I love wrestling. However, thanks to Spike! being part of a special package in my cable area, and outside obligations that often take place on Monday nights, I’m often only able to catch SmackDown on a given week.
In reality, that’s fine with me. SmackDown has better Divas (in my humble opinion) and they have the last two really good things going for the WWE: Undertaker and Big Show. (Yes, that means I’m not a big Cena fan. I find that he’s like Hogan without the campy comic book appeal.)
But I like to fix things, and you only fix what’s broken. In this case, it’s the “Great Khali.”
Not that I always comment on the rest of y’all’s work, but I do read most of it. Therefore, I’m fully aware that I’m not the first person to hold the opinion that “Great Khali sucks majorly.”
However, I see potential there. If I didn’t, I’d be screaming to scrap the character all together.
I’m of the belief that if the WWE made the following changes to his character, he’d be far more marketable and would be able to provide SmackDown with something they don’t have.
Find a new Manager
Dave Kapoor (Runjin Singh) seems like a fine man. However, the character himself is just not right for what Khali is.
Khali needs a manager both because he speaks poor English, and because his character just wouldn’t seem right without one.
The problem is that Kapoor, in his current incarnation, isn’t right for a manager at all. Thinking back to past relevant managers and today’s only true manager, Tony Atlas, they’re all great instigators who in themselves are, or were, great characters.
In fact, the only relevant manager in pro-wrestling history who wasn’t in that mold was Miss Elizabeth, but she didn’t really need to do that anyway.
Kapoor’s character needs to become just that: a character. Right now, he’s just some dorky looking Indian guy who makes Khali seem more sideshow than main event. That statement provides the perfect segue to my next proposed change.
Eliminate the Khali Kiss Cam
The only good thing the Cam provides is a chance to take an extended bathroom or snack break.
Unlike some of the other in-ring interviews/gimmicks, there’s never any real excitement for the Cam (except for when you realize it’s about to be over), and it leaves you feeling bad for Khali, bad for the poor girl in the ring, and bad for yourself, because you wish just once they’d bring in somebody attractive.
The Cam just makes him seem like a weird sideshow than a legitimate title contender.
Turn Khali into a full heel or full face
Right now, Khali still seems to walk the line between heel and face. The WWE should pick one for him and stick with it. As I look at it, there is no way they can lose should they do that.
Remember the last really marketable freakishly big heel with a flamboyant yet feisty manager? That worked out pretty well, didn’t it?
The other option is to turn him face; Khali: Protector of good, even though he doesn’t understand you. But with the help of his manager he appears wherever aid is needed.
Turning him face seems even better, since SmackDown doesn’t have a true face (Jeff Hardy and Triple H are anti-heroes at best). And lastly…
Give him a real feud
One of the biggest problems with Khali is that he has no problems. It’s hard to love or hate a character who doesn’t have real feuds, isn’t competing for any titles, and doesn’t work in a tag team.
Personally, I’d like to see him feud with Vlad Kozlov. Other than being a great use of “unstoppable force” (Kozlov) meets “immovable object” (Khali) it could probably even be fueled by tensions of two newcomers to America trying to claim what they feel they should at least be given shots at.
Or maybe I’m getting too deep for wrestling…
Final Synopsis
Khali is big man without the tools to be marketed properly. Without a feud and only cheap gimmicks being given to him, he’s like a ship without port (or the Big East: A conference without a BCS game).
But, unlike some of the WWE’s problems, this one has hope to be fixed.