The MWC Hall of Fame welcomes Indian wrestling legend: Tiger Jeet Singh into the Class of 2017! Real Name: Jagjeet Singh Hans Height: 6'3'' Weight: 260 lbs From: Punjab,India Birthday: April 3,1948 Trained by: Fred Atkins Debut: 1965 Retired: 2012 Ring Name: Tiger Jeet Singh Notable Titles Held: UWA World Heavyweight Championship (2x) NWA International Tag-Team Championship (3x) NWF Heavyweight Championship NWF North American Heavyweight Championship FMW Brass Knuckles Championship IWA World Tag-Team Championship WWA Martial Arts Heavyweight Championship Asia Heavyweight Championship Before Big Van Vader defeated Antonio Inoki and caused a riot and The Bullet Club terrorizing the top stars in NJPW, the first big villain of Puroresu is Tiger Jeet Singh!
In the 1960's Tiger Jeet Singh left his hometown of Punjab,India and go to Canada with only $6 in his pocket! He met pro wrestling trainer Fred Atkins in Toronto and after a few years of training he made his wrestling debut under promoter: Frank Tunney. He got the name "Tiger" after his trainer saw his ferocious style of wrestling, his first main event was in the same year where he teamed up with Professor Hiro and took on the team of Johnny Powers and Sweet Daddy Siki. Later on Tiger would team up with his trainer Fred Atkins and became huge stars on the Toronto territory throughout the late 60's, capturing the NWA International Tag-Team Championships twice! Whilst having a great run in Toronto, he also had matches in the US against the likes of Andre the Giant,Hans Schmidt,and "Whipper" Billy Watson. He also challenged Gene Kiniski for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship and Bruno Sammartino twice for the WWWF World Heavyweight Championship but obviously failed in capturing both said belts. Around 1968 he captured the NWA International Tag-Team Championship for the third and last time with "Wild" Bull Curry. Around the 70's Tiger Jeet Singh became a much bigger star when he finally went to Japan where his career is best remembered by many! While visiting Japan in 1972, he got into a fight with Antonio Inoki in a shopping center and would then wrestle for NJPW and became the company's top heel in a short amount of time! Before the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, there was first the NWF Heavyweight Championship which Tiger captured by defeating Japan's top babyface at the time: Inoki himself! Defeating Inoki IN Japan was a huge feat in itself but winning the biggest belt of the company in the process too? That's how big of a deal Tiger Jeet Singh became in Japan! He only had a short 3 month reign with the belt but it's still one of the biggest feats of his career nonetheless. During the 80's until early 90's Tiger was a main stay in AJPW. Possibly the biggest match of his career there was teaming up with Abdullah the Butcher to face off the Japanese Dream Team of Inoki and Giant Baba! Tiger and Abdullah would team up a lot of times during their careers, at some point they were the biggest heel tag-team in Japan and were quite an unstoppable force! At this point Tiger also competed for other promotions around the world, he defeated El Canek for the UWA World Heavyweight Championship twice! He also challenged Nick Bockwinkel for the AWA World Championship and even defeated Ric Flair in Toronto for a non-title match! Starting from the mid 90's he mainly focused wrestling on Japan such as for NJPW,FMW,and IWA Japan. Around this time the death match style of wrestling became prominent in Japan which Tiger Jeet Singh has been involved in many times! In the 2000's Tiger lay-lowed in competing in the squared circle, he had some matches for HUSTLE but focused his work as a promoter this time around. He runs a wrestling promotion in South Africa: Anglo Asian Wrestling Federation and in India: World Wrestling Mania. Despite being a nasty villain in the bulk of his career, Tiger Jeet Singh is a kind man outside of the ring. In his home country of India he would often host charity programs in his promotion for sick children and would sometimes wrestle in those too! The sword-wielding icon is the first major wrestling superstar to come from India which is why he's such a huge influence and respectable legend in that country! |
AuthorSuper Mastodon. Spent countless of hours throughout my life watching professional wrestling. Now I write about it, because I like that too. Archives
March 2021
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