Nuff said. When Tiger Ali Singh says you should be there….BE THERE!
troys diner
Troys Toy Drive Huge Success
Even in the early hours of Monday morning you could feel the excitement. I got to Troy’s Diner Best Western location shortly after 6AM to a full parking lot and over a hundred people running about.
City TV’s Breakfast Television was setting up their live feed as the toys were being put into the trailers for their journey to the Salvation Army, Sick Kids Hospital and Halton Womens Place to put smiles on childrens faces for Christmas morning.
They actually had to call in another trailer as the two they had in place were filled to the brim and almost overflowing.
Among the notables in attendance was Canada’s most famous hockey dad Walter Gretzky who worked the room non stop talking to kids of all ages, signing autographs and smiling for pictures. This man has no ends to his energy and is truly a classy gentleman. Johnny Bower was also running around to the delight of Leaf fans in the room. Santa-Tiger Ali Singh could be seen signing autographs with his father Tiger Jeet Singh recounting their years in professional wrestling.
Even I got a picture with “The Champ”
The tables were filled with silent auction items that ranged from signed merchandise by Walter and Johnny to Raptors Tickets and other great prizes. Congratulations to Troy, his staff and all the volunteers that put countless hours of effort to make this drive the best yet. I havent heard any official numbers but I do know last years total was blown away BIG TIME. This event also wouldnt be what it is without the efforts and dedication of Tiger Jeet Singh and Tiger Ali Singh and their family.
Its heartwarming to know that there will be a few more smiles on kids faces this Christmas morning because of the generosity and love of all those involved.
Great job by all. Merry Christmas.
What to do for New Years?
As 2010 draws to a close and 2011 is rushing quickly towards us, I wanted to point out a couple of fun events happening at the Town of Milton on both New Years Eve and New Years Day!
Join Mayor Gord Krantz, Milton Historical Society and members of town council at Victoria Park to “SING OUT THE OLD & RING IN THE NEW” for an old fashioned New Years Eve celebration. Bundle up and bring your voices and instruments to sing carols and some holiday cheer. The Mayor and a special citizen will ring in the New Year at midnight. We will be gathering around 1130PM on Friday December 31st in Victoria Park which is right beside Milton Town Hall.
If you cant make it that late, you can join us the next day at Milton Town Hall for the Annual New Years Levee. Join the Mayor and members of council from 2PM to 4PM for some refreshments (courtesy of Troy’s Diner, Tim Horton’s and La Rose Bakery) while the Milton Seniors SONG SPINNERS entertains the crowd with seasonal numbers.
For more information you can email me, contact any member of council or call (519) 853-3772
There are a lot of things to do in Milton this holiday season so please join us in celebrating 2010 and looking forward to a great, prosperous and healthy 2011!
Dont Forget Troy’s Toy Drive on December 20th
Troy has been hard at work collecting donations for the Toy Drive over the last several weeks. If you walk into the downtown location of Troy’s Diner you will see examples of the generosity of Milton residents on display.
Recently Troy and TigerAli Singh were out buying over $10,000 in toys for the kids. Thats simply amazing.
You can join Troy, the Tigers and many of us on December 20th at the Best Western location of Troy’s Diner where Breakfast Television will be brodcasting live. The list of special guests continues to grow and as soon as I have confirmation, I’ll announce them here.
As always you can go to www.troysdiner.com for more information.
I look forward to seeing you there.
Milton Santa Claus Parade 2010
It was a little chilly but still an entertaining day on Main Street in Milton. Thousands of people despite the cold wind and the snow earlier on in the day made their way to downtown Milton for its annual Santa Claus Parade. Over 50 floats made their way down Main Street to sing songs, dance, and promote a wonderful family oriented holiday season.
MiltonToday TV was there live online … I didn’t get a chance to go over and say HI but they apparently did a very good job broadcasting the parade online. I’ll have to go check them out. From where we were (in front of Knox Presp. Church) you could see the MiltonToday HQ. Milton’s parade gets better and better as the years go on and this one didnt disappoint. Mrs. Claus apparently needed some extra time to get her make up ready according to one of the parade marshals Colin Best but it took only about 2 hours for the parade be completed.
Troy’s Diner had an amazing float and a collection of dancers that knocked the socks off of a lot of people along the parade route. Speaking with Tiger Ali Singh at Troy’s later this evening, he said next year was going to be bigger … and better. “TIGER STYLE” as he put it. You know its going to be big!
The Shriners as always did an amazing job. Anthony now wants to see if he can ride those motorized scooters around soon. Im almost afraid of what he would do in one of those. The dancers from all the different groups looked cold but were still going strong at the half way point in the parade. The parade was full of energy and shouts of “MERRY CHRISTMAS” can be heard all over the route.
Here are just some of the pictures we took along the parade route. We had a fabulous time and congratulations to the organizational committee for another well done event.
Tigerfest is TOMORROW
As Tiger Ali Singh says….”BE THERE!”
