The Great Khali on Him Confirming In-Ring Retirement, His Belief Vince McMahon Turned Him Into Comedy Wrestler When He Wanted To Leave WWE, WWE Ring Name Origin, His Favorite WWE Opponents, & More

A recent episode of the Insight with Chris Van Vliet podcast featured former WWE wrestler The Great Khali as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Khali confirming that he is retired from his in-ring wrestling career.

“You never know. Maybe WWE will ask me one day if I can go. Just 1-2 days, not full-time, never, because of my knee, so I can’t go full-time.”

Khali also gave his thoughts about his belief that Vince McMahon turned him into a comedy wrestler after McMahon had found out he wanted to leave the company at the time.

“After WWE finds out Khali wants to leave, so then he made me a comedy wrestler, because he wants to kill my character. When I start wrestling in WWE, all of India watches wrestling. Everyone. Kids, women, men, young and old. So he’s thinking he wants to leave, so he made me a comedy wrestler.”

Khali also clarified that McMahon thought he wanted to leave the company and his reason for wanting to leave at the time.

“I think so, because I wanted to work on my own thing.” 

Khali also gave his thoughts about the origin of his “The Great Khali” ring name in WWE and the choices he had available for it.

“Vince McMahon (is how I got my ring name). Vince said, ‘Great Gandhi or Great Khali.’ I said, ‘I can choose Gandhi, but Gandhi is a peaceful guy.’”

Khali also gave his thoughts about John Cena and Triple H being his favorite opponents to work with during his time in WWE.

“I think John Cena and Triple H. I’m very excited. They never complain, never say, ‘You hit hard. Why do you do this? Why not do this?’ John Cena never complained, Triple H never complained, other guys, some small complaints.”

Khali also gave his thoughts about the reason why he did not participate in the first ever Punjabi Prison match in WWE was due to a health issue over his blood work test at the time.

“Punjabi Prison match. First, when I had the Punjabi Prison match set up for me and Undertaker, They called me, ‘You can’t work this one.’ I said, ‘Man, come on.’ I think 2 days before, ‘Oh, you can’t work Undertaker.’ I said, ‘Come on. Why?’ ‘You have something wrong with your blood.’ I’m so sad. I don’t know what happened. So I was there. So Undertaker and Big Show in that ring are practicing. You can’t work, Big Show and Undertaker work in this Prison match. I said, ‘This is a bad decision.’ All the things build, then 2 days before they say you can’t work. Some health issue.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com 1, 2, 3, 4, & 5