11 Awful Names WWE Wrestlers Rejected

10. The Great Khali - Lord Shiva

Great Khali WrestleMania 27 Battle Royal
WWE.com

The first Indian WWE World Heavyweight Champion, The Great Khali wasn't exactly the most beloved of competitors. The giant human being was barely mobile, and his in-ring limitations were clear for all to see. Despite this, the big man had a successful time in WWE, winning a world title and defeating The Undertaker, clean as a whistle.

The Great Khali wasn't the first name pitched to Dalip Singh Rana when he arrived in WWE. The very first moniker offered was Big Bhima, a character from the Hindu epic Mahabharata, but this was quickly rejected. Giant Singh also found little love, the name Khali had used in his first forays into professional wrestling.

Khali was then offered the name Lord Shiva, a name concocted by someone who clearly has no idea of cultural sensitivity. The name was immediately shot down on the assumption that someone would be offended by it, what with Shiva being one of the principal deities of Hinduism.

The Great Khali (Kali being a Hindu goddess) was eventually chosen, and the rest is history.

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Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.