"Unafraid of pythons…"

Posted on by

SM’s favorite plus-size man is in the spotlight once again [via Dhoomketu]. Dalip Singh (see previous posts 1,2) made his World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) debut earlier this week (watch him introduced). I will give $5 to anyone who can translate what he says for SM readers :). Here is the ring-side play-by-play:

Daivari made his triumphant return with the giant Dalip Singh! They walked out from backstage, slowly walking to the ring. The announcers didn’t know who this giant man was, but noted that he was being managed by Mark Henry’s manager. Taker bounced Henry’s head off the announce table.

[Under]Taker turned around and saw Singh. Singh stepped over the top rope and got in the ring, staring down Taker. Taker got in the ring. Taker had to look up at Singh. The announcers talked about how massive Singh is. Taker threw a right hand, but Singh basically no sold it. He threw another right hand, but it barely moved him. Singh then hit a karate chop to the head of Taker, knocking him down! Taker sat up, but Singh grabbed him by the throat. He ripped open one of the turnbuckles with one hand, then bounced Taker’s head off the exposed turnbuckle. Singh headbutted Taker in the back of the head twice. Daivari shouted “Do it again! Do it again!” Singh delivered another headbutt to the back of the head. There were tons of boos from the crowd. Singh hit a big kick to Taker’s head. Singh stood over the downed Taker as Daivari celebrated next to him. [Link]

Instead of the above you could just watch the clip and do your own play-by-play. I was never much into “entertainment” wrestling. The only reason I sometimes watched as a kid was because my dad wouldn’t let me. He said watching wrestling made you dumber and so it was forbidden in our house. I’d watch occasionally because I don’t like being told what to do, plus I wanted to see if he was right. The character that Singh plays in the WWE is named “the Great Khali.” He has quite a bio:

Hailing from India, The Great Khali stands at an impressive 7 foot 3 and weighs 420 pounds. The Great Khali has walked the jungles of India unafraid of pythons and wrestled White Bengal tigers. Daivari claims that The Great Khali has “stared into the abyss and the earth trembled at his gaze.” One of the largest athletes the WWE has ever bared witness to, The Great Khali stands to be a powerful force and a threat to every member of the SmackDown locker room. [Link]

But…here is something not in his WWE bio. Singh has wrestled in the States before. According to many wrestling observers he is a nice guy but just not any good at wrestling. Actually, in 2001 he accidentally killed a man in the ring by doing an imperfect “powerbomb.”

The night of May 28, students practiced at the gym, which sits in a large converted warehouse in a drab Hayward office building. Brian [Ong] sparred with various people, including Dalip Singh, a freakishly huge Indian guy who also dreamed of being a pro wrestler and had attended the boot camp a few months longer than Brian. Singh, also 27, was so big you could have watched a movie projected onto his back. He had biceps the size of the average man’s thighs, and a chest like a redwood trunk.

Despite his mammoth stature, Singh was reportedly a sweet, gentle man who spoke little English. According to various accounts of that night, Singh wanted to practice the spinebuster and was paired with Brian. The first time the two tried it, Ong grabbed Singh’s shirt as he was tossed over the giant’s shoulders. Principato explained to Brian that he needed to push off his opponent’s back as he was tossed. Singh then did the move with two others in the gym that night, including one of the trainers, so Ong could see how it was done.

On the second attempt, Brian grabbed Singh’s shirt again. This time, his tailbone hit first, and his head whipped back violently against the mat. He didn’t get up. Instead, he turned over, said he was dizzy, and began to moan. “Nobody thought, ‘Oh, this guy is in really bad shape,'” Principato remembered.

Before long, however, it was clear he was indeed in bad shape. Brian tried to crawl out of the ring but managed only to get up on all fours, vomit, and then collapse. Someone at the gym called 911 and paramedics carted the unconscious wrestler off to St. Rose Hospital in Hayward, where he was pronounced dead on arrival. The Alameda County Coroner’s Office later listed the official cause of death as acute and subdural hemorrhage due to head trauma. [Link]

<

p>

Let us (and by “us” I mean some of you) keep an eye on Singh to see how his character develops and if he is able to improve his skills. It is also interesting to see the audience’s reaction to a character like Singh. U-S-A, U-S-A, was the chant from the crowd even before it was announced where Singh was from.

