, the sky was limit for his happiness, he felt his hard work finally paid off. Dalip remembered his journey, he went into a flashback, had tears in his eyes but,"fate wanted something different" destiny wanted to make him strong. A few days later Dalip finds out that "WCW got sold out to WWF." He broke down, cried but he was so used to painful circumstances that he decided to fight against it. Meanwhile, Dalip was awarded the 'best student of APW' and, the 'best wrestler of APW'. Dalip was happy but, not satisfied. Next Chapter of Dalip's Life:
In 2001, New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) coaches came to APW to pick good wrestlers. There were 100 students at APW, among all of them they had selected Dalip. That was the biggest break for Dalip in pro wrestling world when he got signed with the NJPW. Dalip felt peaceful as he had very bad and challenging past few years, he was with NJPW for next three years. After three years, Dalip got a chance to work in Hollywood movies. Dalip's first audition was for the Longest Yard. Many handsome youngsters were there. Dalip remembered that big line, while he was waiting for his turn one gentleman came to him and his name was Adam Sandler. Adam saw Dalip and told others to go home and, everyone’s audition got canceled. Adam came to Dalip and said, “I want you, Mr. Dalip Singh”. It was like a dream. Even in his dream he never thought that he can work in the movies, especially Hollywood. Dalip never thought he would be treated like a celebrity. He remembers while shooting, people used to come and ask if he wanted something. They used to take care of him if it was too sunny, those colorful umbrellas and beautiful services. After that, I went for the promotion of the Longest Yard in New York. Then WWE owner, Mr. McMahon heard about Dalip's character in the movie, of course, the credit goes to the Longest Yard. They were so excited to meet Dalip as they heard there was a big and strong guy in the Longest Yard movie. He has something different. They called Dalip and asked him to meet at the headquarters of WWE. Dalip said yes. How can he forget that 'long limousine' they sent for him? When he saw that, he got emotional because he used to dream of traveling in buses and train where people used to treat him harshly because of my physique and then this long car. Life is full of surprises, it's true what they say. Dalip went to the WWE HQ and, when Mr. McMahon saw him, his first word was “Wooohhhh!!! You are on my team now." The conversation was like this:
Mr. McMahon: Do you want to work in the WWE? Dalip: Yes
Mr. McMahon: Great !! We are now a team !! ha-ha! McMahon was so happy to have Dalip in the WWE and so was Dalip. After signing the WWE contract they immediately sent him to Atlanta for training. Dalip became the first Indian pro wrestler to be signed with WWE. The Great Khali:
On Dalip's debut night in the WWE, he got to know that he has my match with The Undertaker. WWE producers started questioning him, are you scared? Dalip asked, why? They said, "a lot of people are scared of the dead man" Dalip replied No. I don’t fear anybody. Dalip defeated The Undertaker in his first match by pinning him by putting his feet on The Undertaker's chest. After that when he came back to the locker room, everyone was staring at him saying that he is a very lucky guy. They never got a chance to fight against the dead man. They said, "Dalip you don’t have any idea about what you did and whom you have defeated ." Dalip said that it’s just a beginning. The world started to recognize him in the news, social media everywhere and started talking about him. That, Dalip is from China, Russia, U.S.A. Mexico, Italy, God knows if any country left. After defeating The Undertaker, his hunger for success raised so high that people started calling him the Punjabi Nightmare. Within a year, Dalip beat almost every single wrestler of the WWE. In 2007, Dalip became WWE world heavyweight champion and in one night he becomes the most famous person in the universe. After so much of name and fame, numerous opportunities come under his name like movies, TV shows, advertisements and, etc. But WWE denied everything by saying that he cannot do this because Dalip is under contract with us. Which shows that they were jealous of his accomplishment. They didn’t stop there, they were using their every single weapon to destroy him and tried their best to kill his character. Later, Dalip finally decided to quit WWE. In 2015, Dalip started his own pro wrestling school, named Continental Wrestling Entertainment (CWE) in Jalandhar, Punjab, India. "Never get frustrated, Don't get disappointed on someone's accomplishment because of nothing last forever. Support education but, more important keep discipline and dedication in your work. Never hurt anyone, respect everyone. Play sports, say no to drugs. Stay healthy because health is wealth. If you will lose money, you will get back one day, if you lose health it will take time to heal, but if you lose the character, you will lose everything. So, Keep working hard because it's the only key to success." - Dalip Singh Rana AKA The Great Khali
