Profile of Khosrow Vaziri on Famous Like Me

Hossein Khosrow Vaziri (حسین خسرو وزیری in Persian), better known by his stage name The Iron Sheik (born on March 15, 1943 in Tehran, Iran) is an Iranian professional wrestler.

Career

Politics entered the sport of wrestling with the Iron Sheik. The onetime bodyguard for the Shah of Iran was discovered at the 1972 Olympics by AWA promoter Verne Gagne. (Although he was billed as having been a 1968 Olympic medalist, this is untrue.) Known as The Great Hossein, he won his first title, the Canadian Tag Team Championship, with partner the Texas Outlaw.

This victory caught the eye of the WWF where he debuted in 1979 and won the first-ever Battle Royal in Madison Square Garden, earning him a title shot at then-champion Bob Backlund, who pinned him later that night in a 30-minute battle. Arguably the best remembered transitional champion in pro wrestling history, the Iron Sheik returned to the WWF in 1983 and challenged Backlund once again, defeating him on December 26, 1983 for the World Wrestling Federation Heavyweight Championship.

One of the greatest legitimate wrestlers to ever hold a World title, Vaziri dropped the belt just four weeks later to Hulk Hogan and went on to team with Nikolai Volkoff as the "Foreign Legion", and win the Tag Team Championship at WrestleMania I. He was eventually fired from WWF for testing positive for Cocaine. He returned again in the early '90s as Col. Mustafa and was aligned with former enemy Sgt. Slaughter (though it was never acknowledged on-camera that Mustafa was in fact the Shiek). Along with General Adnan, the three played Iraqis (or, in Slaughter's case, an Iraqi sympathizer) during the first Gulf War and feuded with Hulk Hogan. Following Slaughter's face turn after Summerslam 1991, he teamed with General Adnan until the middle of 1992, when he left the promotion again. He went on to wrestle in various independent promotions to age 60, and is now retired.

In 2001, at Wrestlemania X-Seven The Iron Sheik was the victor of the Gimmick Battle Royale a match between several other popular wrestlers from the 1980s.

On May 5, 2003, his oldest daughter, Marissa Jeanne Vaziri, was found strangled to death at 27 years old. Her live-in boyfriend, Charles Warren Reynolds, 38, confessed to the crime and was charged with murder.

On February 3, 2005, The Iron Sheik was announced as one of the inductees for the Class of 2005 into the WWE Hall of Fame along with Paul Orndorff, "Cowboy" Bob Orton, Nikolai Volkoff, Jimmy Hart, Hulk Hogan, and Roddy Piper. The induction ceremony took place on April 2, 2005 in the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles, California.

Odds and Ends

The Iron Sheik made an appearance on The Jerry Springer Show. He was introduced under his stage name, The Iron Sheik. During the segment, he came out wearing his trademark pointy boots. The audience, overjoyed to see the wrestling legend, broke out numerous times into spontaneous chants of "Sheik! Sheik! Sheik!".

WWE 24/7 chose the Iron Sheik as their featured Hall of Fame wrestler for October 2005. Current selections from the video-on-demand service include a biography on his life and career and a classic episode of All-Star Wrestling.

The Iron Sheik's favorite quote was "USA hack-ptooey."

In 1987, the Iron Sheik was arrested for marijuana and cocaine possession in New Jersey when he was pulled over riding in a car with fellow wrestler Hacksaw Jim Duggan.

Championships and accomplishments

World Wrestling Federation

• 1-Time WWF World Heavyweight Champion
• 1-Time WWF World Tag Team Champion (with Nikolai Volkoff)

National Wrestling Alliance

• 1-Time NWA National Television Champion
• 1-Time NWA Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Champion
• 1-Time NWA 2000 American Heritage Champion

Other Titles

• 1-Time New Zealand British Commonwealth Champion
• 1-Time Pacific Northwest Tag Team Champion (with Bull Ramos)
• 2-Time Canadian Heavyweight Champion
• 1-Time WWS Tag Team Champion (with The Sheik)
• 1-Time Can-Am Heavyweight Champion
• 3-Time IAW Tag Team Champion (with Brian Costello)
• 1-Time IAW Heavyweight Champion

Pro Wrestling Illustrated

• Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI) ranked him # 134 of the 500 best singles wrestlers of the "PWI Years" in 2003. He was also ranked # 96 of the best tag teams of the "PWI Years" with Nikolai Volkoff.

This content from Wikipedia is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Khosrow Vaziri