A short time ago the entire wrestling world lost one of the true giants of the sport-The Iron Sheik has died. He was 81. The cause of death is not known yet except that, according to his family and his official Twitter, he died peacefully.
Born Hossein Khosrow Ali Vaziri in Iran, he was an amateur wrestler in the 1960s and a two-time assistant coach for the US National Olympic team in the 1970s before breaking into pro wrestling. Verne Gagne’s wife came up with the idea of making him a villainous heel and this he became The Iron Sheik. He is a former WWF(E) World Heavyweight Champion and Tag Team Champion and competed for 3 decades before retiring in 2010. After retirement he cultivated a massive Twitter following through his all-caps posting about anything & everything, always interjected with hilarious shots at “the blonde jabroni Hulk Hogan”. There has also been a movie and, more recently, an A&E TV special about his life and career (I have the movie and absolutely recommend it). He was inducted into the WWE Hall Of Fame in 2005 and the NWA Hall Of Fame in 2008.
I join the pro wrestling community in sending my deepest condolences to the family and friends of “Sheiky Baby”, no doubt one of the greatest and most iconic & endearing characters ever in the ring. Social media in particular will never be the same without him. In his own Twitter words, THE ONE TRUE IRON SHEIK CLASS. LOVE YOU FOREVER BUBBA. RESPECT THE LEGEND FOREVER
The original post from The Iron Sheik’s official Twitter account with the news is below (and for those curious, nothing from Hulk Hogan yet. At least not on Twitter)
