wWE Hall of Famer and
professional wrestling legend Iron
Sheik has died at the age of 81,
according to a statement posted on
his Twitter account on Wednesday.

The statement calls Iron Sheik a
“cultural phenomenon” and a “pop
culture icon” that transcends the
world of professional wrestling:
Iron Sheik played a major role in
wWE in the 1980s and early 1990s,
capturing the WWE World
Heavyweight Championship and the
WWE Tag Team Championship,
respectively, before being inducted
into the wWE Hall of Fame in 2005.

Hossein Khosrow Ali Vaziri is an
Iranian-American professional
wrestler, amateur wrestler and actor,
better known as Iron Chief. After
winning the WWF World
Heavyweight Championship in 1983,
he is the only Iranian Champion in
wWE history.

The villainous persona reached its
peak during the WWF wrestling
boom of the 1980s, and his rivalry
with Hulk Hogan made Hogan one
of the decade’s greatest TV heroes.
He later formed a tag team with
Nikolai Volkoff, who won the wWF
Tag Team Championship at the
inaugural WrestleMania. In 2005, he
was inducted into the WWE Hall of
Fame.

An offshoot in the 1980s, Sheik was
later featured on Kid Chriss, The
Howard Stern Show, and the lnternet
for his filming interviews, foul
language, and some pro wrestlers
who clearly disliked him, notably
Hulk Hogan and Bryan Blair is very
popular on the Internet.

Born in Damgan, Iran, in 1942,
Khosrow grew up in a working-class
family with little income and no
running water. Although his
passport says March 15, his
birthday is September 9. In his
youth, he idolized Iranian Olympic
gold medalist Gholamreza Takhti,
who went on to make a name for
himself as an amateur wrestler. He
also served as bodyguard for Shah
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and his
family for several years.