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Introducing the challenger, the Iron
Sheik!

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Wrestling fans believe that the Iron
Sheik was every despicable thing that he

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presented himself to be. One of the
perfect bad guys or heels in wrestling.

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And everybody wanted to come and see
him, hoping that he'd get beat up.

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The Iron Sheik!

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Iran! Iran!

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Iran!

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His look was believable, the way he
talked was believable.

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He was very easy to hate.

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The whole package of being a wrestler in
that

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era was pretty dark.

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The use of cocaine was prevalent.

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He was developing a very serious drug
problem.

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Instead of battling opponents, they are
fighting drug charges.

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This is undoubtedly the most painful
part of the Iron Sheik story.

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He screamed, he howled, he cried.

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I cry for her so much. I miss her so
much.

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She gave them maybe the highest element
of a heel. The biggest box office

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attraction that the industry had really
ever seen.

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Capacity crowd on the case of the Iron
Sheik.

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People were blowing stuff at him. You
know, that's how much heat that people

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just didn't like him.

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Sheik now going to work.

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It's easy to not like him. It's so
different.

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The Sheik loved being hated.

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The Hulk's got to come out of it. It's
over.

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Oh! Oh! Okay.

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You listen.

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Ah! Pull!

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It needs a camel punch to fly. I'm
scared. That's all.

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Zero. Southrop did the right thing at
the right time and became larger than

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life.

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It was very tough to leave my country,
Iran.

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I worked hard for this woman in my

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life.

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By dream and hard working, I become
champion.

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champion, the Iron Sheik.

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Khosrow Vaziri was born in Dagham, which
was a town about

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215 miles outside of Tehran, Iran.

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After the family lived in the country
for a few years, They made a decision to

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move to the city, Tehran. And what the
parents did was they opened up a

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wrestling gym.

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Wrestling in Iran was like religion.

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If you knew how to wrestle, that got you
in places.

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Wrestling was in Iran big, very, very
big.

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Wrestling is koshigiri, as they would
call it in Farsi.

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Iranian men love to wrestle, and they're
pretty badass at it and good at it.

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He achieved success very quickly.

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I mean, he was just so driven.

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And then army champion. And then three
times national champion.

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After the army, Khosrow had a very sweet
job.

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He was given a job as an assistant
cameraman at Iranian national

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he worked directly for the Shah's
cousin.

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At the time that the Shah was in power,
the Sheikh, who was literally a lethal

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weapon, was handpicked by the Shah of
Iran and his family to protect him.

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Later on, you'd hear stories about the
Iron Sheik used to be a bodyguard for

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Shah and everyone thought it was
wrestling hype. It wasn't wrestling

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was legit.

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Above all, the one guy you can say was
the pinnacle of athletics and wrestling

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was Golem Reza Tafti.

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He was a multi -time Olympic champion,
gold medalist.

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and was the pride and joy of the Iranian
people.

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So just like all the Iranians growing
up, the Sheikh idolized Taqdi.

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Taqdi was the greatest Iranian champion.

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We had to go Olympic and then for
Olympic and come back home always

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with medal.

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The Sheikh?

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really looked up to Takhti because
Takhti was the kind of wrestler, the

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athlete, the kind of human being he
wanted to be.

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And at a certain stage, Takhti began
mentoring a young Qasr al -Fahiri.

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He was his mentor, he was his idol, and
the Sheikh just wanted to be exactly

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like him. There was no one else. He had
his sights set.

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Takhti was the man, and the Sheikh was
going to be the one to follow in his

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footsteps.

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The problem with Takhti was he was not
that deferential to the Shah, and the

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Shah was an absolute ruler.

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The Shah was a brutal dictator, and
Takhti was kind of a man of the people,

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very progressive figure.

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One day there was a massive soccer
match, and the Shah of Iran was sitting

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the stands, and the fans started to get
really disgruntled and boo him. And

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Takhti... entered the arena, and
everyone started cheering him.

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Now, in addition to that,

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Takhti was not afraid to speak out about
flaws he saw in the

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Iranian government.

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And ultimately, I believe, that led to
Takhti's undoing.

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The death of Takhti is still one of the
country of Iran's most unsolved

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mysteries. Some people said that he was
killed for opposing the government,

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while others said that he had committed
suicide.

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They seem very curious.

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to a young Khosrow Vaziri, because he
knew Tochti, and Tochti was

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not a man to take his own life, and
became convinced

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that Tochti was not the victim of
suicide, he was the victim of homicide.

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And he drew the conclusion, if the
government can kill Tochti, who knows

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can happen to me?

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I don't want to talk about politicians
too much, but I said, if you don't know

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good for a taxi, better I go some day,
too, because he was the greatest chap

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when we had him, and nobody knew how he
passed away.

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Here's a cat that was a bodyguard for
the Shah.

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If he hadn't have gotten out of there,
they would have killed him, man, chopped

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him up to pieces.

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At that time, Hosro had been Princess
Farah's bodyguard in the royal palace.

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And he fled.

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And he only knew two words in English,
which were Alan and Rice.

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And when he landed at the Minneapolis
-St. Paul International Airport, he just

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kept saying, Alan Rice, Alan Rice,
because no one at the airport spoke

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And Alan Rice was eventually reeked.

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At the Pan -American Games...

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Kaz had met Alan Rice. Alan Rice was an
American Olympic wrestler and later the

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coach of the U .S. Olympic wrestling
team.

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Alan Rice had made it clear that he
would love for Kaz to come to the U .S.

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and train with the Minnesota Wrestling
Club.

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Mr. Alan Rice was quite...

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a lifesaver to cause in the fact that he
took him under his wing.

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He treated him like his own son.

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And I'm an assistant coach for him, help
the team.

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And I see myself too. And I come three
times All -American champion.

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He was so skilled and so knowledgeable
that Alan Rice, when he became the coach

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of the U .S. Olympic team, he asked Kaz
to be his assistant coach.

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And in 1972 and 1976, Kaz Rao Vaziri was
an assistant coach of the

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U .S. Olympic team.

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And this led to his early character
in...

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pro wrestling. Everyone thought he
started out as the Iron Sheik. No, he

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out as basically an All -American who
would come to the ring with a singlet

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the Olympic rings around it. And he was
depicted as an American hero.

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He had the Iranian accent.

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He had a full head of hair. Very
different character than we saw later

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Alan Rice was the head of the U .S.
amateur wrestling in Minnesota. And

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he was the one that met Khadra Vasuri,
better known as the Iron Sheik.

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My father Vern was the sponsor for the
1972 Olympic wrestling team.

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So that's how him and Alan Rice got
together, and Alan is the one that

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eventually asked Vern if he would take
Cosgrove and turn him into a

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wrestler. At that time, Minneapolis was
Vern Gagne's AWA headquarters.

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He controlled wrestling all the way from
Chicago to the West Coast.

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I'll talk to Mr. Alan Rice.

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I'd like to go someday professional.

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And then I go in the training camp.

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It was in an old barn out in Chanhassen,
Minnesota.

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It was pretty... It was rough looking.

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Vern Gagne was a little bit on the
thrifty side.

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They trained in this old barn under
really...

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trying circumstances. Apparently it was
freezing in the wintertime.

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You know,

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Vern was not big on any

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kind of personal comfort.

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It was six days a week and it was like
almost six hours a day.

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Vern Gagne would beat you and work you
like a dog.

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stretch you and make you scream in the
ring and make you work on his farm.

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The guys that had been amateur wrestlers
would come in and they could do a

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really hard workout that Vern would put
them through, but the other guys, he

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would just completely destroy them.

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Two hundred and thirty!

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That's kind of how Vern weeded out those
who didn't belong there.

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He had such high expectations that only
the toughest and the strongest and the

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most athletic got through his program.

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We go and practice, practice, but he
didn't stop.

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Remember, falling is basic. You've got
to know how to fall. If you don't know

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how to fall, you're going to get hurt.
And if you're hurt, you can't wrestle.

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you can't wrestle, you don't eat.

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It's that simple.

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My father actually turned out 133
wrestlers throughout his career.

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and only 1 % didn't make it as a main
eventer. Now, this was a really blue

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class. Ric Flair was in the class,
jumping Jim Brunzel. We got Ken Patera

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the Olympics, and then Greg, and then
Cosgrove.

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Oh, hang on, they're outside the ring.

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Oh, look at that.

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Flair chopping T .A. the down.

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Ric Flair is in the conversation for
greatest of all time.

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alongside the Iron Sheik.

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It's an incredible lineup.

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Well, he was a natural as far as
stamina.

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He was in great shape.

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The hardest thing that Cosgrove had to
learn about pro wrestling was the fact

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that he had been indoctrinated so long
by the amateur wrestling and rules, it

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was hard to, you know, teach somebody a
new trick.

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It's different.

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Different technique, different move.

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You have to convince the people we are
real on that ring.

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Otherwise, if the people think it's
phony, no good.

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Dive over the arm. Dive over.

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If you made it through the 14 weeks of
training camp, you earned the right to

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become a professional wrestler.

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And then Fern would come to you
personally and tell you, whether you

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or not.

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From that class, the Sheik got a job,
his first job in America as a

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wrestler. But not just a professional
wrestler, he had to be the referee

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And he had to drive the truck.

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Myself and Kazo, we were the two that
were picked to, we had to drive the ring

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truck around.

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It

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was

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hard for him at first because he had to
travel around all the small.

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matches around the Midwest. He had to
learn the whole business.

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And, you know, he's starting out in his,
probably his mid -30s.

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I mean, this was a man that was coming
from being the bodyguard of the Shah of

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Iran to now living this simpler life and
started from scratch.

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He wasn't the Iron Sheik then. I mean,
this was just Khosrow Vaziri.

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Khosrow Vaziri realized he wasn't going
back to Iran.

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And he was enjoying the life of an
American.

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He's living in Minnesota.

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Why not go out with a nice, sweet
-natured, pretty Scandinavian girl? And

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how he met his wife.

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I met my future husband on a nice summer
evening, and we just hit it off

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immediately, like we'd known each other
forever.

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He was living in Minnesota, and he had
met his wife.

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And so every Saturday night, as soon as
we were done wrestling, he would drive

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to Minnesota, no matter where we were,
to visit Terrell, and then we'd come

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for the Monday show.

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Kaz doesn't do anything halfway.

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We saw each other if he was in town
every night. He was quite intense.

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We had Marissa in August 1976, and

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it was...

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an easy birth compared to the later ones
that I had.

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He loved his wife and his family, and he
did everything he could to beat

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Cosgrove. I'm sorry for them.

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00:17:18,349 --> 00:17:22,710
My understanding is that when the Sheik
first started professional wrestling, it

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was more about his history as an
athlete.

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He did Olympic wrestling. He wore a
singlet. He had hair. He was handsome.

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was in shape.

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But he wasn't getting anywhere. He
wasn't getting where he wanted to go.

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When the sheet broke into Rutland, there
was no character, and his entire game

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was very dry.

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Ali Ghatiri, nice guy, but not enough. I
get

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work so I can make a good living.

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I say, I'm tired. I don't want to work.
Good guy anymore. I want to be bad guy.

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And then Mrs. Ghania.

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Tell me I have a new name, good name for
you.

