Gurvinder Singh Malhotra was born to Sardar Narendra Singh and Narendra Kaur in 1991 in Jagadhri, Haryana, India. He was from a Khatri family. He pursued B.Com from Maharaja Agrasen College of University of Delhi, New Delhi in 2010 and worked as an accountant in Maharishi Markandeshwar University, Mullana, Haryana, India. While working as an accountant, his friends usually refer to him as The Great Khali and most often said that the job of an accountant doesn't suits to his physical height. This provoked him to know about The Great Khali and about professional wrestling and eventually he got interests in it. He saw The Great Khali talking about his new academy, Continental Wrestling Entertainment at the 164th episode of Comedy Nights with Kapil on 24 June 2015 and thus he decided to join CWE the very same year.
Personal life
Malhotra is a Sikh, he is the only son of his father and mother. His father, Sardar Narendra Singh, 6 ft, is a factory supervisor. His mother, Narendra Kaur,, is a housewife. He is personally unhappy with his ring-name, Shanky Singh. According to Hindustan Times, his early training in CWE was so hard for him that he "usually cried in the bathroom".
Professional wrestling career
Continental Wrestling Entertainment (2015 – 2020)
At the age of 24, Malhotra joined Continental Wrestling Entertainment in 2015. He was officially announced as a CWE Superstar named Shanky Singh on 21 June 2016 through the official YouTube channel of CWE. On 26 June 2016, Hindustan Times uploaded a video on YouTube which showed Shanky Singh was singing the song Janam Janam from the 2015 Bollywood film Dilwale while The Great Khali and others sitting next to him Shanky Singh had his first televised match against Manish Singh on 26 July 2016 which he won through pinfall after delivering a Chokeslam. On 5 September 2016, he won the Battle Royal. He defeated Shallu Cena through submission by Hell's Gate on 10 September 2016. He won the Royal Rumble match on 17 October 2016 at Panipat, Haryana, India shortly before being attacked by Brody Steele and his friends. Shanky defeated Pankaj on 12 November 2016. On 22 March 2017, he announced that he is being selected for the WWE tryouts in Dubai, United Arab Emirates and thanked his parents and The Great Khali for supporting him. On 29 March 2017 he Chokeslamed an Indian police officer Pandey on the other police officer and some pedestrians and soon escaped with his bike because Pandey ordered Shanky to stop his push-ups at the middle of the street, this began a feud with the two police officers. As part of the feud, the two police officers who reappeared caught Shanky at the border post but Shanky escaped. the two he won the CWE World Heavyweight Championship on 7 May 2018 by defeating Faruqua Khan. He also a 1-time CWE Tag Team Champion with The Giant Wonder. His feud with Faruqua Khan is well known. He won CWE's first royal rumble match on 28 February 2016 in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India by lastly eliminating Super Khalsa.
WWE (2017, 2020-Present)
Malhotra travelled to Dubai, United Arab Emirates in March 2017 where he gave the 5-day audition for WWE tryout and got selected. In November 2017, WWE conducted another tryout in Jalandhar, Punjab, India at Continental Wrestling Entertainment. The WWE tryout was led by the Senior Director of Talent for WWE Canyon Ceman and WWE NXT trainer Norman Smiley. They were impressed with the performances of Laxmi Kant Rajpoot/Rudra, Sukhi Grewal, The Giant Wonder, Shanky Singh, Dinesh Kumar, Panjak, Sahil Sangwan and Kavita Devi. On 29th of January it was announced by WWE that they have recruited three trainees from india in which gurvinder along with Laxmi Kant Rajpoot and Sukvinder Grewal have been recruited in WWE performance centre.