60 thoughts on “"Unafraid of pythons…"”

  1. i chuckled reading the comment by yo dad… watching wrestling will make you dumber… too damn funny..hence your 5 bucks to watch/translate what the hell he says will actually making us SM readers drop a few iq points, eh? i’m figuring out your scheme dear abhi… quite cheeky 馃槈 quite cheeky indeed…

  2. wrestling made you dumber

    Yup, I watched a lot of it in late 80s-early 90s. They do make people dumb.

    However, they are the greatest. How is Stone Cold Steve Austin doing these days? Can Great Khali take him down?

    It does explains a lot of me and why I cannot write comments as intelligent and sensitive as other SM commenters. However, I have no regrets.

  4. Does India have there own wrestling frederation at all. Back here in the West, wrestling is very popular among desi. I even know of desi, who the english program they ever watch is WWE.

    Hey, does anybody know what’s the deal with Bret Hart and the WWE. I saw on the TV the other week is was back with wwe. I thought he hated Vince McMahon, and would never go back.

  5. Man, I was enjoying the post until the second part. Now I can only think about the movie Millionaire Baby and feel bad for the guy who died.

  6. I even know of desi, who the english program they ever watch is WWE.

    Yes, it is very popular in India – even way before cable TV, from satellite dish-programing days via Singapore.

    Do you have a business plan for TV wrestling in India*? Contact me.

    Wrestling – with Dara Singh, Rustom-e-Hind, King Kong etc. has always been very popular since I can remember – it fills stadiums – it is same as WWF.

    *We could talk to VCs then.

  7. Yes, it is very popular in India

    There was a time when WWF (WWE) was populat in India. I don’t think that people still watch it. Around 10 -12 years back, people used to rent video cassettes and watch this shit. I’ll have to admit that I was one of them..but I was just 12-14 yrs old at that time 馃檪 I still remember some names ..Bret Hitman Hart, Owen Hart, Shaun Michaels ??, Undertaker, Tatanka(?) and Razor Ramon !

  9. All I could understand was

    “Mein hoon khali” “You remember my last name” (??) “I am … now” I am here!!

  11. You guys have to watch the clip where he’s introduced. I laughed so hard I fell out of my chair. Especially when he starts talking. His exact instructions must have been to “Look fierce. Remain greased up.” brown_fob, that’s what I got out of it too, it was like “BLAH BLAH! BLAHHH!!! Main hoon Khali! You remember BLURGHH BLAH! I BLUUH BLAH!” It’s a good thing he doesn’t have to rely on his speeches to intimidate opponents.

  14. I like the instinctive xenophobia of the audience “usa!” “usa!” Around the time of the first gulf war (when I was 13ish and a fan of wwf, one of the evil characters (Sgt Slaughter) was “a close friend of Saddam” I’m surprised they haven’t created a “close friend of Iran” character.

    It would be funny if like the Chinese only watching Yao Ming, the Japanese only watching Ichiro, the Indians only watch this guy’s matches.

  15. What a hoot! I too, like the rest, just got the growling. Abhi, your $5 is safe!

    Curiously enough, my dad wouldn’t let us watch wrestling either. He said that it was mindless bashing. My best friend was a wrestling fan for ages and she would come and tell me about people like sensational sheri etc. I guess I missed out…

  17. Your father was a wise man. I ended up watching wrestling with my father, who never bothered to explain to me that it was fake. I was pretty traumatized by watching George “The Animal” Steele eating turnbuckles and attacking people and making them bleed. 70s wrestling was hardcore.

    I’ve always enjoyed how nationalist fantasies are brought to life in wrestling matches. Watching Hulk Hogan (not sure, don’t remember exactly) wrestling the Iron Sheik, I thought there were hostages at stake. I can only imagine that there are a couple of “Iraqi” wrestlers now taunting the audience and waving pictures of Saddam to the audience. Or is that verboten even in the fantasy world of wrestling?

  18. Poor guy obviously has acromegaly. His long-term future health prospects are not looking too good.

  20. The guy introducing “Khali” had some fresh prose:

    “from the Poonjab JUNGLE!” (um, where is this jungle exactly?)

    “unafraid of the white Bengal tiger!!” (which can be found in the Poonjab jungle, I guess)

    And the best line from Dalip: “Main hoon KHALI!” (“I am empty!”)

    ha ha

    Now I’m waiting for the next match when the break out the Indiana Jones dialogue: “KHALI ma, mujhe shakti de….”

