The Sheik

Force, was the very foundation of what I call Iranian nationalism,

Iranian national ethos.

Wrestling was a national obsession.

'Cause physical training was viewed as the foundation of healthy citizenship, healthy state.

Before you got in to the wrestling, you were the bodyguard of Shah of Iran.

Now Mohammad Reza Pahlavi of Iran, weds Farah Diba

The Shah came to power in 1941, after his father was forced out of power,

During the 1940s, early 50s,

ah, he was in a very peculiar position

because of the conflict, international conflict over oil.

He was under a lot of pressure and he was identified with... as an enlightened monarch,

often repressive.

In the 1950s and 60s,

there were two fundamental role models.

One, in Iran, for the Iranians,

was Gholamreza Takhti

and the other one was Muhammad Ali.

And the combination of the two was really great for people who were interested in competitive sports.

Gholamreza Takhti was the icon for lot of Iranians.

He really was the person, who for the first time, in sports,

put Iran on the map.

Hossein Vaziri, the Sheik, had trained with Takhti,

they were hanging around in the same circles.

So, Takhti was a role model for him.

The medals that Takhti won internationally,

now Vaziri could win.

And he was well placed actually, to be the new Takhti.

To have a great deal of international success.

People came to believe that if you are internationally recognized,

if you are very successful, you are going to be eliminated.

The fact that the world champion commit suicide, was unacceptable.

That became the ground for believable conspiracies.

He got off Iran in a hurry, uh, for fear of his own life.

And then he ends up in Minnesota of all places,

as an assistant coach of the United States' Olympic team.

I always felt that was a little ironic.

Ladies and gentlemen, here he is Vern Gagne.

The Iron Sheik starts off training with Verne Gagne.

He was the promoter in Minnesota and Verne Gagne was also an alternate at the 1948 Olympics.

And he picks out real athletes. He's not looking for gimmick guys.

He's looking for pure wrestlers.

I tell you, they initiate every hall with the classic wrestlers' approach.

Verne was old school guy that try to run you off,

you know, if he wanted to see how tough you were, how much you really wanted to be in the business.

And so, it was a unique way of recruiting but it was a tough, tough class.

But you know, what I understand, the guys that were there,

I don't think Khosrow had any issues physically because he was just a machine.

And here was a guy that was smaller in stature, than lot of his contemporaries.

But ten times as tough.

He had the real life ability to actually hurt anybody e really wanted to,

and do anything he wanted to do to them at any given time.

He could beat probably 99% of the guys in the business.

But he just didn't have the heart, he wasn't a bully.

If I did get mad at them, I can suplex them, I can give them damage. I had a bad reputation.

He wrestles as Khosrow Vaziri, full head of black hair, very handsome man,

trim, muscular, and he wears a singlet, with Olympic rings on it

because he had been an assisting coach on the US Olympic team.

So, essentially he starts his career as an all-American.

I met my husband at University of Minnesota.

He was coaching the United States Olypmic wrestling team at the time when we met,

back in 1975.

And I immediately fell in love with him, the moment I saw him.

180 pounds, washboard stomach,

just absolutely drop dead gorgeous.

The hottest thing on two feet.

We wanted to get married but my husband was busy wrestling,

and he worked everyday of the week.

So, we could never get a weekend off to get married.

So, we were married on a Saturday night,

and my husband had gone

to the Minneapolis Auditorium and wrestled that afternoon.

What an air ball drop!

He says USA and put the pooch right to it.

1976, the Sheik once again is an assistant coach for the US Olympic team.

And Verne Gagne, the AWA promoter is there scouring future talent,

And Mary Gagne, Verne's wife is there and she's asking Khosrow,

"Are you happy with your role in professional wrestling?"

He's like, "Well, I kind of like to be little more prominent."

And she goes, "Well, you are a Middle Eastern, why don't you make yourself a Sheik?"

The first time I met the Sheik, I was eight - nine years old, we're in Charlotte, North Carolina.

My dad was wrestling with Sheik.

He was a striking guy with an unforgettable look.

My mom had become friends with Sheik's wife, Caryl

and she had come over to the house many times.

Even had the great displeasure of baby siting me on a few occasions.

Hated it, hated it, hated the mustache,

hated the shaving the head to become the Iron Sheik.

He loves the bad guy, I mean, that was tailor made for him.

Hey, you people, shut up.

Let me, I'll show that punk, who the real wrestler is.

And it gets in his mind to transform himself,

and play off of the core Islamaphobia perhaps

that many Americans unfortunately carry.

Wrestling is funny. Whatever is going in the world,

is magnified 100 times immensely.

On November 4th, Iranian students seize the US embassy and 63 hostages.

1979, Jimmy Carter is our president.

I think Jimmy Carter is a fundamentally decent human being,

but not a very tough president.

