Tiger Jeet Singh

Born on 3rd April, Jagjeet Singh Hans is an Indian-Canadian semi-retired professional wrestler. He is known better by his ring name Tiger Jeet Singh. He was well-known for his elaborate ring entrances and generally performed as a heel. In Japan, he wrestled for around 22 years and was the very first professional wrestler to defeat sumo wrestler Wajima Hiroshi. Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling's World Martial Arts Heavyweight Championship was held by him. He also headlined the company's flagship event Anniversary Show in 1992.

Hans began wrestling in the 1960s. He emigrated from his hometown in Punjab to Canada, arriving with just $6 in his pocket. Hans was trained in Toronto under Fred Atkins. He eventually signed with Frank Tunney who is a Toronto wrestling promoter. Atkins dubbed Hans "Tiger" after witnessing his ferocious style of fighting. In 1965, Tiger made his Maple Leaf Gardens debut wrestling as a heel. His first major event was in Toronto. It was a tag match late that year, teaming with Professor Hiro for taking on the team of Johnny Powers and Sweet Daddy Siki. He started teaming with Fred Atkins in 1966. They became the best team in Toronto by defeating Whipper Billy Watson and Bulldog Brower. This is for the international tag title in July 1966. Singh and Atkins wrestled at or near the top of the card through 1966 and 1967.

He also fought in the US wrestling circuits, grappling with his opponents such as Sweet Daddy Siki, Hans Schmidt, André the Giant, Whipper Billy Watson, and "Bulldog" Dick Brower. Johnny Valentine is defeated by him for the Toronto version of the US title. He wrestled Gene Kiniski for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship in the summer of 1967 and, in the fall, twice challenged Bruno Sammartino for the WWWF Championship. Singh in February 1971 wrestled The Sheik in the main event of the first wrestling show in Maple Leaf Gardens history for attracting a sell-out crowd of over 18,000. Singh and his wife have three sons. One of his sons is a former World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) wrestler Tiger Ali Singh.

In Milton Ontario, a public elementary school is opened in September 2010 and has been named after Singh despite many community concerns about the appropriateness of naming a public school after a professional wrestler. Local author and historian John Challinor II made a presentation and stressed that the honor should be made based on the philanthropy works of Tiger Jeet Singh.

By: Preeti Narula

Content: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger_Jeet_Singh