  21. I guess the reason the fans started chanting USA was cause of Singh manager Diavarri who does the anti-usa thing with his character.

  22. Your father was a wise man. I ended up watching wrestling with my father, who never bothered to explain to me that it was fake.

    My dad was all about the wrestling too. He also used to rent those Ultimate Cage Fighting DVDs where they lock the dudes up in the cages and they fight to the death. (Seriously.) I feel like, thanks to Bollywood, which everyone of all ages watches, my parents had no conception of the whole “rating” system in America. My dad once made me watch Bridge over the River Kwai with him when I was 8 and I had nightmares about being locked in a hot metal box roasting in the Vietnamese sun for weeks.

    It’s so weird because he’s the least agressive guy ever. When he gets angry he eats a mango and then he calms down. (When my brother was 14 he went AWOL with my dad’s car and ended up driving it right through the garage wall into the kitchen. My dad surveyed the situation and turned to my mom. “Nalini. GO GET ME A MANGO.”)

  23. OMG this guy is ridiculously massive!!! Practially a freak of nature.

    The only reason I sometimes watched as a kid was because my dad wouldn脗鈥檛 let me. He said watching wrestling made you dumber and so it was forbidden in our house.

    I’m obsessed with the WWE. Before it was WWE it was WWF during the days of “Macho Man” Randy Savage, Hulk Hogan, George “The Animal” Steel, Jesse “The Body” Ventura (aka Governer of MN), Greg “The Hammer” Valentine…. I was devastated when I found out it was all fake and they really weren’t kicking each others ass for real!! I recently ran into Triple H @ Smith & Wollensky in the city and I behaved like a 12 year old rabid fan. He simply said one line to me “You are the most unlikely fan I have ever seen!”

  24. When he gets angry he eats a mango and then he calms down. (When my brother was 14 he went AWOL with my dad’s car and ended up driving it right through the garage wall into the kitchen. My dad surveyed the situation and turned to my mom. “Nalini. GO GET ME A MANGO.”)

    Hahahahahahahahahahahaha When my dad gets mad the corners of his ears twitch and his nostrils flair like nuts. Used to scare the shit out of us when we were kids now it’s hard not to laugh.

  25. Poor guy obviously has acromegaly. His long-term future health prospects are not looking too good.
    Main Entry: ac脗路ro脗路meg脗路a脗路ly
    chronic hyperpituitarism marked by progressive enlargement of hands, feet, and face
    Main Entry: hy脗路per脗路pi脗路tu脗路ita脗路rism

    excessive production of growth hormones by the pituitary glan

    He killed a man!!!!! Dang. What’s with all these desi fathers that were the biggest fan of wrestling? My dad too, we’d always change the channel when he was watching too… (house full of women, he had no chance)

    Rupa,

    MUAHHHHHAHAHAH Your bro crashed the car and your dad ate a mango???? That is too bollywood for words….I see short film all over that plot.

  26. The guy introducing “Khali” had some fresh prose: “from the Poonjab JUNGLE!” (um, where is this jungle exactly?)

    LOL… I know it is soo funny… even my brother asked me… Do we have Jungle in Punjab!?!?

    And Rupa,

    HAHAHAHA!!! I think you have the coolest dad ever;)

  27. It’s so weird because he’s the least agressive guy ever. When he gets angry he eats a mango and then he calms down. (When my brother was 14 he went AWOL with my dad’s car and ended up driving it right through the garage wall into the kitchen. My dad surveyed the situation and turned to my mom. “Nalini. GO GET ME A MANGO.”)

    That’s the sweetest story. thanks for the smile.

  28. the fact that WWE still carries on remains one of life’s biggest puzzles for me…..and yeah i do remember it being a craze back in the des as late as 7 years back(peaked around 10 years ago)

    it scarred my psyche forever to see my overgrown 40 something chachas and phoophas and the ilk fighting amongst themsleves over WWF cards(like proper indian style fighting…sulking,not talking to each other,forbidding each others kids from mixing)…i think i can trace all my insecurities and complexes back to that one incident!

    as for this clip,the introductory comment ‘walking the pOOnjab jungles of india wrestling the white bengal tiger’ would rank about -100 on an IQ scale of 1-10.this is the closest anything has ever come to bollywood in terms of mind-numbing idiocy

  30. wrestling made you dumber

    i once mentioned pro wrestling to an extremely devout christian friend, and was even more surprised when she said her mom used to watch wwf/e. on asking why her mom would watch pro wrestling, something even more stunning came out. “to pity them”, she said. i didn’t know what or how to ask, after this. any answers?

    this friend, btw, is the daughter of a pastor who translated the bible into her/their language, so…

  34. raj said:

    I like the instinctive xenophobia of the audience “usa!” “usa!”