As a result, the Ayatollahs are able to hold a group of Americans hostage

and parade them on television every night.

Promoters in America have always been quick to jump on any nationalistic storyline.

Iron Sheik from Iran, from Tehran, Iran, against Mr. USA, Tony Atlas.

Every promoter wants an Iranian villain.

And there is one. Khosrow Vaziri, wrestled for the nation of Iran.

Khosrow Vaziri speaks Parsi.

Everybody call USA, USA.

And I am sick and tired of you and USA.

In the crazy world of professional wrestling,

there are lot of heels and baby faces, good guys and bad guys who kinda play the role, play the part.

...that belongs to Iron Sheik, Iron Sheik is the only man...

You know, at that time I remember watching him,

he did this brilliant interview with Classy Freddie Blassie as his manager.

And he goes into,

"Ayatollah tell me Sheik. Bring back world championship belt."

Automatically you think that's not put on, that's a legit accent.

He's the real deal.

...and fighting outside the ring...

When the Iranian hostage crisis hits, and there's genuine heat,

between the United States and Iran, the Iron Sheik character ignites.

The Iron Sheik is just Pearl Harboured.

He presses one, about the same type of attack culminating in the embassy.

Without warning, they struck, a defenseless person at the time...

It was a time in wrestling where a lot of people still believed

that what they saw was real, or reality based.

Wrestlers will tell you, there's good heat and bad heat.

Good heat as Freddie Blassie explained to me, is when the fans boo loudly.

Bad heat is when they want to kill you.

The Iron Shiek had both.

He embraced being a heel.

It takes a certain kind of DNA and a certain kind of guy,

to embrace being a bad guy, to embrace the fact that you're gonna go out there,

and you're gonna get hated, you are gonna get booed.

Kill him! Kill him!

I never had heat like this he got.

This is what we call, change the channel heat.

There's heat, like 'Yes, I wanna pay, I wanna see this guy,

be beaten up by my hero. Then there's change the channel heat, you go 'I don't like that.'

And Sheik had the right heat.

You didn't change the channel when the Iron Sheik was on.

Back in the day when he was just getting this thing rolling, the audience was very violent.

Just shut up! Shut your bloody mouth!

This guy was real.

This guy, he'd push through it, he got the people mad.

And his arrogance shown through too.

Oh, shut up, you! Shut your bloody mouth!

He talked to people, you know, he talked down to people.

He's better than they are. That was the whole thing, man.

"You, arrogant son of a bitch." You know, the fellow Americans.

Deep down, I think he believed that too. "Americans suck!"

Well, I understand that. Jealously is a bitch.

There you see Jerry Usher, the referee kicking it in the dumpster.

If you are going to describe good and bad,

from an American's viewpoint, you have the red, white and blue all American,

and you are going to have a foreign menace.

So, you have the Sheik who embodies everything

that we as Americans hate.

And he exploited it.

Then he got in your face and he told you,

why you were weak and why as an Iranian, he could do everything.

So, he was a perfect bad guy.

Sheik made everybody humble.

'Cause of a man like this, this is why the Iranians,

should not have a nuclear bomb.

He trained me when I was 16 years old.

At my dad's dungeon, taught me at my dad's house.

One of the best we got, one of my heroes.

Where the Sheik at?

Sheik is working out, he's working out with his gloves.

So, Vince walks over and says, "Sheik." "Yes, bubba. Yes, sir."

Stands like that. He says, "You tested positive for cocaine"

"Thank you, thank you very much, thank you."

The Iron Sheik stories are legendary.

The story of his toughness are legendary.

Of his badassery are legendary.

I am siting in the room, drinking some beers, maybe smoking a joint,

and Sheik would be there with everybody else,

having little toke and then he'll start doing squats.

And he'll do hundreds of squats.

Till he is dripping with sweat, I mean dripping.

I mean, he's got the constitution of a rhino.

When he drank, he got all partied up, never start fights or anything.

That was his thing, come let's party, let's have some fun.

He wasn't an asshole when he got wasted, you know what I mean.

Unless he really got trashed and all then, yes, cops were called.

I learnt everything I know from him.

A lot, well not everything but a lot.

You have to hang around this man right here.

Anybody that has never been in this man's company, damn!

The Iron Sheik is probably one of the greatest heels to ever be in the business.

And for so many years when I was a kid,

there was nobody that I hated more than Iron Sheik.

He was just the epitome of what a bad guy should be.

When I was little girl, I was a tomboy, so of course, I dressed like him,

and I used to go to the Metalands every month with my mom and my sister,

and we used to scream and yell at the Iron Sheik and Nikolai Volkoff because I hated them so much.

Come over here.

- How you doing? Hey, baby. - Good to see you.

The Iron Sheik one of the first people I managed in Memphis, Tennesse.

He used to come by my house, remember, and we would drive