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You know, my mother, we were having
dinner, and that's when she said, good

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00:18:07,620 --> 00:18:08,760
for you would be the Iron Sheik.

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The Iron Sheik completely changed his
physical appearance, and he became the

230
00:18:15,080 --> 00:18:16,080
Iron Sheik.

231
00:18:16,140 --> 00:18:22,480
And it was almost a symbol, this foreign
menace, that was what so many Americans

232
00:18:22,480 --> 00:18:23,660
feared at the time.

233
00:18:24,300 --> 00:18:28,460
Right now, it's all one way. The Sheik
is definitely carrying it to him.

234
00:18:28,780 --> 00:18:29,780
As he.

235
00:18:29,920 --> 00:18:35,100
developed and personality came out of
him. All of a sudden, the light went on

236
00:18:35,100 --> 00:18:36,200
and he was the Iron Sheik.

237
00:18:36,700 --> 00:18:40,860
Introducing the challenger, the Iron
Sheik.

238
00:18:44,040 --> 00:18:49,500
Some 60 Americans are now beginning
their sixth day of captivity inside the

239
00:18:49,500 --> 00:18:50,580
.S. Embassy in Tehran.

240
00:18:51,400 --> 00:18:56,900
The Iranian students took Americans
hostage at the American Embassy.

241
00:18:57,760 --> 00:18:59,480
Lasted for 444 days.

242
00:18:59,760 --> 00:19:02,240
It was broadcast nightly on television.

243
00:19:02,640 --> 00:19:05,960
This flag was burned Tuesday evening
outside the embassy's gates.

244
00:19:06,300 --> 00:19:12,580
When we had conflict with Iran, all of a
sudden that became, well, here's a

245
00:19:12,580 --> 00:19:13,580
heel.

246
00:19:13,740 --> 00:19:16,740
And the rest, you know, as they say, is
history.

247
00:19:17,060 --> 00:19:20,920
The Iron Sheik, along with Freddie
Blassie, and they are thick as thieves.

248
00:19:21,200 --> 00:19:26,360
All of a sudden he was the Iron Sheik
from Tehran, and he brought a lot of

249
00:19:29,850 --> 00:19:34,830
And everybody wanted to come and see him
and hoping that he'd get beat up.

250
00:19:35,410 --> 00:19:37,930
Iran number one, that's what he would
say.

251
00:19:40,130 --> 00:19:44,490
They wanted to find an antagonist to the
American protagonist.

252
00:19:44,890 --> 00:19:47,830
What better antagonist than an Iranian?

253
00:19:50,410 --> 00:19:56,110
When the Iron Sheik realized...

254
00:19:56,330 --> 00:20:03,170
Everybody is against this country. He
ramped it up by 11 and

255
00:20:03,170 --> 00:20:09,670
realized that this could make him the
biggest villain in wrestling. Between

256
00:20:09,670 --> 00:20:11,450
accent and the look.

257
00:20:14,450 --> 00:20:19,230
And the way he looked down on the
audience and spit.

258
00:20:19,710 --> 00:20:24,130
In the physicality of the way he
brutalized opponents.

259
00:20:27,790 --> 00:20:32,150
Every territory in the United States
wanted the Iron Sheik to be their top

260
00:20:32,150 --> 00:20:33,150
guy.

261
00:20:35,190 --> 00:20:35,630
Every

262
00:20:35,630 --> 00:20:50,450
single

263
00:20:50,450 --> 00:20:53,310
night, you could turn on the news.

264
00:20:53,950 --> 00:20:59,850
And you saw Americans being paraded
blindfolded by Iranian

265
00:20:59,850 --> 00:21:04,510
militants. This morning, for the first
time since the hostages were put under

266
00:21:04,510 --> 00:21:08,550
lock and key, one of the captives
blindfolded was brought out into the

267
00:21:08,910 --> 00:21:14,650
So there was not a lot of love for the
Iranian people in the United States at

268
00:21:14,650 --> 00:21:18,610
the time. Sadly, there was also a lot of
racism completely unwarranted.

269
00:21:18,830 --> 00:21:20,550
Back then, they used to call you effing
Iranian.

270
00:21:21,390 --> 00:21:24,550
That was a thing. They call you F -ing
Iranian to beat you up. We were made fun

271
00:21:24,550 --> 00:21:27,410
of. We were even tied to a tree once at
school.

272
00:21:27,950 --> 00:21:32,250
If you said I'm Iranian or I was born in
Iran, you were basically saying I'm a

273
00:21:32,250 --> 00:21:37,350
hostage taker and I support what Iran
has done to your American people.

274
00:21:37,570 --> 00:21:41,950
Well, I don't have to say about Persian
carpets, Persian cats, Persian

275
00:21:41,950 --> 00:21:46,410
pistachio. Everything you want over
there that was the best, just like the

276
00:21:46,410 --> 00:21:50,070
orange sheep. So for anyone growing up
at that time who was Iranian,

277
00:21:50,910 --> 00:21:53,610
Seeing the Sheik on TV was thrilling.

278
00:21:53,990 --> 00:21:58,350
It is the winner, the Iron Sheik!

279
00:21:59,370 --> 00:22:05,130
Though hated, and though used as a heel,
it allowed them to have something to

280
00:22:05,130 --> 00:22:05,989
cheer for.

281
00:22:05,990 --> 00:22:10,850
I love wrestling so much, I didn't have
a choice. I want to stay in this

282
00:22:10,850 --> 00:22:16,150
business. To me, it was a natural and a
way to be well and healed.

283
00:22:18,420 --> 00:22:22,080
Very, very painful hole. He's really
pulling back with that man's chin.

284
00:22:22,300 --> 00:22:25,040
What made the Sheik such a good villain?

285
00:22:25,460 --> 00:22:26,720
I think it's real simple.

286
00:22:27,000 --> 00:22:28,460
What you see is what you get.

287
00:22:29,200 --> 00:22:33,340
He understood the politics of the moment
very well.

288
00:22:35,780 --> 00:22:42,600
In the fans' eyes, they thought he was
best friends with the Ayatollah. In

289
00:22:42,600 --> 00:22:46,900
mind, they could just envision the Iron
Sheik and the Ayatollah having drinks at

290
00:22:46,900 --> 00:22:47,900
the end of the day, right?

291
00:22:48,320 --> 00:22:50,000
and spitting on the American flag.

292
00:22:50,380 --> 00:22:56,860
All of those things help to solidify his
image of one of the perfect villains,

293
00:22:57,180 --> 00:23:02,880
bad guys, or heels in wrestling. So
someone sitting at home is going, yep,

294
00:23:02,880 --> 00:23:06,740
know what, that guy, he's probably still
working for those people over there.

295
00:23:06,900 --> 00:23:11,980
And the Iron Sheik played up to
everyone's internal fears of that

296
00:23:11,980 --> 00:23:12,980
menace.

297
00:23:13,840 --> 00:23:19,140
Wrestling fans believe that the Iron
Sheik was every despicable thing that he

298
00:23:19,140 --> 00:23:20,420
presented himself to be.

299
00:23:24,760 --> 00:23:30,300
One of the rather unusual methods that
you use in your training is the use of

300
00:23:30,300 --> 00:23:31,880
some sort of Persian clubs, correct?

301
00:23:32,600 --> 00:23:39,300
Exactly. He had

302
00:23:39,300 --> 00:23:44,620
these things called the Persian clubs,
which looked like two enormous...

303
00:23:45,320 --> 00:23:50,220
bowling pins or something. He picked
those two Persian clubs up, and he just

304
00:23:50,220 --> 00:23:54,860
started twirling them over his head just
so gracefully. It was as if they

305
00:23:54,860 --> 00:23:57,080
weighed 10 pounds at the most.

306
00:23:57,420 --> 00:24:01,400
Lift those 75 -pound clubs and begin to
twirl them about.

307
00:24:01,720 --> 00:24:07,980
Not to use this term lightly, but
unbelievable strength, because he could

308
00:24:07,980 --> 00:24:11,500
them up and twirl them like you would a
knife and a fork.

309
00:24:11,840 --> 00:24:13,100
He's trying to work them.

310
00:24:13,920 --> 00:24:16,560
I would think it's quite easy to get
hurt with those clubs growing up if you

311
00:24:16,560 --> 00:24:17,519
don't know what you're doing.

312
00:24:17,520 --> 00:24:19,720
A lot of big, strong, powerful men.

313
00:24:20,260 --> 00:24:23,420
Couldn't do them, but the Sheik, man, he
could use those clubs like nobody's

314
00:24:23,420 --> 00:24:24,800
business. None of us could do it.

315
00:24:25,000 --> 00:24:26,140
We all tried.

316
00:24:26,920 --> 00:24:30,060
Damn, things were so heavy, and I tried
a couple times. I thought I was going to

317
00:24:30,060 --> 00:24:31,060
break my wrist.

318
00:24:31,260 --> 00:24:32,500
I used to watch Sheik.

319
00:24:33,280 --> 00:24:35,180
They're doing them freaking clubs.

320
00:24:35,840 --> 00:24:38,280
Inside the locker room, and then I could
see him.

321
00:24:38,990 --> 00:24:43,230
Go over there and just start twisting
his mustache and start slapping his

322
00:24:43,470 --> 00:24:49,370
What the Iron Sheik wanted to do was
make his character bigger.

323
00:24:49,970 --> 00:24:56,950
And the way to do that was add little
touches

324
00:24:56,950 --> 00:24:58,630
to his ring attire.

325
00:25:11,340 --> 00:25:16,220
These are presumably or ostensibly
decorations.

326
00:25:16,780 --> 00:25:23,780
What he would do is, when times got
tough, he would turn his back to the guy

327
00:25:23,780 --> 00:25:24,780
was wrestling.

328
00:25:25,860 --> 00:25:32,250
He'd more or less... kicked his toe into
the mat and

329
00:25:32,250 --> 00:25:34,830
supposedly loaded the toe.

330
00:25:35,250 --> 00:25:37,850
Rod whips it to the foot here.

331
00:25:38,590 --> 00:25:39,590
Oh, my.

332
00:25:42,190 --> 00:25:46,890
No, I was never a victim of the camel
clutch, and I'm so friggin' glad I

333
00:25:47,650 --> 00:25:51,450
Look at it now, setting it up, pulling
the arms back. Once he gets it, he sets

334
00:25:51,450 --> 00:25:52,349
the rocks back.

335
00:25:52,350 --> 00:25:53,410
It's give -up time.

336
00:25:54,490 --> 00:25:57,790
He's got to look at it, pulling one out
there. That is painful.

337
00:25:59,880 --> 00:26:00,880
Camel clutch.

338
00:26:01,120 --> 00:26:03,600
A move that you don't want to be into.

339
00:26:06,880 --> 00:26:10,900
The dreaded camel clutch.

340
00:26:11,180 --> 00:26:15,160
The only move that I still don't know
how you can get out of physically.

341
00:26:15,520 --> 00:26:19,940
It's an extremely painful and somewhat
torturous maneuver.

342
00:26:21,740 --> 00:26:27,340
He's got to look at him pulling on that
neck. He just had a way of doing it. It

343
00:26:27,340 --> 00:26:28,360
was so impure.

