It has been reported universally that Khosrow Ali Vaziri, the world champion and celebrity known to the world as The Iron Sheik, has passed away. He was 81.
Vaziri was born in Damghan, in northern Iran. He lived in a village without electricity or water, and his family was poor. As a child, he saw wrestling as his way out, idolizing Gholamreza Takhti, the winner of the gold medal in 1956 in Melbourne and three-time finalist at the Olympics. His first big job was as bodyguard for Shah Reza Pahlavi; while doing that, he trained in wrestling and became an Olympian in 1968 in Mexico City.
He immigrated to the US after the Olympics and helped coach Team USA, but not before proving his own mettle with an AAU win in the Greco-Roman discipline. In Munich in 1972, Vaziri was a coach for the US wrestlers, helping them win three gold medals (Ben Peterson, Wayne Wells, and Dan Gable) as well as two silvers (Richard Sanders and John Peterson) and one bronze (Chris Taylor), albeit all in freestyle wrestling.
A visit to the USA camp by former Olympian Verne Gagne got Vaziri an invitation to turn professional. After studying under Gagne and Billy Robinson, he debuted as Ali Vaziri while also helping with the AWA Camp, counting Jim Brunzell and Greg Gagne among his students. A few years into his career, a territory promoter whose name has been lost to history asked why Vaziri didn’t play up his heritage more when he wrestled.
Vaziri, never one to do things halfway, agreed. In came the headdress, the bald look, the spectacularly thick mustache, and the curly boots. In addition, he began to show his prowess with Persian club exercises, daring his opponents to be as good at it as he was. And yes, more than once those clubs were used as weapons.
Vaziri would be remembered as just another foreigner, except real life changed his fortunes. The Shah that Vaziri had been bodyguard for was overthrown in a violent coup by Ayatollah Khomeini, and in the process, US diplomats were taken hostage. Suddenly, Iran was up with the USSR as the foreign enemy du jour, and Vaziri capitalized. Taking the name Hossein Arab, he became more in demand, even doing a tour of Japan and battling Antonio Inoki.
Vince J. McMahon saw the chance to capitalize on the current events and brought Arab in for a run in the WWF. he even had a title match with Bob Backlund, albeit a losing effort in 1980 after a 30-minute battle. Other foes during this run included the legendary Bruno Sammartino and Chief Jay Strongbow.
It was in Jim Crockett Promotions in 1981 that Hossein garnered the name that would make him famous, The Iron Sheik. His first feud there was against former student Brunzell, and it ended with Sheik getting his first major singles title, the NWA Mid-Atlantic Championship. He eventually lost the title to Ricky Steamboat before engaging in a violent feud with Blackjack Mulligan, ending in cage matches around the horn.
After swings through Southern territories, the Sheik returned to the WWF in 1983 and challenged Backlund to the Persian Club swing-off. Backlund could do the exercise as well as Sheik, causing Sheik to attack from behind and use the clubs to weaken Backlund’s neck. In their subsequent title match, this became a big deal; Backlund looked for an O’Connor Roll, but because of his neck he couldn’t keep the bridge. Sheik pounced and put on the Camel Clutch, but Backlund refused to give up. Eventually, Arnold Skaaland (Backlund’s cornerman) threw in the towel, and Sheik had ended Backlund’s five-year reign atop the WWF.
Sheik did have a few successful title defenses, mostly against Strongbow, Pat Patterson, and Tito Santana, but his reign wasn’t meant to last. On January 23, 1984, he took part in what is on the shortlist for most important wrestling matches in history, as his opponent powered out of the Camel Clutch and pinned him in under ten minutes to become the WWF Champion. That man: Hulk Hogan. The day has since been called The Birth of Hulkamania.
(Okay, sidebar needed here: it’s long been rumored that other promoters didn’t want Hogan to become champion, because they saw the same dollar signs Vince K. McMahon did. For a long time, the thought was that Iron Sheik was contacted by other people to go into business for himself and cripple Hogan in that match. Sheik, in his 2005 WWE Hall of Fame address, even said the same thing, mentioning Verne Gagne by name. Verne’s family, especially his son Greg, adamantly deny the claim, though. Still, claims like this are why Lou Thesz was champ for so long. Okay, back to our regularly scheduled column.)
After the quick title change, Sheik was paired with his fellow Freddie Blassie protege, Nikolai Volkoff. In a shocking result at the original WrestleMania, the duo caputed the WWF Tag Team titles from Barry Windham and Mike Rotundo when Blassie’s cane became involved. The duo had perfected their pre-match routine to get the crowd riled up. First, Volkoff would demand respect as he “sang” the Soviet national anthem. Then, Sheik would shout at the audience, usually ending with “Iran Number 1, Russia Number 1, USA: hock-ptooie.”
