Rhonda Sing dead at 40
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Rhonda Singh blows kisses to the crowd. -- Photo by Jim Divito
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By ETHAN BARON -- Calgary Sun
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Monster Ripper
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The world wrestling community is mourning the loss of Calgary's
(Monster Ripper) Rhonda Sing.
Sing, 40, died July 27 after a wrestling career that started at age 16 and
carried her throughout the world -- first as a Stampede wrestler, then in
World Championship Wrestling and the World Wrestling Federation.
"She was loved by the whole wrestling community," said Helen Hart,
matriarch of the legendary Hart family of wrestlers, who counted Sing as a
friend.
"She was good-natured, good-hearted, kind and very affable."
On a 1994 trip to Germany, the fearsome Sing, who stood 5-ft.-8 and weighed
260 lbs., showed Hart her gentle side.
"She fixed my hair for me -- I was so touched," Hart said.
Growing up in Calgary, Sing longed from an early age to be a wrestler.
"When I was five, I wanted to be a wrestler," she told SLAM! Wrestling
earlier this year.
"I was in kindergarten beating up the other kids. Everyone who knows me in
my neighbourhood remember me telling them I was going to be a wrestler."
Sing traced her career to local roots.
"Stampede Wrestling was a big influence because you had it on TV Saturday
mornings," she told SLAM! Wrestling.
"My mom used to go, and took us if we had been good through the week. She
always had four ringside tickets for about 20 years."
In her teens, she signed with All-Japan wrestling, and won the company's
women's title six months later.
Sing returned to Calgary in the late '80s, and started with Stampede
Wrestling in 1987.
"This was one of the best territories anyone could work in," she told SLAM!