344
00:26:43,170 --> 00:26:46,790
Hammer clutch, fans, that move hurts.

345
00:26:47,290 --> 00:26:50,770
Perhaps one of the most sadistic men in
professional wrestling today.

346
00:26:54,890 --> 00:26:59,790
One of the only matches that I actually
got hurt to the point where I had to

347
00:26:59,790 --> 00:27:05,850
have stitches was with Cosgrove. So
Cosgrove holds a real dear spot in my

348
00:27:07,970 --> 00:27:13,510
A group of folks in the audience with a
large American flag in retaliation to

349
00:27:13,510 --> 00:27:15,890
the flag brought in by the Iron Chief.

350
00:27:16,210 --> 00:27:18,770
At one point, Jerry the King Lawler.

351
00:27:19,540 --> 00:27:24,740
painted the face of the Ayatollah
Khomeini on the Iranian flag.

352
00:27:24,960 --> 00:27:30,100
We see the likeness of Ayatollah
Khomeini on the colors of Iran and the

353
00:27:30,100 --> 00:27:31,100
Sheik.

354
00:27:31,620 --> 00:27:36,280
We were just talking in the locker room,
and I said something about, hey, Sheik,

355
00:27:36,300 --> 00:27:40,860
you know, I'm an artist. I said, I would
just think that it would look great if

356
00:27:40,860 --> 00:27:45,720
in the middle of that just empty white
space of that flag, if I did a portrait

357
00:27:45,720 --> 00:27:47,120
of the Ayatollah.

358
00:27:48,650 --> 00:27:55,470
And I'm telling you, immediately his
eyes went... He said, oh, Jerry

359
00:27:55,470 --> 00:27:57,470
Lawler, make me famous with this flag.

360
00:27:57,910 --> 00:28:03,550
They see me with the Iranian flag, and I
have total faces in the middle of the

361
00:28:03,550 --> 00:28:06,530
flag. That was a real shoot hit.

362
00:28:06,950 --> 00:28:11,290
He is indeed one of the great World
Wrestling Federation athletes.

363
00:28:11,770 --> 00:28:15,230
However, again, a lot of people do not
like the Iron Sheik.

364
00:28:16,100 --> 00:28:20,800
Heat is the power that you have that's
measured in the way the audience reacts

365
00:28:20,800 --> 00:28:25,700
to you. Heat means they're booing you.
Heat means that they hate you.

366
00:28:26,680 --> 00:28:31,920
When you really have heat, people are
going to the arena not only wanting you

367
00:28:31,920 --> 00:28:34,420
lose, but they themselves want to kill
you.

368
00:28:35,420 --> 00:28:37,360
That's the heat that the Iron Sheik had.

369
00:28:45,979 --> 00:28:51,460
The Sheik had a sense that you go, as a
fan, I know this guy's not going to play

370
00:28:51,460 --> 00:28:52,460
fair.

371
00:28:52,900 --> 00:28:55,520
And that type of heat is lasting.

372
00:28:59,220 --> 00:29:04,360
The heat that the Sheik had, the word I
like to use is blistering.

373
00:29:04,920 --> 00:29:08,080
Walking out to the ring, the fans
started booing him. He didn't even have

374
00:29:08,080 --> 00:29:09,080
anything.

375
00:29:10,250 --> 00:29:11,690
I know what they're saying, but I'm not
saying it.

376
00:29:12,210 --> 00:29:15,470
Capacity crowd on the case of the Iron
Sheik.

377
00:29:16,250 --> 00:29:20,270
People were throwing stuff at him. You
know, that's how much heat that people

378
00:29:20,270 --> 00:29:21,310
just didn't like him.

379
00:29:21,610 --> 00:29:24,970
Oh, they threw everything in the ring.

380
00:29:25,270 --> 00:29:27,430
Everything in the ring was packed.

381
00:29:27,910 --> 00:29:29,910
The Iron Sheik.

382
00:29:30,630 --> 00:29:34,730
Because he was so brash and bold and
braggadocio, it was opposite our views.

383
00:29:35,010 --> 00:29:37,490
It was easy to not like him. He was so
different.

384
00:29:37,710 --> 00:29:39,690
The Sheik loved being hated.

385
00:29:43,699 --> 00:29:49,900
And loved doing whatever he could do to
tap into you to get you to hate him.

386
00:30:03,420 --> 00:30:04,620
Devastating suplex.

387
00:30:04,820 --> 00:30:09,900
Prior to the early 1980s, wrestling was
not a national sport.

388
00:30:10,200 --> 00:30:15,380
It was divided up into territories.
There was no one singular base.

389
00:30:15,700 --> 00:30:21,800
The country was split up into regional
territories, and the means of

390
00:30:21,800 --> 00:30:24,960
distribution were local TV stations.

391
00:30:25,480 --> 00:30:30,160
That's prior to cable television and
prior to Vince McMahon's national

392
00:30:30,160 --> 00:30:31,760
expansion. When Vince Jr.

393
00:30:32,020 --> 00:30:37,640
purchased WWE from his father, he
decided that he wanted to take that

394
00:30:37,640 --> 00:30:38,640
national.

395
00:30:39,340 --> 00:30:41,720
Hello, everyone. Welcome to Championship
Wrestling.

396
00:30:41,980 --> 00:30:45,180
This is Vince McMahon here at ringside
standing next to wrestling's living

397
00:30:45,180 --> 00:30:46,560
legend, Bruno Sammartino.

398
00:30:46,840 --> 00:30:50,500
Vince McMahon came along and had a
vision that I'm going to go into these

399
00:30:50,500 --> 00:30:54,260
markets and I'm going to pay these
television stations to be on the air.

400
00:30:54,620 --> 00:30:59,620
That was the transition from a business
perspective that took the WWE from a

401
00:30:59,620 --> 00:31:02,500
regional Northeast promotion to a
national promotion.

402
00:31:02,960 --> 00:31:06,400
We shall return here with the
festivities beginning in just a few

403
00:31:06,910 --> 00:31:12,790
I think that when Vince McMahon decided
to take WWE National, he knew he wanted

404
00:31:12,790 --> 00:31:17,290
a product that would penetrate pop
culture, and he knew he wanted a show

405
00:31:17,290 --> 00:31:21,190
was about these over -the -top,
marketable characters.

406
00:31:23,050 --> 00:31:29,490
That was the vision that transitioned
from professional wrestling

407
00:31:29,490 --> 00:31:33,650
to sports entertainment, and Sheik was a
huge part of that.

408
00:31:37,160 --> 00:31:43,540
When Vince took over and made the WWE
what it is today, he decided that Bob

409
00:31:43,540 --> 00:31:45,160
no longer to be the champion.

410
00:31:45,780 --> 00:31:51,520
Bob Buckland was a good champion, but
people get tired of him.

411
00:31:51,740 --> 00:31:54,500
They want to see the better change.

412
00:31:54,900 --> 00:31:59,860
Well, the place needed to be shaken up,
and you had five years of plain white

413
00:31:59,860 --> 00:32:00,860
milk toast.

414
00:32:01,310 --> 00:32:03,490
You know, Backlund, great wrestler, but
not an attraction.

415
00:32:03,910 --> 00:32:07,370
By golly, one way or another, whether he
beats me or not, I'm going to go in

416
00:32:07,370 --> 00:32:08,950
there and fight to the last.

417
00:32:09,210 --> 00:32:14,350
Bob was an incredible amateur wrestler,
but Bob didn't have a whole lot of

418
00:32:14,350 --> 00:32:16,890
color. He didn't have a character that
was very colorful.

419
00:32:17,630 --> 00:32:22,010
Apparently, Bob Backlund doesn't think
that certain people should be able to

420
00:32:22,010 --> 00:32:23,010
beat him.

421
00:32:23,150 --> 00:32:27,690
And if he was going to lose a match, he
thought it was important that he lost a

422
00:32:27,690 --> 00:32:32,280
match. to somebody that could
legitimately beat him.

423
00:32:32,820 --> 00:32:38,700
Introducing first to my left, the
challenger, the Iron Sheik.

424
00:32:40,460 --> 00:32:47,260
He knew he had the title match, and he
didn't know how it was going to end.

425
00:32:48,040 --> 00:32:50,560
No, I didn't know. Surprise, Mr.

426
00:32:50,760 --> 00:32:51,960
McVincombe told me.

427
00:32:52,500 --> 00:32:54,940
And my wife didn't know.

428
00:33:05,480 --> 00:33:12,440
I was in the crowd at the Garden the

429
00:33:12,440 --> 00:33:15,840
night the Iron Sheik defeated Bob
Backlund. And it was just stunning.

430
00:33:16,300 --> 00:33:20,760
Because Bob Backlund had held the WWE
title for five years.

431
00:33:26,480 --> 00:33:30,840
You don't think you're going to see the
title change hands with the Garden.

432
00:33:35,420 --> 00:33:42,140
People bought tickets to watch the Iron
Sheik

433
00:33:42,140 --> 00:33:43,140
get beat.

434
00:33:43,260 --> 00:33:49,560
Nothing could upset them more than
buying a ticket to see the Iron Sheik

435
00:33:49,560 --> 00:33:53,480
the biggest match conceivable.

436
00:33:54,110 --> 00:33:56,070
the WWE Championship match.

437
00:33:57,990 --> 00:33:58,990
Now he's got it!

438
00:33:59,350 --> 00:34:01,710
He hooked Backlund back, he's right in
the center of the ring!

439
00:34:01,930 --> 00:34:03,990
And Backlund's got a bad neck! Pull on
it!

440
00:34:04,330 --> 00:34:05,690
Oh! Pull on it!

441
00:34:06,290 --> 00:34:08,210
Backlund did not submit, Arnold scored
it!

442
00:34:13,389 --> 00:34:19,550
If I'm correct, that's a Seamless
submission, we have a new champion in

443
00:34:19,550 --> 00:34:20,550
World Wrestling Federation!

444
00:34:21,570 --> 00:34:22,670
From the Iron Seekers.

445
00:34:22,940 --> 00:34:23,940
won the title.

446
00:34:24,540 --> 00:34:27,520
I mean, it rocked the wrestling world.

447
00:34:27,860 --> 00:34:34,679
I was sitting

448
00:34:34,679 --> 00:34:40,679
in the front row and they said that he
won and he put the hand in the air and I

449
00:34:40,679 --> 00:34:41,679
was numb.

450
00:34:42,100 --> 00:34:45,159
I was like, no way.

451
00:34:56,520 --> 00:34:58,880
It's theater and drama at its highest.

452
00:34:59,780 --> 00:35:01,120
Shakespeare would have been proud.

453
00:35:01,400 --> 00:35:04,520
It was stunning. Like, I kept thinking
there was going to be some type of

454
00:35:04,520 --> 00:35:05,520
reversal.

455
00:35:07,400 --> 00:35:13,380
And Sheik walked out of there with that
title, and we basically usher in a new

456
00:35:13,380 --> 00:35:14,380
era.

457
00:35:21,070 --> 00:35:27,630
My life changed a little bit, but it got
more famous, more territory

458
00:35:27,630 --> 00:35:28,630
using me.

459
00:35:28,810 --> 00:35:34,010
The Iron Sheik from Tehran, Iran,
currently wears the gold.

