Excelsior Sports Correspondent
JAMMU, Jan 27: After making marks in professional wrestling, J&K’s Khali is trying hard to get entry into World Heavyweight Championship for which the trials will be held in mid of this year.
Arif Saleem Bohru, who goes by the ring name of Badshah Khan, played scores of fights to prove his mettle in professional wrestling in India under the patronage of Dalip Singh Rana or the Great Khali, the first Indian to win the World Heavyweight Championship in WWE.
Khan known as J&K’s Khali said that he was the first person from Jammu and Kashmir to train under the Great Khali at his Jalandhar Academy and fight the Indian version of professional wrestling, organized by the former WWE star.
At 6 feet 2 inches and 105 kgs in weight, Khan is now eyeing to be the Indian entry this year into the WWE. “I am preparing for the tryouts which will be held in Mumbai most probably in June-July,” Khan said.
He is just 23 years old; the young lad comes from a remote Neel valley of Banihal in Ramban district. Khan said that he was fascinated by professional wrestling from the very childhood particularly after he heard stories from his father who is a sub-inspector in CRPF.
“My father told me about Khali, how he used to be a labourer crushing stones and how a police officer saw him and brought him into the force and how he went into bodybuilding and then ultimately into wrestling,” he said, adding that for us, it was a US game but then when the Khali opened a centre at Jalandhar and I also got a chance to prove myself.
Khan said that his dream is now to make his mark in the WWE for which rules have changed this year owing to COVID-19 pandemic. “We will be having tryouts in India this year. This is my first trial for international level wrestling,” he said.
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