The Express would win them back in June of that year. Sheik and Volkoff became filler in the tag team division, with their management being passed off from Blassie to a new manager known as Slick. After appearing in the NFL Crossover battle royal at WrestleMania 2, the duo faced Brunzell and his new partner Brian Blair at WrestleMania III in a match that ended in DQ.
We’ll get back to that match later.
On May 1987, while traveling the road, he and Jim Duggan were pulled over by police as Duggan had been driving erratically. Turns out with good reason: Duggan was drunk and on marijuana, and the Sheik was coked up. In a scandal not to be repeated until the RVD/Sabu fiasco of 2006, both men became tabloid fodder — not just for being on drugs, but for (gasp) traveling together despite being heated rivals! The WWF fired both men on the pretense of their drug use, then brought them back when the smoke cleared. Duggan worked hard and got back in the WWF’s good graces. Sheik, with his mobility diminishing, didn’t, and he never made TV again.
Still, he had residual heat and was a competent ring general, so WCW kicked the tires on him in 1989. He was mainly used to build up TV champion Sting, then as a veteran in a rookie/vet tag team with a burgeoning Ron Simmons. Late in the year, he told Paul E. Dangerously that he was looking for a new partner for Simmons. While Simmons would get that new partner (Butch Reed), they wouldn’t be under Sheik’s guidance, as he left in early 1991.
With the Iraq War now fully in the spotlight, Vince McMahon brought Sheik back to add to the army of top heel and Iraqi representative Sgt. Slaughter. Now dubbed Col. Mustafa, Sheik was teaming with Slaughter and representing Iraq, a decision that made no sense on multiple levels. It did, however, mean one more main event at Madison Square Garden, as Mustafa, Slaughter, and their manager Gen. Adnan (Al-Kaissie) lost to Hulk Hogan and Ultimate Warrior in a handicap match.
With the war being seen as a footnote in US history and Slaughter being returned to his original status via an apology tour, Mustafa found himself in the lower card. He did enter the 1992 Royal Rumble for the vacant WWF Title, but by this time he meant very little and was eliminated unceremoniously. This was basically the end of Sheik’s in-ring career. He would return in 1997 to manage The Sultan (Rikishi under a mask) and Tiger Ali Singh, but didn’t last long.
There were two more high-profile matches in Sheik’s career: the Heroes of Wrestling show, where he teamed with Nikolai Volkoff to face the Bushwackers, and the Gimmick Battle Royal. As this is an appreciation, we’ll focus on the latter: Sheik won the event, last eliminating Sgt. Slaughter, his old nemesis. Slaughter returned to give him the Cobra Clutch for old times’ sake.
In 2004, Sheik sat down to do a retrospective interview with MWF Studios and Dan Maloney. During the interview, the WrestleMania III match came up. In what became one of the most legendary moments in shoot interview history, Sheik segued himself into a bizarre, over the top, homophobic rant about Brian Blair, claiming he wanted to “make him humble [the] old country way”. (Interestingly, it was Brunzell whom Sheik had in the Clutch when Duggan got the Killer Bees DQ’d, but that’s the least of our problems here.) Sheik and his repeated threats of suplexes, Camel Clutches, broken backs, etc., became an Internet darling in the moment.
Now with the reputation of being a crazy grandpa, Sheik was welcomed back in the WWE as a legend cameo. He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2005, thrilling the crowd with a clean (thankfully) but enthusiastic speech in his thick Persian accent. (Bobby Heenan, the next presenter, opened by pointing at Sheik and saying: “What the hell did he say!?”) Sheik would appear randomly on Raw from that point on, including teasing a match against Windham and Rotundo for old-times sake, but his new identity was Twitter icon. Often posting in all-caps, he (or his publicity staff) continued to play on the notoriety of his comments, often referring to people as “THE REAL” or “THE JABRONI”. Sheik’s disdain for Hulk Hogan was a frequent running gag.
Sadly, Sheiky Baby’s personal life wasn’t as rosy as his professional appearance. His oldest daughter Marissa was murdered by her boyfriend in 2003, sending Sheik into a downward spiral and re-igniting his addiction to cocaine (which makes the MWF Studio rant a little more explainable). He finally got clean in 2009, but not before failed trips to rehab in which he got cocaine smuggled in and almost losing his family. Fortunately, all turned out well, Sheik kicked the habit, and he and his wife lived happily ever after.
Sheik is a former WWF singles and tag champion, a former NWA Mid-Altantic Champion, a former NWA Georgia TV champion, and won several territorial titles. In 1980, the Observer called him the most underrated wrestler in the US. He is in the WWE Hall of Fame, the NWA Hall of Fame, and the Tragos/Thesz Hall of Fame.
He won titles, he won our hearts, and he won the Internet. Thanks for the memories, Khosrow. There will only ever be one Iron Sheik.