460
00:35:34,990 --> 00:35:39,570
Sheik really had a recipe of what makes
a great heel.

461
00:35:40,110 --> 00:35:46,410
There was nothing really to like about
the Sheik in his prime. He was a really,

462
00:35:46,450 --> 00:35:49,050
really good heel. Everything was
believable about him.

463
00:35:49,320 --> 00:35:50,600
His look was believable.

464
00:35:51,200 --> 00:35:53,120
The way he talked was believable.

465
00:35:53,360 --> 00:35:56,420
And so he was very easy to hate.

466
00:35:56,660 --> 00:36:02,740
The fans who

467
00:36:02,740 --> 00:36:07,080
loved to hate him would also love to
hurt him.

468
00:36:09,960 --> 00:36:16,900
They're asking somebody to bear the
brunt of this and actually, you know,

469
00:36:16,900 --> 00:36:17,900
their life.

470
00:36:18,480 --> 00:36:23,440
I knew there were problems because I was
good friends with the Iron Sheik's

471
00:36:23,440 --> 00:36:27,740
wife. You know, the mail would come and,
oh my gosh, this is another death

472
00:36:27,740 --> 00:36:31,220
threat. And I was like, oh my God,
you've got to be kidding me. I was very,

473
00:36:31,220 --> 00:36:34,900
lucky. As a matter of fact, two, three
times they called Mr. McMahon.

474
00:36:35,520 --> 00:36:40,240
For example, if the Iron Sheik comes to
Albany or Providence, Rhode Island,

475
00:36:40,480 --> 00:36:43,880
they're going to shoot me because they
know that I'm a real Iranian.

476
00:36:44,510 --> 00:36:48,470
I mean, the guy had to be escorted by
police. He had to go into the trunks of

477
00:36:48,470 --> 00:36:49,970
cars, leave the building.

478
00:36:50,330 --> 00:36:53,510
The fans were really out of control
sometimes.

479
00:36:54,050 --> 00:36:57,130
Sometimes he'd even be stabbed in the
arm.

480
00:36:57,430 --> 00:36:58,750
I'm sure he's been cut.

481
00:36:59,310 --> 00:37:04,850
We've all been cut. That's sort of your
baptism of fire when somebody cuts you.

482
00:37:05,550 --> 00:37:07,770
No guy had bigger cojones than him.

483
00:37:08,010 --> 00:37:09,490
He was walking around.

484
00:37:10,330 --> 00:37:15,770
at the height of people hating Iranian
and walking into stadiums, stadiums with

485
00:37:15,770 --> 00:37:17,830
70 ,000 people that all wanted to kill
him.

486
00:37:18,370 --> 00:37:20,350
I mean, you don't have bigger balls than
that.

487
00:37:24,110 --> 00:37:30,450
When the Iron Sheik won the WWE
championship, I think fans didn't

488
00:37:30,450 --> 00:37:33,750
that they were seeing the end of an era.

489
00:37:36,530 --> 00:37:41,800
If you want to make a great hero, and
you're looking for a new hero to lead

490
00:37:41,800 --> 00:37:44,640
company, he has to overcome something
big.

491
00:37:44,860 --> 00:37:49,920
And to beat someone like Bob Backlund,
that had been a fan favorite for many

492
00:37:49,920 --> 00:37:54,400
years, that's not a way to make a hero,
because you're beating a hero doing

493
00:37:54,400 --> 00:37:59,320
that. However, if you have an evil
menace, like the Iron Sheik come in and

494
00:37:59,320 --> 00:38:05,440
your All -American hero, and make it
throw in the towel, then you need a

495
00:38:05,440 --> 00:38:08,460
-than -life hero to come in and overtake
that nemesis.

496
00:38:08,710 --> 00:38:12,750
What happened to Bob Buckley? What
happened to his arm? What happened to

497
00:38:12,750 --> 00:38:17,650
shoulder? Now they're putting Hulk
Hogan, the biggest American animal.

498
00:38:18,290 --> 00:38:24,550
When the Iron Sheik won the WWE
Championship, it signaled a change in

499
00:38:24,550 --> 00:38:25,830
business would be presented.

500
00:38:26,190 --> 00:38:31,110
The Iron Sheik was a supervillain. He
would go on to be defeated by a

501
00:38:31,390 --> 00:38:34,590
Hulk Hogan. And the Hulkamania era would
begin.

502
00:38:34,970 --> 00:38:36,670
There he is, Hulkamania.

503
00:38:58,360 --> 00:39:04,860
So I'm hanging on this bar after the
match at Madison Square Garden, and fans

504
00:39:04,860 --> 00:39:07,480
are speculating about what might happen
next.

505
00:39:07,720 --> 00:39:12,920
And one guy standing at the bar says, I
heard that Hulk Hogan is going to come

506
00:39:12,920 --> 00:39:18,300
in and win the title. And I look at my
friends and I go, who's this guy getting

507
00:39:18,300 --> 00:39:19,300
this information?

508
00:39:19,390 --> 00:39:21,510
Hulk Hogan's working for Vern Gagne in
Minnesota.

509
00:39:21,830 --> 00:39:23,530
Never would happen in a million years.

510
00:39:23,970 --> 00:39:29,710
Vince's vision of taking a company
national, he had to have a hood

511
00:39:29,710 --> 00:39:30,790
had to have a centerpiece.

512
00:39:31,130 --> 00:39:36,650
Wrestling, when it's at its best, has a
good guy and a bad guy.

513
00:39:38,030 --> 00:39:45,030
To set that protagonist up, the equal
antagonist with the equal

514
00:39:45,030 --> 00:39:47,210
protagonist, Hulk versus Sheik.

515
00:39:47,600 --> 00:39:53,160
It was a match made in heaven. You go
bring that animal Hulk Hogan for no

516
00:39:53,160 --> 00:39:58,100
because I don't know the guy. I never
met the guy. It doesn't get any better

517
00:39:58,100 --> 00:40:02,720
than that. I mean, that's the perfect
storyline, the perfect reality -based

518
00:40:02,720 --> 00:40:07,140
storyline, and it wasn't something a
writer wrote. It was really happening.

519
00:40:07,540 --> 00:40:13,220
Vern Gagne in particular is very
resentful of this because until very

520
00:40:13,440 --> 00:40:15,300
Hulk Hogan had been working for him.

521
00:40:15,900 --> 00:40:21,400
So the story that the Iron Sheik has
told, that Vern Gagne called him and

522
00:40:21,500 --> 00:40:27,860
Sheiky baby, do not lose the title to
Hogan. Go out there, break his leg,

523
00:40:28,060 --> 00:40:30,300
and bring the title back to Minnesota.

524
00:40:30,880 --> 00:40:32,480
I'll give you $100 ,000.

525
00:40:42,920 --> 00:40:45,820
Now, he trained Khosrow Vaziri.

526
00:40:46,040 --> 00:40:51,920
His wife had given Khosrow the Iron
Sheik name. And so there was this

527
00:40:51,920 --> 00:40:54,420
that the Iron Sheik owes us a favor.

528
00:40:54,700 --> 00:40:58,160
Byrne got to him and said, if you break
Hulk Hogan's leg, I'll give you a

529
00:40:58,160 --> 00:40:59,160
hundred grand.

530
00:41:00,360 --> 00:41:02,860
This is the main event.

531
00:41:03,500 --> 00:41:08,100
It is for the World Wrestling Federation
Heavyweight Championship.

532
00:41:08,780 --> 00:41:10,080
Well, the reaction was...

533
00:41:10,720 --> 00:41:15,140
Insane. When I came out spinning and
turning in 20 different directions and

534
00:41:15,140 --> 00:41:19,000
up on the apron and I pointed at the
sheet that grew up below me and I came

535
00:41:19,000 --> 00:41:21,400
and ripped the shirt off, it was already
there.

536
00:41:22,040 --> 00:41:26,840
Introducing first, the challenger, from
Venice Beach, California,

537
00:41:27,560 --> 00:41:32,960
the incredible Paul Brugge.

538
00:41:35,620 --> 00:41:38,780
I'm going through this and oh my gosh,
this is going to be...

539
00:41:39,880 --> 00:41:41,620
a huge lightning bolt to right.

540
00:41:44,360 --> 00:41:44,820
It

541
00:41:44,820 --> 00:41:58,820
has

542
00:41:58,820 --> 00:42:05,220
been so established, the camel clutch
with Aaron Sheik, that once he put it on

543
00:42:05,220 --> 00:42:07,200
you, nobody got out.

544
00:42:10,769 --> 00:42:15,470
I knew if I broke the hold, the place
would erupt and it was already over.

545
00:42:15,470 --> 00:42:18,150
I got out of the camera clutch and back
into the turnbuckle, the only thing left

546
00:42:18,150 --> 00:42:19,370
to do was drop the leg on it.

547
00:42:44,280 --> 00:42:49,920
person to take the strap off of Bob and
then give it to Hulk. It changed the

548
00:42:49,920 --> 00:42:54,160
wrestling world, without a doubt. I
mean, it exploded. It just went wild.

549
00:42:54,620 --> 00:42:58,100
You have arrived, Hulk Hogan! Have you
never seen anything as beautiful as this

550
00:42:58,100 --> 00:43:00,120
meeting? This belt is part of yours,
too!

551
00:43:00,360 --> 00:43:06,600
The fact that he had to lose the belt to
Hulk Hogan, it was like hemorrhaging a

552
00:43:06,600 --> 00:43:09,020
blood vessel. It was so painful.

553
00:43:09,440 --> 00:43:11,500
I'm a wrestler, not Hulk Hogan.

554
00:43:12,300 --> 00:43:15,280
and I should have had the belt longer.

555
00:43:16,040 --> 00:43:22,420
The Iron Sheik was that key in
transitioning from the

556
00:43:22,420 --> 00:43:26,560
quote -unquote real athlete to the quote
-unquote real superhero.

557
00:43:26,900 --> 00:43:29,300
And part of that was because the Iron
Sheik was both.

558
00:43:30,060 --> 00:43:34,240
I make him to be a really big star.

559
00:43:34,720 --> 00:43:38,600
Without me, no Hulk Hogan to be a star.

560
00:43:38,960 --> 00:43:40,560
Hulk Hogan, I'm not...

561
00:43:41,390 --> 00:43:46,850
I touch you tonight from one of your
people, and I'm going to make you suffer

562
00:43:46,850 --> 00:43:52,390
bad. You can say pass the baton off to
Hogan, but it was a brand new baton

563
00:43:52,390 --> 00:43:56,030
because our industry was about to go
down a road that had never been done

564
00:43:56,030 --> 00:44:00,830
before. And the Sheik and the Hulk were
your headliners, the biggest box office

565
00:44:00,830 --> 00:44:02,950
attraction that the industry had really
ever seen.

566
00:44:06,990 --> 00:44:13,510
People were so happy that that son of a
bitch no longer had that world title.

567
00:44:14,450 --> 00:44:18,430
Taking it from the Sheik, that was huge.

568
00:44:22,810 --> 00:44:29,630
Had the Iron Sheik not been generous
enough and passed the torch, WWE may

569
00:44:29,630 --> 00:44:32,690
never become the juggernaut we know
today.

