Real name: Jagit Singh Hans
Popular wrestler in Toronto in the late 1960s and 1970s. Wrestled as a crazed heel in most other areas. Used the cobra (sleeper) as his finisher.
Made his Maple Leaf Gardens debut in 1965, wrestling as a heel. His first main event in Toronto was in a tag match late that year, teaming with Professor Hiro to take on the team of Johnny Powers and Sweet Daddy Siki. Began teaming with Fred Atkins in 1966. Became the top team in Toronto by defeating Whipper Billy Watson and Bulldog Brower for the international tag title in July 1966. Singh and Atkins wrestled at or near the top of the card through 1966 and 1967.

Made his solo debut in a Maple Leaf Gardens main event in April 1967, defeating the Mighty Igor. Defeated Johnny Valentine for the Toronto version of the U.S. title the following month. Wrestled Gene Kiniski for the NWA title in the summer of 1967 and, in the fall, twice challenged Bruno Sammartino for the WWWF title. With Wild Bull Curry, again defeated Watson and Brower to win the international tag title in 1968. Turned babyface late in 1968. In February 1971, wrestled The Sheik in the main event of the first wrestling show in Maple Leaf Gardens history to attract a sell-out crowd of over 18,000 (there had been sell-outs before, but more seats had since been crammed into the Gardens to allow a capacity crowd of 18,000). Wrestled The Sheik 12 times at the Gardens from 1971-1974. I think it's fair to say that Singh learned a lot from Sheik, since his wildman persona in Japan, Australia, and most areas of the world outside of Toronto was very similar to Sheik.

Won the IWA tag title in Australia in 1971 with Mr. Fuji, defeating Mark Lewin & King Curtis Iaukea. Began wrestling in Japan in 1973, arriving with a bang by attacking Antonio Inoki outside a Tokyo department store in October. Inoki got even by "breaking Singh's arm" in a 1974 match. Defeated Inoki to win the NWF world title in 1975. Lost the belt to Inoki three months later. Defeated Seiji Sakaguchi in 1976 to win the NWF Asian title and remained champion until jumping to All Japan in mid-1981. Wrestled in the main event of the joint New Japan-All Japan card in Tokyo in 1978, teaming with Abdullah the Butcher to take on the Japanese dream team of Inoki & Giant Baba.

Defeated El Canek to win the UWA heavyweight title in Mexico in 1980. Lost the title to Inoki a couple months later, regained it, and then dropped it back to Canek in 1981.
Back in Toronto, had one final match for Frank Tunney against Sheik in 1977 when he subbed for no-show Dusty Rhodes. Defeated Ric Flair in Toronto in 1979 and, in the same year, challenged Nick Bockwinkel for the AWA title at the Gardens. Made his final Gardens appearance for Tunney in 1983.
Continued to wrestle in Japan in the 1980s and 1990s, and would make occasional appearances on indie shows in the Toronto area. In 1990, teamed with Inoki to defeat Big Van Vader & Animal Hamaguchi in the main event of Inoki's 30th anniversary show in Yokohama. Feuded with Atsushi Onita in FMW in 1992. Wrestled in the main event of the first Heisei Ishingun card in Tokyo in 1994, losing to Shiro Koshinaka with Inoki as referee.
His palatial 14,000 sq. ft. home can be spotted from Highway 401 on the south side near Milton. A 1997 newspaper article put his net worth at $9.6 million, based on court documents from a criminal fraud charge against Singh and others (charges against Singh were dropped in 1994, but in 1997 a judge said he had not been forthright in his testimony).

His son Mick (Gurdip) has wrestled as Tiger Ali Singh in the WWF and as Tiger Jeet Singh Jr. in Japan.

"Tiger Jeet Singh, sensational 24-year-old lad from Punjab, India, is the new United States Champion by virtue of a victory over Johnny Valentine following a hectic match in Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens. Managed and trained by that "Hard Rock from Down Under" Fred Atkins, Singh has swept aside all opposition. Atkins is high in his praise of his newest protege and feels he is entitled to a championship match with either Bruno Sammartino or Gene Kiniski. Singh is an expert in judo and karate and uses those tactics to wear down his foes, then finishes them off with his feared Cobra hold, one of the most dangerous in the business." (From WRESTLING REVIEW, August 1968)

Prominent Titles:

U.S. champion (Toronto), 1968-72
IWA World tag champion (Australia), with Mr. Fuji, 1971
International champion (Montreal), 1974
Canadian tag champion (Vancouver), with Dennis Stamp, 1975
NWF World champion (New Japan), 1975
NWF Asian champion (New Japan), 1976
NWF North American tag champion (New Japan), with Umanosuke Ueda, 1977
NWF North American champion (New Japan), 1979
2-time UWA World heavyweight champion (Mexico), 1980-81
NWA International tag champion (All Japan), with Umanosuke Ueda, 1983
WWA World Martial Arts champion (Japan), 1992

She Has a Pimp’s Name Etched on Her

NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

We think of branding as something ranchers do to their cattle. But it’s also what pimps do to women and girls they control across America.

Taz, a 16-year-old girl here in New York City, told me that her pimp had branded three other girls with tattoos bearing his name. When she refused the tattoo, she said, he held her down and carved his name on her back with a safety pin.

More about Taz in a moment. That kind of branding isn’t universal, but it’s very common. An alleged pimp indicted last month in Manhattan is accused of tattooing his street name on a prostitute’s neck, along with a bar code. He allegedly tattooed another prostitute with a symbol of his name on her pubic area, along with a dollar sign. In each case, the message was clear: They were his property, and they were for sale.

Such branding is a reminder that women being sold on the streets in America are — not always, but often — victims rather than criminals. That consciousness is spreading, and we are finally seeing considerable progress in tackling domestic sex trafficking.

So far, in 2012, states have passed more than 40 laws relating to human trafficking, according to Megan Fowler of Polaris Project, an anti-trafficking organization.

Prosecutors and police are increasingly targeting pimps and johns, and not just the women and girls who are their victims. In Manhattan, the district attorney’s office recently started a sex trafficking program and just secured its most comprehensive indictments for sex trafficking. Likewise, a federal prosecutor in Virginia brought sex trafficking charges last month against a man accused of selling a 14-year-old girl in several states.

Now President Obama is said to be planning an initiative on human trafficking. I’m hoping that he will direct the attorney general to make sex trafficking a higher federal priority and call on states to pass “safe harbor” laws that treat prostituted teenage girls as victims rather than criminals.

The other important shift is growing pressure on Backpage.com, a classified advertising Web site that dominates the sex trafficking industry. Calls for Village Voice Media, which owns Backpage, to end its links to sex trafficking have come from attorneys general from 48 states, dozens of mayors from around the country, and some 240,000 Americans who have signed a petition on Change.org.

Resolutions are pending in the Senate and House calling on Village Voice Media to get out of this trade. At least 34 advertisers have dropped Village Voice Media publications, including the flagship, Village Voice in New York City.

In its defense, Village Voice Media notes that it screens ads and cooperates with the police. That’s true, but Taz — the 16-year-old with her former pimp’s name carved into her back — told me that three-quarters of her “dates” had come from Backpage.

I met Taz at Gateways, a treatment center outside New York City. She told me that she ran away from home in New York City at the age of 14 and eventually ended up in the hands of a violent 20-year-old pimp who peddled her on Backpage.

Skeptics mostly believe that prostitutes sell sex voluntarily, while anti-trafficking advocates sometimes suggest that they are almost all forced into the trade. The truth is more complicated.

Taz wasn’t locked up, and, at times, she felt a romantic bond with her pimp. She distrusted the police — with reason, for when officers found her in December, they arrested her and locked her up for four months in juvenile detention.

Yet Taz wasn’t exactly selling sex by choice, either. She said her pimp issued his four girls a daily quota of money to earn; if they didn’t, he would beat them. They could never leave, either, Taz said, and she explained what happened when her pimp caught her trying to run away:

“I got drowned,” she recalled. “He choked me, put me in the tub, and when I woke up, I was drowning. He said he’d kill me if I left.”

Another time, Taz says, she tried to call 911. “He hit me over the head with a glass bottle,” she recalls. Then he ordered another of his girls to sweep up the broken glass.

I bet the police looked at Taz and saw an angry, defiant prostitute who hated them and didn’t want to be rescued. There was an element of truth to that. But there’s another side as well, now visible, and it underscores the importance of helping these girls rather than giving up on them. Taz is emerging as a smart, ambitious girl with dazzling potential. She loves reading and writing, and when I asked her what she wanted to be when she grows up, she smiled a bit self-consciously.

“I’d like to be a pediatrician,” she said.