Legendary pro wrestler The Iron Sheik has died.
The wrestler's family announced the news on his official social media accounts. He was 81.
"Throughout his career," they wrote, "the Iron Sheik became a cultural phenomenon, transcending the realm of professional wrestling to become a pop culture icon."
Born Hossein Khosrow Ali Vaziri, the Iron Sheik found his greatest fame as one of the World Wrestling Federation's top bad guys in the 1980s.
In December 1983, the Sheik defeated Bob Backlund to become the first Iranian wrestler ever to hold the WWF (now WWE) Championship. Just a month later, he lost it at Madison Square Garden to Hulk Hogan, kicking off the rise of Hulkamania.
He also held the WWF Tag Team Championship for a time, along with Soviet villain Nikolai Volkoff, in a pairing designed to stoke Cold War-era disdain. During this period, the Sheik also appeared as a character on the Saturday morning cartoon, "Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling."
Before beginning his professional career, Vaziri was an accomplished amateur wrestler. He won an AAU gold medal in 1971 before moving to the United States. There, he served as an assistant coach for the U-S Olympic team, including at the 1972 summer games in Munich.
Following the 1972 Olympics, Vaziri began training as a professional wrestler for Minnesota's American Wrestling Association. One of his fellow trainees was a young Ric Flair, who would go on to major squared circle fame as well.
He made his WWF debut in 1979, where he won a battle royal to challenge then-champion Backlund, another former amateur wrestler. He lost that match, but would win their 1983 rematch. The Sheik was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2005, and officially retired in 2010.
In later life, the Sheik found new fame through a series of profanity-laden viral interviews. Seizing on his newfound popularity, he launched a comedy Twitter account, which was managed by his nephews.
A cause of death was not announced. Vaziri is survived by his wife of 47 years, Caryl, as well as four children and five grandchildren.
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