570
00:44:36,170 --> 00:44:40,770
With all the heat and mad feelings that
the fans had for the Iron Sheik, that

571
00:44:40,770 --> 00:44:43,370
just made that win by Hulk Hogan even
greater.

572
00:44:43,670 --> 00:44:47,990
And that's how great of a villain he
was, that he could pass that torch right

573
00:44:47,990 --> 00:44:51,290
in a way that it made Hulk Hogan the
biggest name in wrestling.

574
00:44:52,530 --> 00:44:53,930
Hulkamania is here!

575
00:44:57,750 --> 00:45:03,910
I think Sheik gave them maybe the
highest element of a heel.

576
00:45:06,060 --> 00:45:11,380
And Hulk gave them the highest element
of a babyface at a time where that

577
00:45:11,380 --> 00:45:13,140
worked. The big leg drop!

578
00:45:14,820 --> 00:45:15,960
Look out, Hulk!

579
00:45:16,820 --> 00:45:22,860
I think the Iron Sheik fit right in with
what the WWE had planned for its brand.

580
00:45:23,480 --> 00:45:25,900
Was he going to remain in the main event
forever?

581
00:45:26,360 --> 00:45:32,680
No. But I think that WWE had long -term
plans to keep the Iron Sheik character

582
00:45:32,680 --> 00:45:34,760
as part of their catalog.

583
00:45:36,750 --> 00:45:41,510
And, gentlemen, there it is, the
submission of the Camel's Bludgeon and

584
00:45:41,510 --> 00:45:42,468
it up.

585
00:45:42,470 --> 00:45:48,690
Charles Rowe did the right thing at the
right time and became larger than life.

586
00:46:26,280 --> 00:46:32,340
The thing that made the Sheik so unique
is that a loss in a big match wasn't

587
00:46:32,340 --> 00:46:34,200
going to take away his heat.

588
00:46:34,800 --> 00:46:39,800
Okay, the Iron Sheik being led back to
the dressing room after taking another

589
00:46:39,800 --> 00:46:41,140
vicious pounding.

590
00:46:41,440 --> 00:46:47,580
After losing the title to Hulk Hogan,
while yes, he doesn't maintain in the

591
00:46:47,580 --> 00:46:52,040
title picture, that doesn't mean another
American hero can't come along.

592
00:46:52,880 --> 00:46:58,280
After the Sheik loses the title to Hulk
Hogan, he's immediately put into another

593
00:46:58,280 --> 00:47:01,120
rivalry with Sergeant Slaughter. It's
natural.

594
00:47:01,320 --> 00:47:05,360
Sergeant Slaughter is a U .S. Marine.
That's his character.

595
00:47:05,700 --> 00:47:08,480
And the Iron Sheik is an Iranian
terrorist.

596
00:47:08,700 --> 00:47:12,760
That's the gimmick that he's portraying.
Do I look like a domer pile?

597
00:47:13,120 --> 00:47:15,080
I can't hear you, maggot.

598
00:47:16,000 --> 00:47:18,400
Sergeant Slaughter was not like a good
guy.

599
00:47:18,940 --> 00:47:22,860
He was a bad guy, Sergeant. He did a lot
of bad things to other good wrestlers.

600
00:47:23,220 --> 00:47:24,820
He was a bad guy first.

601
00:47:25,120 --> 00:47:31,540
The only person who could make him a
good guy was Iron Sheik.

602
00:47:31,640 --> 00:47:33,520
People loved Sergeant Slaughter.

603
00:47:33,960 --> 00:47:35,400
He was G .I. Joe.

604
00:47:36,120 --> 00:47:40,380
And then Iron Sheik, this evil bastard,
has to be beaten.

605
00:47:41,540 --> 00:47:45,200
We want Slaughter. Everyone wants him
but the Iron Sheik.

606
00:47:46,030 --> 00:47:47,170
Finch McNab Sr.

607
00:47:47,390 --> 00:47:52,030
invited me out for dinner. So I started
telling him, why don't you let Sergeant

608
00:47:52,030 --> 00:47:58,650
Slaughter declare war on the Iron Sheik?
Sergeant Slaughter, that's a miss!

609
00:47:59,730 --> 00:48:06,390
And the people were so happy to see
Sergeant Slaughter go

610
00:48:06,390 --> 00:48:07,730
against the Iron Sheik.

611
00:48:07,950 --> 00:48:09,050
Iron Sheik!

612
00:48:10,370 --> 00:48:13,050
I declare war on you!

613
00:48:18,190 --> 00:48:21,770
The third war on him and off to the
races we went.

614
00:48:23,770 --> 00:48:28,910
In a return bout, it will be what
they're calling a boot camp match.

615
00:48:29,850 --> 00:48:31,490
Everyone on their feet.

616
00:48:31,950 --> 00:48:33,430
USA, everyone.

617
00:48:34,510 --> 00:48:37,610
Now they're having highly emotional
matches.

618
00:48:38,030 --> 00:48:43,070
They put the Iron Sheik and Sergeant
Slaughter in the main event in Madison

619
00:48:43,070 --> 00:48:47,250
Square Garden. They have this very
bloody match called a boot camp.

620
00:49:02,720 --> 00:49:07,220
I'll never forget watching that boot
camp match between the Sheik and

621
00:49:07,360 --> 00:49:10,660
As a kid, I had never seen blood like
that.

622
00:49:10,960 --> 00:49:11,960
Suplex!

623
00:49:12,860 --> 00:49:15,300
Look at the Sheik fighting now!

624
00:49:15,880 --> 00:49:19,920
It was tough match, hard match, good
match.

625
00:49:20,260 --> 00:49:24,100
And people wants to see all this bread.

626
00:49:24,800 --> 00:49:25,800
Cut!

627
00:49:29,680 --> 00:49:35,060
She didn't need to win to win. He did
his job and created a feeling.

628
00:49:37,320 --> 00:49:42,020
That's the best win is when you get a
reaction and it doesn't matter who comes

629
00:49:42,020 --> 00:49:43,020
out on top.

630
00:49:44,300 --> 00:49:51,020
Because of the rivalry

631
00:49:51,020 --> 00:49:54,560
with Sergeant Slaughter, the Iron Sheik
was main eventing.

632
00:49:55,630 --> 00:50:01,770
People wanted the Iron Sheik on every
card. So the Iron Sheik lost nothing in

633
00:50:01,770 --> 00:50:04,690
sacrificing the title to Hulk Hogan.

634
00:50:11,770 --> 00:50:16,650
Sheik obviously embraced his heritage,
and that made him nothing but money.

635
00:50:17,370 --> 00:50:21,010
But it made him money because of his
opponents.

636
00:50:21,560 --> 00:50:27,460
that were red, white, and blue, or stood
for everything right in this world, and

637
00:50:27,460 --> 00:50:30,960
Sheik didn't mind standing for
everything wrong in this world.

638
00:50:31,640 --> 00:50:34,460
Oh, he just drove a knee right into
midsection?

639
00:50:35,620 --> 00:50:36,620
Incredible!

640
00:50:39,420 --> 00:50:45,200
At this point in time, the Sheik
financially had to be doing better than

641
00:50:45,200 --> 00:50:46,620
thought he would do.

642
00:50:46,840 --> 00:50:49,360
I can't help it if you're too dumb to
watch where you're going.

643
00:50:49,740 --> 00:50:50,740
That's it!

644
00:50:50,920 --> 00:50:55,780
That is straw that camel cannot carry.
From now on, I am through with you. But

645
00:50:55,780 --> 00:50:56,780
do it.

646
00:50:57,200 --> 00:51:00,440
That cartoon, we thought, was so cool.

647
00:51:00,740 --> 00:51:04,480
I mean, we were really, really enamored
by the cartoon.

648
00:51:04,760 --> 00:51:07,520
The cartoon made all of us superheroes.

649
00:51:07,900 --> 00:51:11,560
The cartoon just put extra gas on the
fire.

650
00:51:11,880 --> 00:51:16,320
Anything that had Hulk Hogan or Sergeant
Slaughter on it would have to have the

651
00:51:16,320 --> 00:51:18,080
Iron Sheik on it. The Iron Sheik.

652
00:51:18,490 --> 00:51:20,090
became a household name.

653
00:51:30,050 --> 00:51:34,030
Cosmo made a lot of money on that action
figure. The very first dolls that came

654
00:51:34,030 --> 00:51:37,530
out, one quarter, he made $87 ,000.

655
00:51:37,930 --> 00:51:40,150
I remember he got his check in the
dressing room.

656
00:51:40,730 --> 00:51:42,690
I believe it was a $100 ,000 check.

657
00:51:43,150 --> 00:51:45,150
And I remember he thought it was $10
,000.

658
00:52:01,410 --> 00:52:08,090
The rewards are great, but the
sacrifices sometimes

659
00:52:08,090 --> 00:52:09,090
are even greater.

660
00:52:15,180 --> 00:52:20,920
It can be a very glamorous life, but it
can also be a very lonely and painful

661
00:52:20,920 --> 00:52:26,380
life. I think one of the hardest things
to be is a professional wrestler.

662
00:52:26,660 --> 00:52:30,240
You're going to miss birthdays and big
holidays and all that.

663
00:52:30,740 --> 00:52:34,380
You're away from your family. You're
with other wrestlers more than you are

664
00:52:34,380 --> 00:52:35,800
children or your wife.

665
00:52:36,360 --> 00:52:41,380
My husband was usually gone like a month
or two at a time.

666
00:52:41,980 --> 00:52:45,220
You know, when he got home, he didn't
want to go out or be much in the public,

667
00:52:45,280 --> 00:52:47,900
and he was with us all the time.

668
00:52:48,140 --> 00:52:51,440
When he came home, they would run and
hug and kiss him.

669
00:52:51,800 --> 00:52:53,220
They adored their dad.

670
00:52:53,440 --> 00:52:55,100
Nobody could touch their dad.

671
00:52:55,740 --> 00:53:01,080
He was such a great role model and
father, and all he wanted to do was

672
00:53:01,080 --> 00:53:02,200
how to be good people.

673
00:53:02,600 --> 00:53:08,200
As a father, he adores his kids. He'd
give them anything, anything in his

674
00:53:08,200 --> 00:53:09,200
that he could.

675
00:53:11,840 --> 00:53:17,780
hard for family and myself because I was
on the road all the time. I didn't see

676
00:53:17,780 --> 00:53:19,460
them very often. I missed them.

677
00:53:19,920 --> 00:53:25,000
The Iron Sheik's family suffered like
everybody else's family, except he also

678
00:53:25,000 --> 00:53:27,380
was developing a very serious drug
problem.

679
00:53:27,600 --> 00:53:30,840
So in some ways it can be argued that
they even suffered more.

680
00:53:36,520 --> 00:53:40,100
The whole package of being a wrestler in
that era

681
00:53:40,910 --> 00:53:42,130
was pretty dark.

682
00:53:42,370 --> 00:53:46,550
Outside of the 15 minutes you are in the
match and in the ring, you have to live

683
00:53:46,550 --> 00:53:48,070
a very lonely life.

