Dilip Singh Rana aka Khali did what most expected of him in the ‘The Great Khali Returns’ show held at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium here late on Sunday night. The big man not only 'subdued' his challenger Brody Steele but also 'thrashed' Brody’s
companions Nox and Apollo amid thunderous applause from a crowd of about 40,000 spectators.
However the manner in which the trio of foreign wrestlers meekly surrendered before Khali was not appreciated by most in the crowd. In a dramatic turn of events, Khali rose from the 'injury' suffered earlier and unleashed his trademark chop on Brody and his friends. To the surprise of the spectators’ trio of burly foreign wrestlers were floored within minutes prompting referee to announce the end of much hyped fight in the favour of Khali. In the run up to the event, Brody and his friends had injured Khali in the first fight held at Haldwani after which Khali was hospitalised. Khali had vowed to decimate his opponents and the anxious crowd expected a great fight on Sunday. A wild cheer from the crowd emanated as Khali's name was announced but most in the crowd were disappointed when Khali who appeared spent up on entering the spotlight. In a dramatic announcement it was declared that Nox and Appolo would be chained near the ring so that are not in a position to help Brody during the fight. In the fight, Brody snatched the keys from the referee to free his friends and the trio attacked and injured Khali forcing the referee to seek medical help. As mentioned earlier Khali rose from stretcher to decimate his opponents in a manner which appeared completely dramatic bordering on being comical.
Notwithstanding the claims of organisers that the fight would be real and the injury to Khali in Haldwani was indeed serious, most of the people had little doubt that Khali would win the bout. “Khali appeared a pale shadow of what he was and the fight looked fixed. The manner in which he gingerly slammed chair on Brody looked laughable,’’ said Mahendra Rawat a resident of Nathuwala. Similar sentiments were echoed by Manvendra Bisht when he said, “Everyone knows that these fights are staged but Khali could not even act and feign injury’’. He said that other fights featuring Shanky Singh, Ricardo and Surya appeared genuine.