    Thats what I noticed from the clip. The crowd chanting USA USA is so dumb !!!! It proves why Abhi’s Dad was right.

    He said watching wrestling made you dumber and so it was forbidden in our house.

    If any of us are in a fight, we can claim that “The Great Khali is my cousin and he will kick you a$$” :-))

  35. This guy is jarringly huge. I am guessing most gora folks are kind of unsettled at seeing an Indian stand 7 feet tall, especially they are used to seeing 5 foot 6 inch Patels built like human toothpicks with eager smiles most of the time 馃檪

  36. is it that watching wrestling makes people dumb? …or that dumb people are watching wrestling?

  37. “i am empty” – timepass

    hahaha!! if he’s empty inside, maybe he just needs a hug?

    “USA USA…”

    could’ve been worse; good thing they didn’t label him a terrorist or tell him to go back to Iraq, Arabia, et al.

    “ate a mango”

    Alternative parenting methods indeed; My dad would always go out and buy office supplies whenever he got pissed off. Everytime I noticed a new stapler or mini-bookshelf around the house, I knew I was due for punishment.

  38. I’m sorry, but every time I look at that photo I just think of how much work it must be to keep a 7′ Punjabi’s chest completely hairless like that. Do you think they employ a wagonful of waxers? A team of threaders? Dip him in a tub of nair? Shave his chest with a lawnmower? Untouched, this guy would have body hair at the Sean Connery / Robin Williams level. Instead he’s as smooth as a Ken doll – not even hair on his forearms. That’s some serious industrial strength depilation going on.

  39. Are you serious NinjaQ? I look at that video and see this dude going to the locker-room and going “which one of you bitc*es is gonna shave me??” – of course in Hindi he’d say “Mera Jism Kaun Mundwaega.” Turns out he’s a part time cop in the des as well. But yeah, all that aside, my money’s on the tub of Nair, ain’t no way you can get our regulation strip mall beauty salon asian types mounted on this guy, he’d eat them for appetizers:)

  40. I can this guy wrestle,if he can’t speak english. I will he and the other wrestler call a match. Most of his matches would have to be really quick.

    On post #32 Al Mujahid, you were using the line of Razor Ramon, right?

  42. If its wrestling or athletics, its Punjab, if its business, its Gujarat, if its software or hi-tech, its Tamil Nadu, if its classical art its Bengal. I guess the stereotypes want to continue with the image of India within these notional boundaries. Thats another reinforcer to the dumb theory.

  45. Gatamala:

    Yes, and heart failure too. It’s a shame if he’s not getting treatment (medical or surgical). He must have had gigantism as a kid (excess growth hormone, leading to his gargantuan height) which becomes acromegaly as an adult.

  46. When he gets angry he eats a mango

    damn! if only we all could control our anger that way! what’s the secret behind the mango? does it have properties to calm those raging pheremones or whatever? not only a sweet story, but awesome, and very curious too!

  47. The guy with acromegaly was (deceased) Andre the Giant. I’m not to sure this guy has it

  48. The cries of USA were more directed towards Daivari, the Middle-Eastern provacateur. He’s been on the Anti-America tip since his debut. The “mute savage” angle worked for George “the Animal” Steele but he was a crowd fave. Sher-e-Punjab’s mic/ring skills are not really in proportion to his size. But I wish him all the best.

    My eight year old self saw some pehlwans wrestling a bear in a roving carnival in India. Off da hook, one of my best memories. Brownland got a rich ‘rasslin tradition. F. IQ scores.

  49. Actually Dalip singh was a poor guy from himachal pradesh (and punjab) region…a police officer noticed and trained him …then he got interested in wrestling..ended up in USA and he fought many matches..AS U KNOW THAT WRESTLING WE SEE ON TV IS FULLY FAKE AND FALTOO..he accidentally KILLED one wrestler by a wrong way choke-slam…know he ends up at WWE…MAIN HOON KHAL..BRHHH