684
00:53:48,550 --> 00:53:54,950
At times, the industry is our own worst
enemy. There is that

685
00:53:54,950 --> 00:54:01,710
transition from the high of the match to
coming back down, and when the

686
00:54:01,710 --> 00:54:08,690
adrenaline wears off, the pain steps in,
and the crutch enters the

687
00:54:08,690 --> 00:54:09,690
equation.

688
00:54:10,930 --> 00:54:13,850
And it is a pathway to death.

689
00:54:21,070 --> 00:54:25,410
Ladies and gentlemen, this is a tag team
match scheduled for one fall.

690
00:54:25,870 --> 00:54:30,350
You know, when I think about the
combination of the Iron Sheik and

691
00:54:30,350 --> 00:54:32,310
Volkov, oh my gosh.

692
00:54:32,810 --> 00:54:35,550
We hated Iranians. We hated the country
of Iran.

693
00:54:35,810 --> 00:54:39,910
From Tehran, Iran, the Iron Sheik.

694
00:54:40,130 --> 00:54:41,790
And then Nikolai Volkov.

695
00:54:42,030 --> 00:54:45,410
We've always hated Russia. How could you
pile on any more heat?

696
00:54:45,610 --> 00:54:49,590
From the Soviet Union, Nikolai Volkov.

697
00:54:49,810 --> 00:54:55,470
The thing about heat in wrestling is
that you really have to balance it.

698
00:54:55,760 --> 00:54:58,960
And the Iron Sheik was at this place
where it was maybe time to freshen it up

699
00:54:58,960 --> 00:55:04,980
little bit. The Iran hostage crisis was
over. So what can we do to get the

700
00:55:04,980 --> 00:55:07,560
audience mad at the Iron Sheik again?

701
00:55:08,000 --> 00:55:09,160
Well, what about the Cold War?

702
00:55:09,680 --> 00:55:13,020
Look at this power display by the big
Russians. What if

703
00:55:13,020 --> 00:55:19,900
Russia and Iran

704
00:55:19,900 --> 00:55:22,140
combined forces?

705
00:55:22,920 --> 00:55:24,240
How much would you hate that?

706
00:55:24,830 --> 00:55:28,170
And the answer that the WWE fans gave is
a lot.

707
00:55:41,260 --> 00:55:45,840
She was from Tehran, Iran. I was from
Russia. He speaks Lebanese. I speak

708
00:55:45,840 --> 00:55:48,200
Lebanese. We were real. It was no
imitation, you know.

709
00:55:48,480 --> 00:55:52,680
Naturally, anybody that they thought
could wave the American flag in the face

710
00:55:52,680 --> 00:55:56,360
Nikolai Volkov and the Iron Sheik, their
fans would go crazy for them.

711
00:55:56,940 --> 00:56:00,780
They wanted Nikolai to come out and go,
Sheiky baby, I'm going to sing the

712
00:56:00,780 --> 00:56:01,738
Russian anthem.

713
00:56:01,740 --> 00:56:02,740
Whatever.

714
00:56:08,780 --> 00:56:10,820
I was very happy when I saw all those
people there.

715
00:56:11,660 --> 00:56:16,440
When I started singing, it was great. I
mean, people hated it. He came in and

716
00:56:16,440 --> 00:56:19,720
sang the Russian National Anthem. It
actually wasn't the Russian National

717
00:56:19,720 --> 00:56:20,860
Anthem, but that's okay.

718
00:56:21,600 --> 00:56:22,660
No one knew that.

719
00:56:23,580 --> 00:56:27,800
Can you sing the Russian National
Anthem? No, neither can I. But by God, I

720
00:56:27,800 --> 00:56:30,240
sing Nikolai Volkov's version of
whatever he was.

721
00:56:30,740 --> 00:56:37,540
Those two.

722
00:56:38,510 --> 00:56:43,890
equalled the ultimate heat. You take
these two foreign evil wrestlers, put

723
00:56:43,890 --> 00:56:47,490
in a team together, you know that people
are going to come and see those guys.

724
00:56:47,710 --> 00:56:49,210
What a matchup this is going to be.

725
00:56:49,490 --> 00:56:52,870
WrestleMania delivering everything it
promised to be.

726
00:56:53,230 --> 00:56:58,150
WrestleMania 1 was the biggest wrestling
show that the United States had ever

727
00:56:58,150 --> 00:57:00,290
seen. It was before pay -per -view
existed.

728
00:57:01,050 --> 00:57:03,890
WrestleMania was good for me.

729
00:57:04,630 --> 00:57:06,810
All this was a very...

730
00:57:22,540 --> 00:57:26,780
Both of those guys worked on top. So now
you put them together and you get a

731
00:57:26,780 --> 00:57:29,980
whole other way to market the heat.

732
00:57:36,880 --> 00:57:39,900
Big right hand by Windham, another
right, another right, a series of left

733
00:57:39,900 --> 00:57:40,900
rights to the body.

734
00:57:41,940 --> 00:57:43,300
He's going for the bulldog.

735
00:57:43,520 --> 00:57:44,960
Oh, he nailed him with it.

736
00:57:45,400 --> 00:57:48,740
It's going to be in and down for the
Godard as Sheik comes in. This is

737
00:57:48,740 --> 00:57:53,720
notch for the Sheik. Of all these unique
moments that he's been in, that proves

738
00:57:53,720 --> 00:57:57,300
that you're important in the business
when you win the title, especially back

739
00:57:57,300 --> 00:58:02,800
then when there's only a handful of
titles in the business. Look at this.

740
00:58:03,020 --> 00:58:05,060
Oh, he nailed him with a chain.

741
00:58:06,540 --> 00:58:08,220
Iron Sheik got a whole blast. He's paid.

742
00:58:08,440 --> 00:58:10,000
He's going to get counted out here.

743
00:58:10,220 --> 00:58:11,400
A new champion.

744
00:58:11,780 --> 00:58:13,520
New champions of the world.

745
00:58:14,780 --> 00:58:21,520
To hold a world title or tag team world
title, you had to make him feel like

746
00:58:21,520 --> 00:58:23,160
all this was worth it.

747
00:58:23,520 --> 00:58:27,340
Iron Sheik, you finally have done it.
You're now the celebration tag team

748
00:58:27,340 --> 00:58:28,440
champion. You know what you mean?

749
00:58:28,720 --> 00:58:30,240
All countries are best.

750
00:58:30,500 --> 00:58:34,420
We come to the America to prove it.
Thank you. Number one.

751
00:58:34,700 --> 00:58:35,700
Number one.

752
00:58:37,020 --> 00:58:39,600
Those two guys would argue with each
other.

753
00:58:40,280 --> 00:58:45,540
So much before and after a match is
unbelievable. It was amazing that they

754
00:58:45,540 --> 00:58:50,060
still remain taking partners because
they were saying, you dumb son of a gun,

755
00:58:50,160 --> 00:58:51,098
you're dumb.

756
00:58:51,100 --> 00:58:52,660
They were always butting heads.

757
00:58:53,100 --> 00:58:56,940
If something happened in the ring,
they'd blame each other, and it was

758
00:58:56,940 --> 00:58:57,940
hilarious.

759
00:58:59,400 --> 00:59:03,260
They're all on their feet, I guarantee
you that, all 93 ,000.

760
00:59:03,950 --> 00:59:09,910
WrestleMania I was a huge success, and
public awareness for WWE only grew and

761
00:59:09,910 --> 00:59:14,750
grew and grew. And the biggest example
of that is probably two years after the

762
00:59:14,750 --> 00:59:20,990
first WrestleMania, when WrestleMania
III happened in front of 93 Southland

763
00:59:20,990 --> 00:59:27,810
people in Pontiac, Michigan, for a show
like nobody in wrestling has

764
00:59:27,810 --> 00:59:28,810
seen before.

765
00:59:29,090 --> 00:59:30,990
Here are The Killer.

766
00:59:37,480 --> 00:59:43,120
WrestleMania III was nothing more than a
background for the debut of Hacksaw Jim

767
00:59:43,120 --> 00:59:44,120
Duggan.

768
00:59:45,560 --> 00:59:46,360
The

769
00:59:46,360 --> 00:59:58,340
finish

770
00:59:58,340 --> 01:00:04,980
of our match incorporated a young Jim
Duggan. Jim Duggan comes running in.

771
01:00:05,690 --> 01:00:12,230
and takes this 2x4, and he's wailing on
Cosgrove, and we get disqualified.

772
01:00:13,270 --> 01:00:15,310
This match is over right now.

773
01:00:15,570 --> 01:00:22,170
Needless to say, that spawned a program
between Jim Duggan and Cosgrove.

774
01:00:22,390 --> 01:00:23,390
USA!

775
01:00:23,890 --> 01:00:24,890
USA!

776
01:00:25,990 --> 01:00:26,990
USA!

777
01:00:27,610 --> 01:00:29,390
You can only imagine.

778
01:00:29,900 --> 01:00:33,340
You can probably tell I'm a young guy. I
got my 2x4 with a flag on it. I go

779
01:00:33,340 --> 01:00:34,218
running down.

780
01:00:34,220 --> 01:00:37,900
Whack, I hit nickel. I whack, I hit the
sheet. I chase everybody out of the

781
01:00:37,900 --> 01:00:42,740
ring. I'm standing in front of 93 ,000
people with a flag and 2x4 overheads.

782
01:00:43,560 --> 01:00:47,660
Here standing up now, brother, is a
moment I'll remember my whole life. It

783
01:00:47,660 --> 01:00:48,660
really was.

784
01:01:00,080 --> 01:01:06,900
At this time in the 80s, the use of
cocaine was prevalent in all areas of

785
01:01:06,900 --> 01:01:08,020
society.

786
01:01:09,000 --> 01:01:14,380
Entertainers, athletes, you name it.
It's a rock and roll lifestyle, brother.

787
01:01:14,380 --> 01:01:18,960
mean, there's a lot of drugs, a lot of
women, a lot of people got caught up in

788
01:01:18,960 --> 01:01:20,980
that lifestyle, and I can't throw no
stones.

789
01:01:21,260 --> 01:01:24,900
The number of people snorting cocaine is
rising steadily despite the steep

790
01:01:24,900 --> 01:01:29,280
price. It is also increasingly popular
with adults, especially among the sheep.

791
01:01:30,670 --> 01:01:37,670
Apparently, the Sheik liked his
medicine, and it was wrestling,

792
01:01:37,970 --> 01:01:39,610
drugs, wrestling.

793
01:01:39,850 --> 01:01:45,270
He was devout Muslim when he was first,
you know, in amateur wrestling. And he

794
01:01:45,270 --> 01:01:46,910
didn't drink, he didn't smoke.

795
01:01:47,190 --> 01:01:53,610
But the problem is that pro wrestling
offered so many doggone things to him

796
01:01:53,610 --> 01:01:55,210
he, you know, he got lost.

797
01:01:55,690 --> 01:02:00,790
Vince came in one day and said, Sheik, I
need to talk to you. He said, you took

798
01:02:00,790 --> 01:02:04,570
the drug test, right? Oh, yes, boss. I
took the drug test. I took it. He said,

799
01:02:04,610 --> 01:02:08,670
well, you came back positive. Oh, yes,
sir. I'm positive, boss. I'm always

800
01:02:08,670 --> 01:02:11,530
positive. You know, he tested positive
for substances.

