The Iron Sheik, a former pro wrestler who played a burly, bombastic villain in 1980s battles with some of the sport’s biggest stars, has died at age 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 Wednesday, the WWE said. He was 81.
The wrestling organization posted an article confirming his death, and a statement about his passing also was 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.
