Iron Sheik leaves behind a pioneering world wrestling legacy

RIYADH: The professional wrestling world this week lost a pioneering figure in Hossein Khosrow Ali Vaziri, better known to fans as the Iron Sheik.

The Persian trailblazer is a former WWE champion, tag team belt holder and, in 2005, was inducted into the organization’s Hall of Fame.

Vaziri, born on March 15, 1942, in Damghan, Semnan province, Iran, passed away on Wednesday at the age of 81.

Throughout the majority of his career, the Iron Sheik played the role of fanatical foreign menace, attracting hate from fans, particularly in the US.

Often mistaken for an Arab, Vaziri was the first major presence from the Iranian wrestling scene at international level.

He competed for Iran’s Greco-Roman wrestling team at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, and later moved to the US where he became the assistant coach of two Olympic wrestling squads in the 1970s.

In 1971, Vaziri became the Amateur Athletic Union Greco-Roman wrestling champion and gold medalist, and later assistant coach to the US team at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games.

That same year Vaziri was invited to become a professional wrestler for promoter Verne Gagne’s American Wrestling Association.

After competing for various promotions, the Iron Sheik’s evil, foreign-menace persona, as well as his wrestling skills, caught the attention of the WWE, then still the World Wrestling Federation, in 1979.

He made his debut in grand fashion by winning the first-ever Battle Royal at Madison Square Garden in New York City. This earned the Iron Sheik an unsuccessful title shot later that night against then-WWF champion Bob Backlund in a memorable 30-minute showdown.

After several touring stints with other promotions, Vaziri returned to the WWF in 1983 and challenged