801
01:02:11,810 --> 01:02:13,710
Oh, I can't believe it. Very good,
right? Right?

802
01:02:13,970 --> 01:02:16,430
I said, no, bro. You tested positive.
That's very bad.

803
01:02:16,730 --> 01:02:21,170
You know, she made headlines for a lot
of the right reasons through his career.

804
01:02:21,510 --> 01:02:24,810
And then there were times during his
career he made them for the wrong

805
01:02:25,130 --> 01:02:30,110
They are known to wrestling fans as the
Iron Sheik and Hacksaw. Now, instead of

806
01:02:30,110 --> 01:02:33,410
battling opponents, they are fighting
drug charges together.

807
01:02:38,550 --> 01:02:45,190
So right around this time, the Iron

808
01:02:45,190 --> 01:02:49,790
Sheik's new American hero foe is Hacksaw
Jim Duncan.

809
01:02:50,150 --> 01:02:52,590
Everything, I'm on top of the world, I
am.

810
01:02:52,890 --> 01:02:57,370
Things are going so good for me, I
cannot believe it. You know, now I'm

811
01:02:57,370 --> 01:03:00,030
ready. We're wrestling in Asbury Park,
New Jersey.

812
01:03:00,350 --> 01:03:05,470
And the Iron Sheik and Hacksaw fly into
Newark Airport, and the Iron Sheik sees

813
01:03:05,470 --> 01:03:09,870
Hacksaw there, and he says, if you're
going to rent a car, why don't I ride to

814
01:03:09,870 --> 01:03:10,870
the show with you?

815
01:03:11,090 --> 01:03:12,090
I was stuck.

816
01:03:12,330 --> 01:03:14,850
I didn't have a ride to go.

817
01:03:15,530 --> 01:03:19,030
I said, I'll come with you. He said,
okay. He said, yeah, no problem.

818
01:03:19,600 --> 01:03:24,300
The Sheik and Duggan were supposed to
hate each other. One guy is the flag

819
01:03:24,300 --> 01:03:28,400
-waving All -American. The other one is
the Iranian terrorist.

820
01:03:28,780 --> 01:03:33,400
And here they were in a car together
doing illegal things.

821
01:03:33,760 --> 01:03:37,620
The worst thing about it is they were
going to wrestle each other that night.

822
01:03:37,820 --> 01:03:41,080
So any way you looked at it, it wasn't
good.

823
01:03:41,760 --> 01:03:44,580
Hacksaw Jim Duggan and the Iron Sheik
get in the car together.

824
01:03:44,860 --> 01:03:48,700
They stop at a liquor store along the
way. They get...

825
01:03:48,960 --> 01:03:51,460
Some beers for the road. They keep
driving.

826
01:03:51,720 --> 01:03:52,980
They get pulled over.

827
01:03:53,380 --> 01:03:57,440
They've got drugs along with the alcohol
in the car.

828
01:03:57,680 --> 01:04:00,720
And then they got the sheik out and he
carried a purse. And they open up the

829
01:04:00,720 --> 01:04:04,820
purse, boom, right on top, a gram of
cocaine. Now they got the sheik hooked

830
01:04:05,000 --> 01:04:08,200
Now the police car, there's eight or ten
police cars.

831
01:04:08,620 --> 01:04:12,660
People are driving by the car. Hey,
there's Hacksaw Jim and the Iron Sheik.

832
01:04:13,000 --> 01:04:14,720
They got out of jail, by the way.

833
01:04:15,130 --> 01:04:18,710
in time to make the show and still
wrestle each other that night.

834
01:04:18,990 --> 01:04:22,410
We worked together that night in Asbury
Park. We didn't tell anybody, so we got

835
01:04:22,410 --> 01:04:26,230
to the hotel that night. I called my
wife and my cunny. I said, we got

836
01:04:26,390 --> 01:04:28,590
but nobody knows about it.

837
01:04:29,570 --> 01:04:32,010
She called me about 5 .30 the next
morning.

838
01:04:32,390 --> 01:04:33,630
Everybody knows.

839
01:04:34,290 --> 01:04:39,250
Police say marijuana was found in the
ashtray, and they also found cocaine in

840
01:04:39,250 --> 01:04:40,229
some luggage.

841
01:04:40,230 --> 01:04:43,810
By the way, Duggan and the Iron Sheik
are supposed to be bitter rivals.

842
01:04:44,350 --> 01:04:48,750
We went to our parents and we're like,
Mom, did you see this?

843
01:04:49,030 --> 01:04:53,510
And she was like, I can't believe it.
I'm so disgusted. And we're like, us

844
01:04:53,650 --> 01:04:58,730
What were they doing together in the
same car, Mom? So the arrest of Sheik

845
01:04:58,730 --> 01:05:04,270
Duggan pulled the curtain back on our
industry in a way that had never really

846
01:05:04,270 --> 01:05:05,270
been pulled back.

847
01:05:15,880 --> 01:05:21,900
Up until this stage, even fans who knew
that things were

848
01:05:21,900 --> 01:05:25,260
predetermined could live in denial.

849
01:05:25,500 --> 01:05:32,420
Once these mortal enemies were arrested
in each other's company, it was pretty

850
01:05:32,420 --> 01:05:35,020
hard to delude yourself like that.

851
01:05:35,520 --> 01:05:36,840
They killed kayfabe.

852
01:05:37,060 --> 01:05:41,700
Kayfabe is the good guy versus bad guy.
You're always never supposed to be

853
01:05:41,700 --> 01:05:43,700
together. You're never supposed to ride
together.

854
01:05:44,040 --> 01:05:48,160
That's the first no -no in the wrestling
business. The good guys don't ride with

855
01:05:48,160 --> 01:05:49,038
the bad guys.

856
01:05:49,040 --> 01:05:53,660
You can't have the Ninja Turtles and
Shredder in the same car driving to the

857
01:05:53,660 --> 01:05:54,720
show together.

858
01:05:55,800 --> 01:06:00,280
The TV says, and all I see is this
Iranian over here, this Russian over

859
01:06:00,340 --> 01:06:04,400
yelling, yelling out the mouth. Well,
Hacksaw Jim Duggan said, take down any

860
01:06:04,400 --> 01:06:06,060
man, one on one.

861
01:06:08,200 --> 01:06:12,920
Great American hero, Hacksaw Jim Duggan,
swore that he would defeat his enemy,

862
01:06:13,120 --> 01:06:14,600
that Iranian iron sheet.

863
01:06:14,880 --> 01:06:16,920
You have to live with friends in real
life?

864
01:06:17,900 --> 01:06:18,839
Kind of.

865
01:06:18,840 --> 01:06:22,720
The curtain was pulled back. Well, I'll
say this. I think the curtain was yanked

866
01:06:22,720 --> 01:06:23,720
back.

867
01:06:23,730 --> 01:06:27,370
And now everybody knew it was all a
show.

868
01:06:34,290 --> 01:06:37,130
All of a sudden, that's when it became
entertainment. And it really became

869
01:06:37,130 --> 01:06:39,870
bigger since that happened. We told
everybody, hey, it's entertainment.

870
01:06:40,290 --> 01:06:44,690
You know, that old story, for those who
believe no explanation is necessary. You

871
01:06:44,690 --> 01:06:45,638
know what I mean?

872
01:06:45,640 --> 01:06:49,580
And news today that professional
wrestler Iron Sheik has escaped the hold

873
01:06:49,580 --> 01:06:52,900
some recent drug charges. The judge in
Freehold yesterday dropped the charges,

874
01:06:53,020 --> 01:06:57,260
providing he complete a year's probation
and submit to drug testing in the

875
01:06:57,260 --> 01:07:02,360
future. You know, I think the WWE still
valued the Iron Sheik, and more

876
01:07:02,360 --> 01:07:06,500
importantly, valued him as a human
being, so they did send him to rehab at

877
01:07:06,500 --> 01:07:11,760
point. We know it was a pretty low
period for him. He really didn't have

878
01:07:11,760 --> 01:07:14,480
going on in terms of bookings, and he
would just...

879
01:07:14,960 --> 01:07:15,960
take whatever he could.

880
01:07:16,540 --> 01:07:18,060
He lost his job.

881
01:07:18,680 --> 01:07:19,960
He came home.

882
01:07:20,320 --> 01:07:26,840
He was miserable, insulting, and he
started working for independent

883
01:07:26,840 --> 01:07:33,440
promoters. The Sheik ended up going to
WCW, but he never really picked up

884
01:07:33,440 --> 01:07:38,000
traction over there. He was a long way
from headlining Madison Square Garden.

885
01:07:38,000 --> 01:07:39,000
was a little sad.

886
01:07:44,240 --> 01:07:48,700
It was a small building, small money.

887
01:07:49,120 --> 01:07:53,780
Well, he may be an Iranian champion, but
he's not too smart and will be right

888
01:07:53,780 --> 01:07:59,120
back. For whatever reason, Vince McMahon
always had a soft spot for the Iron

889
01:07:59,120 --> 01:08:00,120
Sheik.

890
01:08:00,780 --> 01:08:02,640
In comes the Iron Sheik.

891
01:08:03,040 --> 01:08:05,400
Another chance, because Vince...

892
01:08:05,840 --> 01:08:10,860
just had a soft spot for the Iron Sheik,
and that Iron Sheik didn't take Vern

893
01:08:10,860 --> 01:08:13,860
Gagne's blood money, if you will, and
break Paul Kogel's leg.

894
01:08:14,120 --> 01:08:15,620
There was a loyalty there.

895
01:08:16,560 --> 01:08:19,279
What was going on then was the Gulf War.

896
01:08:19,880 --> 01:08:24,920
So we don't need an Iranian sympathizer
anymore. We need an Iraqi sympathizer.

897
01:08:26,040 --> 01:08:31,220
And that's where Sergeant Slaughter, of
all people, comes back into the story.

898
01:08:31,500 --> 01:08:34,740
We took the all -American hero, Sergeant
Slaughter.

899
01:08:35,279 --> 01:08:40,319
and made Sergeant Slaughter an Iraqi
sympathizer. He

900
01:08:40,319 --> 01:08:46,859
had a manager named Colonel Adnan,

901
01:08:47,100 --> 01:08:51,160
and then the Iron Sheik would be brought
back in, but this time as Colonel

902
01:08:51,160 --> 01:08:56,140
Mustafa, who would be part of Sergeant
Slaughter's faction, the Triangle of

903
01:08:56,140 --> 01:08:57,140
Terror.

904
01:09:05,109 --> 01:09:10,149
He was the thimble there. He kind of
helped put it all together. The triangle

905
01:09:10,149 --> 01:09:13,229
terror was really a great entity.

906
01:09:14,050 --> 01:09:19,590
When we did that, it was the emergence
of Saddam Hussein in Iraq.

907
01:09:20,149 --> 01:09:23,450
This was before we declared war on Iraq.

908
01:09:23,830 --> 01:09:28,729
When we actually went to war, the WWE
was too deep into the story to kind of

909
01:09:28,729 --> 01:09:29,729
turn back.

