Hossein Khosrow Ali Vaziri, better known to professional wrestling fans as The Iron Sheik, has passed away at the age of 81, with the news revealed on Sheik’s Twitter account, which is run by his management team, earlier today.
Sheik, who was born in 1942 in the city of Damghan, Iran, credited his early interest in amateur wrestling to that of Iranian Olympic Gold-Medalist wrestler Gholamreza Takhti, and competed himself for a spot on Iran’s Greco-Roman wrestling team at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. Sheik thereafter moved to the United States, and became the Assistant Coach of two United States Olympic squads and in 1971 was the Amateur Athletic Union Greco-Roman wrestling Champion and gold medalist at 180.5 pounds.
In 1972, Sheik was invited to become a professional wrestler by promoter Verne Gagne and was the Assistant Coach to the USA Team for the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich. During his early wrestling days under Gagne, Sheik trained under Billy Robinson and worked for the American Wrestling Association (AWA), while also training names such as Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat, Greg Gagne and Jim Brunzell among others.
While Sheik will perhaps be best known to fans for his time as the WWF World Heavyweight Champion and WWF Tag Team Champion alongside Nikolai Volkoff, he also held numerous titles throughout his career and received several accolades.
During his career, Sheik was a two-time All-California Championship Wrestling Heavyweight Champion, a one-time Century Wrestling Alliance Heavyweight Champion, a one-time NWA National Television Champion in Georgia Championship Wrestling, a one-time International Association of Wrestling Heavyweight Champion and three-time International Association of Wrestling Tag Team Champion with Brian Costello, a one-time International Wrestling Association Intercontinental Champion, a one-time International Wrestling Association United States Heavyweight Champion, a two-time NWA Canadian Heavyweight Champion (Toronto Version) in Maple Leaf Wrestling, a one-time NWA Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Champion in Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling, a one-time NWA Canadian Tag Team Champion (Vancouver Version) with The Texas Outlaw in NWA All-Star Wrestling, with the duo also winning the 1978 NWA Canadian Tag Team Championships Tournament as a result.
Sheik also was a one-time NWA New Zealand British Commonwealth Champion, a one-time NWA 2000 American Heritage Champion and a one-time NWA Pacific Northwest Tag Team Champion with Bull Ramos. Sheik was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2005, the NWA Hall of Fame in 2008 and the George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2016.
On behalf of Wrestling-News.Net, we would like to extend our condolences to the family, friends and fans of Hossein Khosrow Ali Vaziri, aka The Iron Sheik.
