The Great Khali's Early Wrestling Career

The Great Khali debuted his wrestling career in October, 2000 when All Pro Wrestling made his first match against a Tag Team in APW known as The West Side Playaz 2000. His in ring name was Dalip Singh at that particular point of time. His partner in the tag team was a wrestler named Tony Jones. He went on to win his debut match.
The Great Khali then continued wrestling in the All Pro Wrestling, and continued training with them, learning new ways to wrestle all the time. He made a lot of friends in the wrestling community while being at the APW. However on May 28, 2001, while training at the APW with the Great Khali, a wrestler named Brian Ong made a mistake while taking a flapjack from The Great Khali and suffered a concussion which caused his death. Although it was NOT a mistake of Khali neither was Khali the cause of Brain Ong's death. More details in the "Brian Ong Incident" page.
After Khali's contract with the All Pro Wrestling expired, he went to Japan with the Japanese Wrestling Legend Masahiro Chono to sign up with the New Japan Pro Wrestling, the largest and the most famous Professional Wrestling company of Asia. Khali was named "Giant Singh" for his appearances in NJPW. Also accompanying Khali was the Brazilian Giant Paul Silva, better known as The Giant Silva, the Giant Silva had previously made a one-time appearance on the World Wrestling Entertainment's RAW roster as well and was not new to Professional Wrestling.
The Great Khali in New Japan Pro Wrestling
Masahiro Chono, after getting both Khali and Silva signed up with New Japan Pro Wrestling, invented the Tag team between both of them known as "Club 7". This name was given to their tag Team, because both Khali and Silva were over Seven Feet Tall. Khali was an impressive 7'3" while Silva was just one inch short at 7'2". The Club 7 Tag team has the world record of being the tallest Tag Team in the history of pro wrestling. Their combined weight exceeded 800 pounds as well, making them almost invincible.
The first match of the Club 7 tag team was a six man handicap match, in which Club 7 emerged victorious after ruining each of the other four wrestlers one by one. After many other successful matches, the first defeat came for Khali in New Japan Pro Wrestling when the Japanese wrestler Hiroyoshi Tanzan pinned him after cradling. (Cradling a wrestler is an alternative form of the shoulder-to-the-mat pin, where the attacking wrestler lifts the legs of the wrestler being pinned and applies his strength and weight into forcing the wrestler's shoulders to be pinned to the mat). This happened in Tokyo on January 2002.
Club 7: From Left to Right: Giant Singh (Now known as The Great Khali, Masahiro Chono (Japanese Wrestling Legend) and Paul "Giant" Silva
Besides this loss, Khali also lost to Manabu Nakanishi after Manabu put up an awesome Wrestling display and pinned The Great Khali. This loss came in March, 2002. Shortly after, the Tag team of Club 7 came to an end and was followed by a feud between Khali and Silva. In August 2002, a Singles match was organized between Silva and Khali in which Silva defeated him in a pinfall.
He continued wrestling in Japan for some more time until he took a leave from wrestling and went to India where he spent time with his family. In 2004, he was approached with a proposal to act in the Hollywood film "The Longest Yard". More details can be found in "The Great Khali in Showbiz" page.
In January 2006, World Wrestling Entertainment took notice of Khali and put him in a contract.
Continued in "WWE and The Great Khali"