The Iron Sheik, a Hall of Fame wrestler who became a villainous star in the 1980s, facing off against Hulk Hogan and teaming up with a wrestler who claimed to represent the Soviet Union, died in his sleep early Wednesday morning at his home in Fayetteville, Ga. He was either 81 (according to his passport) or 80 (according to him).
The death was confirmed by his managers, Page and Jian Magen, who said they did not know the cause.
Foreign-style heels are a time-honored tradition in professional wrestling, and the Iron Sheik, whose legal name was Khosrow Vaziri, became one of the most recognizable of them all.
The Sheik drew loosely on his Iranian heritage to build a caricature of a Middle Eastern villain. He wore a thick mustache, boots with curled toes, and kaffiyeh, Middle Eastern head scarves ? which are not generally worn in Iran.
At the height of the Sheik?s infamy, and in the wake of the Iran hostage crisis in 1979, he often stomped into the ring waving an Iranian flag emblazoned with the face of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, then Iran?s supreme leader, to take on stereotypically American wrestlers.
The Sheik?s signature move was the camel clutch, in which he sat on an opponent?s back, locked his fingers beneath the other wrestler?s chin and pulled up. His unfortunate opponent?s spine seemed to bend like a drawn bow.
In 1983 the Sheik defeated Bob Backlund to win the World Wrestling Federation championship. But his time with the title was short.
About a month later, on Jan. 23, 1984, the Sheik defended his title against Hulk Hogan, then a relatively new face in the World Wrestling Federation (now known as WWE), in front of a sold-out crowd at Madison Square Garden.
The match seemed to be going the Sheik?s way, and he trapped Hogan in a camel clutch. But Hogan stood up with the Sheik on his back and slammed him into a corner pylon.
The Sheik flopped to the mat. Hogan launched off the ropes, leaped into a leg drop on the Sheik and then pinned him. It was the first of Hogan?s six WWE championships and the beginning of Hulkamania.
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Originally Posted by Bewitchingstorm
