Hossein Khosrow Ali Vaziri was born in Damghan, in the Imperial state of Iran on September 9, 1942. He was born into a working family and grew up with almost no money and even less running water. Allegedly he idolized the Iranian Olympic Gold-Medalist wrestler Gholamreza Takhti. Due to his idol, he started making a name for himself as an amateur wrestler. And he even worked as a bodyguard for Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
In the early 1970s, Vaziri embarked on an impressive wrestling journey. He started off by wrestling in various regional promotions, using the ring name “The Great Hossein Arab”. The American Wrestling Association (AWA) and National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) provided him with the platform to fine-tune his skills and create his malicious persona. Eventually, Vaziri adopted a new character as the “Iron Sheik” that cleverly built on the political tensions between Iran and America during the 1980s.
In 1983, the Iron Sheik joined WWF and soon became a prominent heel in the company. He engaged in memorable rivalries with major stars like Bob Backlund, Hulk Hogan, and Sgt. Slaughter. The pinnacle of his career was on December 26, 1983, when he won the WWF World Heavyweight Championship title from Bob Backlund. But Backlund would soon win back the championship from him. Iron Sheik would return to WWF in 1983 to take a shot at the WWF World Heavyweight Championship which was still held by Backlund. The match was later forfeited by Backlund’s manager out of the fear that the match would worsen Backlund’s neck injury. Iron Sheik would have a rematch against Backlund and Win. He would then go on to defend the title against Chief Jay Strongbow along with Pat Patterson and Salvatore Bellomo.
Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, following his loss of the WWF World Heavyweight Championship, The Iron Sheik engaged in low-profile wrestling matches for WWE. He collaborated with Nikolai Volkoff to form “The Foreign Legion” tag team that emerged victorious as the WWF Tag Team Champions during their debut match at WrestleMania in 1985. The Iron Sheik sadly passed away on June 7, 2023.
Iron Sheik had been in the wrestling industry for almost four decades, he had even lived through the golden age of pro wrestling. He was even inducted into the 2005 WWE Hall of Fame. The Iron Sheik was a legend who shared the podium with the likes of Hulk Hogan and many other legends. He had a prominent social media presence and a huge fan following. Some of his fans still wonder whether he was married or not. The Iron Sheik has been married to Caryl Peterson since 1976 and both of them even had three children together.
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