page_title: Dara Singh
section_title: Professional wrestling
hierarchical_section_title: Dara Singh / Career / Professional wrestling
caption_attribution_description: English: Dara Singh mounted punches to King Kong at JWA in a league match for All Asia Heavyweight Championship
context_page_description: Dara Singh Randhawa was an Indian professional wrestler, actor and politician. He started acting in 1952 and was the first sportsman to be nominated to the Rajya Sabha of India. He worked as Hindi and Punjabi film producer, director and writer, and he acted in films and television. He is known for his undefeated worldwide streak in wrestling and later being a successful movie star. His role of Hanuman in film Bajrangbali and in Ramanand Sagar's Ramayan made him popular. In 2018 WWE inducted him into the hall of fame.
context_section_description: He came to Singapore in 1947, where he worked in a drum-manufacturing mill and began his wrestling training under Harnam Singh in the Great World Stadium. As an adult he was 6 feet 2 inches (1.88 m) tall, weighed 127 kilograms (280 lb) and had a chest measurement of 53 inches (130 cm). Due to his physique, he was encouraged to take up pehlwani, an Indian style of wrestling. After switching to professional wrestling, he competed around the world with opponents such as Bill Verna, Firpo Zbyszko, John Da Silva, Rikidōzan, Danny Lynch and Ski Hi Lee. His flooring of King Kong is still remembered.
  In 1954 Dara competed in the Rustam-e-Hind (Champion of India) tournament where he won the final by defeating Tiger Joginder Singh and received a silver cup from Maharaja Hari Singh. In 1959, he won the Commonwealth Championship by defeating George Gordienko at Calcutta. On 29 May 1968 in Bombay, his victory over Lou Thesz earned him the World championship. His last tournament, where he announced his retirement, was held in Delhi in June 1983.
caption: Singh wrestling King Kong at JWA in 1955
exif: {}