Great Khali! The Great WWE Giant

The Great Khali was born as Dalip Singh Rana to a Punjabi Hindu family in a small town of Himachal Pradesh in India on August 27, 1972. His father Jwala Ram was a poor farmer and his mother was Tandi Devi. Born to a family of seven siblings, he had to endure hardship and do various odd jobs to earn a decent living for his large family.

He also suffers from a hormonal disorder known as acromegaly which causes people to turn into giants and have a protruded chin among other effects.

Before undergoing training to become a professional wrestler, Khali worked as a security guard in the city of Shimla and later became a police officer for the Punjab state police.

The Great Khali Wrestling Debut

After undergoing training in the United States, Dalip Singh Rana wrestled a few matches for independent promotion All-Pro Wrestling under the ring name of Giant Singh in 2000 and later signed with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in 2001 before the latter was bought by rival promotion WWE.

He later made his debut for NJPW in 2001 as Giant Singh and teamed up with Giant Silva to form the largest tag-team in pro wrestling history along with Masahiro Chono. Their average height was more than 7 feet and had a combined weight of 805 pounds.

He and Silva teamed up with Masahiro Chono to win the Teisen Hall Six-Man Tournament in 2002. He also made a few appearances for Mexican wrestling promotion Consejo Mundia de Lucha Libre (CMLL) and the Japanese promotion All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) before signing with WWE in 2006.

The Great Khali WWE Career

Dalip Singh Rana debuted for WWE on the April 7, 2006 episode of SmackDown as a villainous character and was given the moniker of The Great Khali. Billed at 7’1’’, The Great Khali was monstrous in size and was given a push befitting of a monster heel.

He decimated Superstars like The Undertaker, Kane, and Batista with ease. Khali even defeated The Undertaker clean, without any foul play, a feat that only a handful of Superstars have been able to achieve.

He reached the highest point in his WWE career when he won the World Heavyweight Championship in a 20 man Battle Royal on the July 20 edition of SmackDown. He lost the title after a few months to Batista at the 2007 No Mercy pay per view in a Punjabi Prison match.

After having a few unsuccessful attempts at winning back the World Heavyweight Championship, Khali then feuded with John Cena for his WWE Championship title but was never able to win it in his career.

Khali then debuted the Punjabi Playboy gimmick in 2008, where he debuted the Khali Kiss Cam. He would never reach the same level of success that he did during his very first stint.

The Great Khali has made several appearances for WWE since, including a cameo during a Punjabi Prison match involving WWE Champion Jinder Mahal and Randy Orton at the 2017 WWE Battleground and an appearance at the 2018 WWE Greatest Royal Rumble in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

In summary.......

How tall is Great Khali?

The Great Khali is one of the few Superstars in WWE to have a towering height. He is billed at a height of 7 ft 1 in or 216 cm.

What happened to Great Khali?

Khali was undergoing surgery for a benign tumor found in his pituitary gland due to acromegaly

What disease does the Great Khali have?

He Suffers From Acromegaly. The Great Khali suffers from acromegaly, a disorder that results from excess growth hormones and that affects about six people per 100,000, according to The New England Journal of Medicine

Will Khali return to WWE?

Khali eventually retired in November 2014 to return to India and train aspiring WWE Superstars, but he returned at WWE Battleground 2017, helping WWE Champion and fellow countryman Jinder Mahal