History Wrestling / TheIronSheik

** With Wrestling/BrunoSammartino IRL, the two once beat the crap out of five pro football players who made the mistake of calling the then 51-year old Sammartino a "washed up old man" and tried to push him around. Sammartino was holding his own until the Sheik, who was in the showers, heard the commotion, and the two proceeded to curbstomp the morons.

* ReversePsychology: He would often grab a mic and yell "Don't say USA" which, inevitably, would draw massive U-S-A chants from the crowd. As a ForeignWrestlingHeel, this is exactly what he waned.

* AnythingThatMoves: What the Sheik does just after breaking your back and before making you humble.

The Iron Sheik passed away on June 7, 2023.

Born Hossein Khosrow Ali Vaziri on March 15, 1943, this [[UsefulNotes/{{Iran}} Iranian]]-born Olympic wrestling competitor and coach made a name for himself in early-'80s WWF, where he won the [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/wwe/wwe-h.html WWE World Heavyweight Championship]] from Wrestling/BobBacklund, breaking the former champion's six-year title reign...only to drop it the next month to Wrestling/HulkHogan, kicking off the Hulkamania craze. His appearances would be sporadic for many years after that, seemingly fading into obscurity in the pro wrestling scene.

* CheapHeat: As a ForeignWrestlingHeel, this came with the character for Sheikie Baby. However, he took cheap heat UpToEleven sometime in the late 90s when working an Wrestling/{{N|ational Wrestling Alliance}}WA show with a majority Jewish crowd. There is no footage of the insane promo he cut, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6J2-KqnSXso but here it is as retold by Steve Corino.]]

If there was ever any wrestler who best exemplified the ForeignWrestlingHeel character in ProfessionalWrestling, especially in Wrestling/{{WWE}}'s "Federation years," '''The Iron Sheik''' was it. Born Hossein Khosrow Ali Vaziri on March 15, 1943, this [[UsefulNotes/{{Iran}} Iranian]]-born Olympic wrestling competitor and coach made a name for himself in the early 80s WWF, where he won the [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/wwe/wwe-h.html WWE World Heavyweight Championship]] from Wrestling/BobBacklund, breaking the former champion's six-year title reign...only to drop it the next month to Wrestling/HulkHogan, kicking off the Hulkamania craze. His appearances would be sporadic for many years after that, seemingly fading into obscurity in the pro wrestling scene.

** As it turns out, the Sheik is a big fan of [[Creator/StephenSondheim]] and publicly mourned him (in his own Sheiky fashion) after the announcement of Sondheim's death ("[[https://twitter.com/the_ironsheik/status/1464415594598572046?s=21 STEPHEN SONDHEIM YOU ARE THE LEGEND FOREVER BUBBA GOD BLESS YOU]]").

* BadassMustache: A curly mustache, at that.

* BaldOfEvil[=/=]BaldOfAwesome: Depending on who you ask
** He did have hair at least until 1976 or so.

Check out [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Iron_Sheik his article on That Other Wiki]] for more info regarding his career. Not to be confused with The Series/IronChef, or with his arguable predecessor [[Wrestling/EdFarhat The Sheik]].

Also; he has a Website/{{Twitter}}, check it out [[https://twitter.com/the_ironsheik here]], but BE CAREFUL. Iron Sheik has gone far off in the deep end on this.

* IsThisThingStillOn: Wrestling/JimCornette tells a story from back in the territory days, he and the Sheik were working for a promotion which had a commissioner who was not "smart" (aware of {{kayfabe}}), and therefore imposed a number of limitations on the show, for instance, anyone who was not a licensed announcer was not allowed on the mic. Christine Jarrett warned Cornette, who was working as the announcer, not to let anyone have the mic, and the Sheik tried to take the mic off him. As they struggled over the mic, Cornette reminded him about the commissioner. However, the Sheik grabbed Jim's arm, pulled the mic up, then screamed "OH, FACK DEH KOMEESHUNUR!" at the top of his lungs into the mic.

* IsThisThingStillOn: Wrestling/JimCornette tells a story from back in the territory days, he and the Sheik were working for a promotion which had a commissioner who was not "smart" (aware of {{kayfabe}}), and therefore imposed a number of limitations on the show, for instance, anyone who was not a licensed announcer was not allowed on the mic. Cornette was working as the announcer, and the Sheik tried to take the mic off him. As they struggled over the mic, Cornette warned him about the commissioner. However, the Sheik grabbed Jim's arm, pulled the mic up, then screamed "OH, FACK DEH KOMEESHUNUR!" at the top of his lungs into the mic.