A dismal failure from the very beginning, Dalip The Great Khali Singh should have been one of the companys greatest coups a genuine pituitary giant with a fantastic, intimidating look and a mysterious foreign background to throw at the Undertaker, John Cena and any other unstoppable babyface characters loitering around the locker room. Instead, hes become a comedy pratfall of a wrestler, someone that can be easily pinned by Heath Slater or Damian Sandow. Part of Khalis issue has always been his health. Andre The Giant once said to his Princess Bride co-star Billy Crystal, we do not live long, the big and the small. Increasing issues with his back and his knees have rendered the 42 year old giant a shadow of his already lethargic self, and the simple fact is that, even as a man in his late twenties in New Japan Pro Wrestling, Dali Singh was never any good in the ring. Giants may not need to be able to pull off a moonsault or an exploder suplex, but they do need to look convincing pulling off the few moves they can. By the time he debuted on WWE television as a monstrous challenger to the Undertaker in 2006, Khali was already beginning to suffer the physical decline that comes with being a sufferer of acromegaly. Hed had surgery to remove the tumour on the pituitary gland that causes the condition, but only three years ago, meaning that his body was continuing to swell and deform until very recently. Paul Big Show Wight had his surgery in the 1990s hence the lack of deformation, and consequently longer life expectancy and less likelihood of disability. It isnt just his physical health, however or the language barrier. Singh is a terrible wrestler, lacking some of the simplest basics a professional wrestler needs in order to perform, like understanding of what his moves mean and when to perform them. WWE matches today are, generally speaking, scripted and laid out in detail, especially when a performer cant be expected to work on the fly, and yet The Great Khali regularly looks like a lost child out there, searching for someone to take his hand and show him where to go and what to do next. Its likely that, with well-adjusted genuine giants so few and far between, and with the Indian market a sizeable one, Vince McMahon simply cant bear to cut his losses and let Khali go. The worst workers perform the best botches, and occasionally, even the Best In The World has an off night. We know youre bound to have your own opinions. Who do you think is the worst worker in WWE history?
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
