#4 Cory 'LA Giant' Peterson
Apart from Khali’s lack of mobility, yet another significant criticism regarding the ‘Punjabi Playboy’ was his inability to learn and speak proper English in spite of spending more than a decade of travelling and working in English-speaking countries.
Not only that, even though he did develop a basic understanding of the language as evidenced by several WWE promo-segments (the Khali kiss-cam, et al), his mic-skills were terrible, even in his native language of Hindi!
Enter Corey ‘LA Giant’ Peterson - a lower-tier MMA fighter with a professional MMA record of 2-1; best known for losing to Heavyweight MMA legend Sergei Kharitonov.
Peterson was an MMA pro for merely a year (2004) but was 7’0’ tall with vocabulary skills that would put Khali’s translator Ranjin Singh to shame.
Although he wasn’t a great MMA fighter, he was more than capable of besting Khali’s zombie-like manoeuvres and certainly wouldn’t bring the sheer awkwardness that the Indian giant brought to the WWE ring.
With Khali being billed as 7’3” by the WWE and the ‘LA Giant’ standing at 7’0”, the head-honchos at the WWE HQ could have utilised the American giant in several storylines that Khali participated in, including his initial run as a heel as well as the post-2008 ‘Playboy’ gimmick.
Picture an English-speaking American giant in place of Khali’s non-audible babble in rivalries against Dolph Ziggler, Kane, Batista, Rey Mysterio and several others. Which brings us to...
