Pro wrestling icon the Iron Sheik dead at 81

The Iron Sheik, a former pro wrestler who relished playing a burly, bombastic villain in 1980s battles with some of the sport's biggest stars and later became a popular Twitter personality, died on Wednesday, the WWE said. He was 81.

The wrestling organization posted an article confirming his death, and a statement about his passing was also posted on his Twitter page giving details of his life. Neither statement mentioned a cause of death nor where he died, but the Twitter post said he "departed this world peacefully."

The Iron Sheik, whose real name was Hossein Khosrow Ali Vaziri, grew up in a small village in Iran, where he embraced wrestling in his youth.

During his pro wrestling career, he donned curled boots and used the "Camel Clutch" as his finishing move during individual and tag team clashes in which he played the role of an anti-American heel for the WWF, which later became the WWE.

The mustachioed, barrel-chested brawler often riled up crowds with his anti-American persona and rhetoric, often alongside tag-team partner Nikolai Volkoff, who played the part of a Soviet villain. They won the WWF World Tag Team Championship in 1985 at the first WrestleMania, according to the biography posted on the WWE's internet page.

The Iron Sheik was a successful individual wrestler as well, winning the WWF championship in 1983 by defeating Bob Backlund, before losing it later to Hulk Hogan. He also built a long-running rivalry with Sgt. Slaughter, who played the role of an American hero.

He later teamed with Sgt. Slaughter as Colonal Mustafa. The Iron Sheik's last appearance in the ring was at WrestleMania 17, the Connecticut-based WWE said.

The Iron Sheik had an early foundation in competitive Greco-Roman wrestling,