The Iron Sheikh, a Corridor of Famer wrestler who turned a rogue star within the Eighties by taking over Hulk Hogan and teaming up with a wrestler claiming to characterize the Soviet Union, died in his sleep early Wednesday morning at his house in Fayetteville. Ga. He was both 81 (in keeping with his passport) or 80 (in keeping with his statements).
The demise was confirmed by his managers, Web page and Jian Magen, who stated they didn’t know the trigger.
Overseas-style heels are a time-honored custom in skilled wrestling, and the Iron Sheikh, whose official identify was Khosrow Vaziri, turned one of the vital well-known of all of them.
The Sheik loosely drew on his Iranian heritage to create a caricature of a Center Japanese villain. He wore a thick mustache, boots with ruffled toes and kaffiyeh, oriental headscarves – not usually worn in Iran.
On the top of the Sheikh’s infamy and after the Iran hostage disaster in 1979, he usually stomped within the ring and waved an Iranian flag with the face of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iran’s supreme chief on the time, to align himself with stereotypical American wrestlers.
The sheikh’s signature transfer was the camel maintain, by which he would sit on an opponent’s again, put his fingers below the opposite wrestler’s chin, and pull him up. His unlucky opponent’s backbone appeared to bend like a drawn bow.
In 1983, the Sheik defeated Bob Backlund to win the World Wrestling Federation Championship. However his time with the title was quick.
A few month later, on January 23, 1984, The Sheikh defended his title to a sold-out crowd at Madison Sq. Backyard towards Hulk Hogan, then a comparatively new face to the World Wrestling Federation (now often called WWE). .
The match seemed to be going effectively for the Sheik, and he caught Hogan in a camel hitch. However Hogan received up with the Sheikh on his again and threw him towards a cornerstone.
The Sheik dropped onto the mat. Hogan jumped off the ropes, did a leg drop on the Sheik after which pinned him. It was the primary of Hogan’s six WWE Championships and the start of Hulkamania.
A long time later, the defeat nonetheless harm, stated the characterful sheikh in a 2014 interview with WWE.
“Hulk Hogan, the one factor he had was luck,” he stated. “I had a nasty night time, I misplaced my belt.”
Sergeant. Slaughter was an everyday opponent of the Sheik, later dropping a key match to him in 1984 at Madison Sq. Backyard.
The following yr, the Sheikh teamed up with Nikolai Volkoff, a Heel reportedly wrestling for the Soviet Union (he was really from Croatia), and went on to win the World Tag Group Championship on the inaugural Wrestlemania.
The Sheikh additionally strengthened his character’s anti-American rhetoric. He would usually seize a speaker’s microphone and shout “Iran #1!” Russia #1!”
He then glared on the viewers and yelled “USA!” and spit on the ground.
The group’s response could possibly be so violent that the sheikh, regardless of his ferocity within the ring, generally feared for his security.
Keith Elliot Greenberg, a wrestling historian and creator, stated in a telephone interview that he felt followers generally over-believed within the Sheikh’s character.
“The truth was that he was really a really loyal American and was grateful to the USA for the alternatives it gave him,” Greenberg stated.
Hossein Khosrow Ali Vaziri was born in Damghan, a city about 200 miles east of Tehran. His passport had March 15, 1942 as his date of start, however he wasn’t positive if it was right and celebrated his birthday on September ninth. His dad and mom, Ghassem and Maryam Vaziri, owned a farm that grew pistachios, grapes and different crops.
When he was a boy, his household moved to Tehran and opened a wrestling fitness center the place a few of Iran’s finest wrestlers skilled. He grew up with the game.
Vaziri developed right into a gifted wrestler and his notoriety landed him a job as a bodyguard for the Shah of Iran’s household. However after Olympic gold medalist Gholamreza Takhti died below mysterious circumstances in 1968, maybe as a result of he displeased the Shah, Vaziri left Iran for the USA and settled in Minneapolis.
He wrestled with an newbie membership in Minnesota, gained an Newbie Athletic Union Greco-Roman wrestling event in 1971, and served as an assistant coach for the US Olympic workforce in 1972 and 1976 earlier than making the transition to full-time skilled wrestling.
Vaziri skilled below Verne Gagne, promoter of the American Wrestling Affiliation. The concept for The Iron Sheik got here from Mary Gagne, Verne’s spouse, Mr Greenberg stated, though Vaziri has experimented with different variations of the character through the years.
In 1975 he married Caryl Peterson, who survives him. He additionally leaves behind their daughters Nicole and Tanya; a sister; and 5 grandchildren.
Within the Eighties, the sheikh started utilizing medication and consuming closely. In 1987, he and Hacksaw Jim Duggan – a babyface, pretty much as good wrestlers are known as – have been arrested on the New Jersey Turnpike after cops discovered cocaine and marijuana of their automotive.
The Sheikh appeared in a match as Sgt. Slaughter’s ally in 1991 and in 1997 he managed one other wrestler, the Sultan. However his skilled profession principally got here to a halt as his drug use elevated within the Nineteen Nineties. He has lengthy struggled with substance abuse, however in keeping with an article Mr. Greenberg wrote for Bleacher Report in 2013, he’s extra not too long ago been in a position to go with out medication aside from the occasional beer.
In 2003, his daughter Marissa, 27, was killed by her boyfriend Charles Reynolds. Vaziri stated he was contemplating attacking Mr Reynolds with a razor blade in court docket, Mr Greenberg wrote, however his household dissuaded him from doing so. Mr. Reynolds was sentenced to life imprisonment. He died in 2016.
In 2005, the Iron Sheik was inducted into the WWE Corridor of Fame.
Starting within the early 2000s, the Sheik introduced a much less inhibited model of his character to Howard Stern’s radio present to rant about numerous wrestlers. He threatened to analize rivals like Hogan and used homophobic slurs to explain the last word warrior.
Lately, the sheikh’s diatribes have surfaced on social media. His managers usually posted profanity-laced messages in all caps to a Twitter account that has almost 650,000 followers. A current piece of textual content simply stated “HOGAN” adopted by a swear phrase.
However the sheikh admitted in 2014 issues have been extra civil when he met Hogan exterior the ring.
“No person badmouths the previous,” he stated. “I get together with him.”
Alain Delaquérière contributed to the analysis.