This event has garnered national attention. Check out the article from SLAM!
TigerFest debuts this weekend in Milton
By GREG OLIVER – Producer, SLAM! Wrestling
With a new Milton, Ontario public school named after him opening this fall, Tiger Jeet Singh is out preaching his message: “Stay in school, say no to drugs, stay Tiger-fit.”
“That’s the three things I’m saying, I’m preaching all over. I can’t go everywhere, but the demand is so strong we are getting invitations to schools, temples,” the 65-year-old Singh said.
By now, the story Jagit Singh Hans, who came to Canada from India with nothing, became an internationally-famous wrestler, and then an important land developer and philanthropist in his adopted country is well known, thanks in part to a widely-aired documentary, Tiger!
To celebrate the school and other blessings, Singh is teaming with his son, former WWE star Tiger Ali Singh, and Squared Circle Training, to promote an all-day wrestling event, TigerFest 2010, as a part of the Downtown Milton Street Festival on Saturday, June 5th. The community’s top amateur high school grapplers will compete during the day, followed a free pro wrestling show at 5 p.m., featuring Sonjay Dutt, Robbie MacAllister of the Highlanders, Greg Valentine, and Steve Corino. Proceeds will go to the Milton District Hospital Foundation. (More info at www.tigerjeetsingh.com.)
Sidelined by concussion issues in 2001, Tiger Ali, 37, has only competed in a handful of bouts in Japan since. He will be strapping on the boots for a hometown crowd.
“We thought, you know what, we have that celebrity, let’s use it for drawing in the people from outside of Milton, from all southern Ontario,” said Tiger Ali Singh. “From what we’ve heard, we have people traveling in, flying in, because this will be the first time I think I’ve fought since the formerly-known SkyDome with WWE in the late ’90s.”
If it seems like the Singhs have come out of seclusion, that is because they have. Tiger Ali’s concussion, suffered in Puerto Rico while employed by WWE, was his third in nine months. It resulted in a long struggle back and a lot of resentment — and a lawsuit — against the wrestling company.
“Forget about wrestling, I was just trying to get my life back health-wise. It took about three years, and then when I finally did, during that three years, I was just mellowing in sorrow, getting depressed,” Tiger Ali admitted. “I was very, very fortunate to have a loving family, parents, great friends, support group, that during that time of healing health-wise, I also moved on with my life and went back into the family foundation of what business was, which was land development and real estate.
“By the time my health came around, I was so engrossed in it, that I really didn’t have any time to look at pro wrestling.”
At least in North America. The Singhs attempted to lead a tour of India, that fell apart at the last minute with all the wrestlers already in the country. Protecting the image of Tiger Jeet Singh was important once the backers of the tour bailed, said Tiger Ali. “In India, we couldn’t compromise. That’s why we took the bulls by the horn when some of the promoters left, and Dad held a press conference, we sat with all the proper authorities and we made sure, out of pocket, that we paid each and every talent guarantees, even though the promoters had left.
“Reputation is everything, what goes around comes around, we wanted to make sure if were coming back to do events again, that none of the talent would be apprehensive.”
In mid-May, the Singhs went to their first fan fest, in New Jersey and were overwhelmed.
“We weren’t expecting anybody to want our autographs. The reason? I never wrestled in the States, and Junior, he’d been out of the business for so many years. People forget. But it was unbelievable,” said Tiger Jeet. “The crowd was amazing, and the people, all the old memories, and especially my old, old buddies.”
One of those friends was Nikolai Volkoff. “He closed his booth. He was selling pictures,” recalled Tiger Jeet. “He came and gave me a big hug. ‘Tiger, tell me something, is that your second life? Shit, you look so young!’ Then I told him, ‘Human beings never get old. The only reason you get old is if you have some stress or problem. God is great, we are fine and we are happy.'”
Giving back has always been important to the Singhs, and TigerFest is their second fundraising effort alongside Troy Newton, who Tiger Ali met more than a decade ago through Owen Hart. Though they were all from Milton, they never kept in touch.
Reacquainted at the Milton Walk of Fame ceremony, where Tiger Jeet Singh and Tiger Ali Singh were honoured alongside other names such as “Mr. Dressup” Ernie Coombs, astronaut Chris Hadfield and NHL players and referees John Tonelli, Peter McDuffe, Enio Sclisizzi, Mike Kaszycki, Leon Stickle and Bruce Hood, Newton recruited the Singhs to help with his Christmas Toy Drive.
“That bug hit us at that time,” said Tiger Ali. “We’ve always been there, dad and I, whenever a charity called.”
Always well-dressed, often sporting massive watches and rings, Tiger Jeet is honest about his wealth.
“They ask, ‘How much your net worth?’ I say, ‘Enough,'” he said. “I’m living very simple. I like to do a lot of charity work, like helping children. And God is great, he give us his blessing, like I never expected in my life.”