Former WWE star who tried another sport before wrestling now lives a very different life as a monk
The wrestling world, especially WWE, attracts athletes from all over with different backgrounds. But once they leave, some of them go on to live very different lives. WWE fans know about big stars like John Cena and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson who became movie stars. However, Stuart Tomlinson went back to playing football after wrestling for several years.
Now, there’s new footage of a former WWE star living a completely different life as a monk. Rinku Singh Rajput, also known as Veer Mahaan, is an Indian wrestler who signed with WWE in January 2018 and stayed with them until April 2024, when he was released.
A video shows Mahaan (Rinku Singh) dressed like a Hindu monk, meeting with a spiritual leader named Maharaj ji. He tells him that without growing spiritually, all the fame and money in the world doesn’t mean much—it’s empty. This has made fans wonder if Rinku Singh, who was once a baseball player and WWE wrestler, has left his old life behind and chosen a path of celibacy, meditation, learning, and service.
Before wrestling, Rinku was a pro baseball player and actually the first Indian to play in a US professional baseball game in July 2009 with the Gulf Coast League Pirates. He kept playing baseball professionally until November 2016, joining several teams across America.
Rinku Singh and another pitcher, Dinesh Patel, had their early baseball journey made into a Disney movie called Million Dollar Arm. The film stars Jon Hamm, Bill Paxton, Suraj Sharma, and Madhur Mittal.
Having competed in two of the world’s highest-paid sports, Rinku Singh’s decision to leave that lifestyle behind and focus on spirituality has caught the attention of many fans.