910
01:09:29,899 --> 01:09:34,420
So we actually had somebody on
television sympathizing with the enemy

911
01:09:34,420 --> 01:09:41,220
war that we were actively in, creating
what I would call nuclear heat.

912
01:09:43,300 --> 01:09:44,319
And so

913
01:09:44,319 --> 01:09:51,140
we're shooting

914
01:09:51,140 --> 01:09:52,779
for SummerSlam 91.

915
01:09:53,220 --> 01:09:57,660
It's going to be Hulk Hogan, the
ultimate warrior against Triangle

916
01:10:07,210 --> 01:10:12,590
We go back to Madison Square Garden, and
WWE puts on SummerSlam 1991.

917
01:10:17,490 --> 01:10:18,290
With

918
01:10:18,290 --> 01:10:27,410
Hulk

919
01:10:27,410 --> 01:10:34,230
Hogan and the Ultimate Warp, at that
time, two iconic heroes in WWE, facing

920
01:10:34,230 --> 01:10:35,370
the entire...

921
01:10:35,800 --> 01:10:37,060
triangle of terror.

922
01:10:52,140 --> 01:10:53,140
Remember,

923
01:10:53,760 --> 01:10:55,700
Allah always helped.

924
01:10:56,620 --> 01:11:03,000
This thing was good to me, but I didn't
have too much energy in my body.

925
01:11:03,240 --> 01:11:10,070
In the mid -90s, Vince McMahon, once
again, finds it in his heart to bring

926
01:11:10,070 --> 01:11:11,130
Iron Sheik back.

927
01:11:11,750 --> 01:11:15,930
This time he's not being brought in as a
wrestler anymore. Those days are over.

928
01:11:16,190 --> 01:11:21,150
He's brought in as a co -manager with
his old enemy, Bob Backlund.

929
01:11:21,430 --> 01:11:28,070
The two managed a new, not quite
discernible foreign menace named the

930
01:11:28,870 --> 01:11:33,030
The Sultan doesn't resonate with crowds.

931
01:11:35,440 --> 01:11:38,880
Paying attention to go down to her. And
the Sheik doesn't laugh at all.

932
01:11:42,300 --> 01:11:42,740
The

933
01:11:42,740 --> 01:11:50,840
Sheik

934
01:11:50,840 --> 01:11:52,380
is really down and out at this point.

935
01:11:52,680 --> 01:11:55,320
And he's struggling financially.

936
01:12:00,140 --> 01:12:04,940
He wasn't making money and it was rough
and we lost our house. He lost our

937
01:12:04,940 --> 01:12:11,840
condo. And at one point he's on the road
working in some small building and

938
01:12:11,840 --> 01:12:18,420
someone turns him on to crack cocaine.
And this commences a very sad

939
01:12:18,420 --> 01:12:20,320
stage in the Iron Sheik's life.

940
01:12:21,400 --> 01:12:25,780
He would go on a binge for like five,
six days, not sleep.

941
01:12:26,470 --> 01:12:30,450
He would go on binges for nights upon
nights, and he wouldn't return home.

942
01:12:30,730 --> 01:12:36,490
His family was in the crossfires of this
era, and the sheik really, he wasn't

943
01:12:36,490 --> 01:12:41,050
himself. He wasn't the guy that he was
proud of. His drug use was a real

944
01:12:41,050 --> 01:12:42,970
problem. It was a real issue.

945
01:12:48,110 --> 01:12:55,050
The next time I ran into Cosgrove was at
the gimmick battle royal in Houston,

946
01:12:55,170 --> 01:12:56,170
Texas.

947
01:12:59,120 --> 01:13:03,720
It was a big moment for him because he
was really feeling down. He was in a

948
01:13:03,720 --> 01:13:08,600
really dark period, and that match kind
of gave him a boost.

949
01:13:10,920 --> 01:13:16,380
WrestleMania X -7, the gimmick battle
royal. They bring all of their best

950
01:13:16,380 --> 01:13:21,620
gimmicks back and put them all in the
ring for an over -the -top rope contest.

951
01:13:23,180 --> 01:13:28,840
We had Califro introduced early because
it was a long walk down to the ring.

952
01:13:29,820 --> 01:13:36,480
It was probably about a 70 -yard walk to
the ring, and it took Sheik

953
01:13:36,480 --> 01:13:37,480
forever.

954
01:13:38,260 --> 01:13:43,320
And so Bobby Heenan made the comment, he
goes, By the time the Iron Sheik gets

955
01:13:43,320 --> 01:13:44,860
to the ring, it'll be WrestleMania 38.

956
01:13:45,260 --> 01:13:51,600
Just as I was to go out, I got grabbed,
and Mr. Bandt said to me,

957
01:13:52,500 --> 01:13:54,080
We got a little problem.

958
01:13:54,600 --> 01:13:58,560
Sheik had put on an awful lot of weight
and was very fragile.

959
01:13:59,120 --> 01:14:03,160
So it's like, well, who the hell is
going to get him up over the top rope?

960
01:14:04,880 --> 01:14:07,580
And then if they do, what's that going
to look like?

961
01:14:07,940 --> 01:14:13,420
And it was decided upon that Sheik would
win the thing. The reason that the Iron

962
01:14:13,420 --> 01:14:18,720
Sheik was declared the victor of the
match was because his knees were shot.

963
01:14:19,340 --> 01:14:21,920
And so he couldn't take an over -the
-top rope fall.

964
01:14:22,220 --> 01:14:26,840
So in order to avoid throwing the Iron
Sheik over the top rope, they just had

965
01:14:26,840 --> 01:14:27,840
him win.

966
01:14:29,700 --> 01:14:36,440
They were kind enough to let

967
01:14:36,440 --> 01:14:37,580
him win.

968
01:14:38,280 --> 01:14:40,580
It meant the world to him.

969
01:14:43,160 --> 01:14:45,980
My life had many turns.

970
01:14:46,880 --> 01:14:47,880
Some good.

971
01:14:49,779 --> 01:14:56,360
There is no moment more impactful on the
Sheik's life than the loss of his

972
01:14:56,360 --> 01:14:57,360
daughter, Marissa.

973
01:14:57,640 --> 01:15:01,860
This is undoubtedly the most painful
part of the Iron Sheik story.

974
01:15:02,900 --> 01:15:06,840
He had three daughters, Tanya, Nikki,
and Marissa.

975
01:15:07,180 --> 01:15:10,280
Marissa was a beautiful 27 -year -old
woman.

976
01:15:11,080 --> 01:15:17,240
Somewhere along the line, Marissa had
found a boyfriend who, from what I

977
01:15:17,880 --> 01:15:20,060
was taking more than he was giving.

978
01:15:20,360 --> 01:15:21,720
We weren't impressed.

979
01:15:22,060 --> 01:15:25,600
We thought, Marissa, you're so
beautiful. What are you doing with this

980
01:15:28,340 --> 01:15:31,880
And she was resolved to end the
relationship.

981
01:15:32,420 --> 01:15:37,620
And apparently when she informed him of
this, he strangled her to death.

982
01:15:38,460 --> 01:15:45,340
Marissa was strangulated by this
gentleman, Charles Reynolds.

983
01:15:46,700 --> 01:15:52,900
And then he put her body underneath a
blanket and brought the covers up to her

984
01:15:52,900 --> 01:15:57,760
chin and called his minister and
admitted his crime.

985
01:15:59,940 --> 01:16:06,560
Kaz went crazy when he found out. He
screamed,

986
01:16:06,740 --> 01:16:08,860
he howled, he cried.

987
01:16:09,720 --> 01:16:13,440
It was just the worst time of our life.

988
01:16:14,410 --> 01:16:17,810
I cry for her so much. I miss her so
much.

989
01:16:18,190 --> 01:16:20,610
And it breaks my heart.

990
01:16:22,310 --> 01:16:24,830
It's like, why would God do this?

991
01:16:26,490 --> 01:16:32,590
And we really don't know why this guy
crossed into her life.

992
01:16:33,070 --> 01:16:35,270
I mean, after two weeks.

993
01:16:37,150 --> 01:16:38,150
It's crazy.

994
01:16:47,790 --> 01:16:53,970
This is a man in severe pain who also
blamed himself largely

995
01:16:53,970 --> 01:16:59,530
for what happened to his daughter
because he felt that if he'd been a

996
01:16:59,530 --> 01:17:06,130
role model, his daughter might have made
better choices, and all he was doing

997
01:17:06,130 --> 01:17:07,330
was punishing himself.

998
01:17:09,830 --> 01:17:14,990
This was his biggest loss, and there was
nothing he could do about it, and that

999
01:17:14,990 --> 01:17:16,870
was the most frustrating thing for him.

1000
01:17:17,530 --> 01:17:20,330
And so he kept on going to a darker
place through this era.

1001
01:17:20,950 --> 01:17:24,030
There was an incident where the
daughter's killer was in court.

1002
01:17:25,110 --> 01:17:28,530
And the sheik put a razor blade in his
mouth.

1003
01:17:29,110 --> 01:17:34,790
And he was planning to go up to the
front of the courtroom and cut the man's

1004
01:17:34,790 --> 01:17:35,790
throat.

1005
01:17:36,310 --> 01:17:40,730
Yeah, my plan, I kill him and take his
head off.

1006
01:17:41,310 --> 01:17:44,610
But if I kill the girl, still my
daughter is gone anyway.

1007
01:17:45,610 --> 01:17:50,350
He was ready to go to prison for the
rest of his life to get revenge.

1008
01:17:50,770 --> 01:17:55,350
And fortunately, his family physically
leaned their bodies against him to

1009
01:17:55,350 --> 01:17:59,790
prevent him from doing that. They said,
no, Daddy, I can't lose you. I just lost

1010
01:17:59,790 --> 01:18:02,010
my sister. I can't lose my dad.

1011
01:18:02,990 --> 01:18:09,150
I think that that resonated with him,
and that's why he didn't, at that

1012
01:18:09,430 --> 01:18:11,350
you know, come at him.

1013
01:18:11,870 --> 01:18:13,330
The man was not attacked.

1014
01:18:13,550 --> 01:18:14,970
He went back to his cell.

1015
01:18:15,340 --> 01:18:17,860
and the Sheik's surviving children still
had their father.

1016
01:18:28,920 --> 01:18:34,340
After the Iron Sheik's daughter died,
there wasn't much positivity in the Iron

1017
01:18:34,340 --> 01:18:38,540
Sheik's life. He really was a lost soul,
and he didn't have a lot to look

1018
01:18:38,540 --> 01:18:39,540
forward to.

1019
01:18:39,840 --> 01:18:46,500
And then 2005, WWE decides to induct...
the major stars of WrestleMania

1020
01:18:46,500 --> 01:18:52,140
I into the Hall of Fame, including the
Iron Sheik. I could stand up here for

1021
01:18:52,140 --> 01:18:58,160
many, many hours talking about the Iron
Sheik. It's a real life. It's a real

1022
01:18:58,160 --> 01:18:59,160
life story.

1023
01:18:59,280 --> 01:19:05,200
And the Hall of Fame means everything to
us because it means we're recognized by

1024
01:19:05,200 --> 01:19:06,720
our business and by our peers.

1025
01:19:07,380 --> 01:19:10,900
Oh, to the Hall of Fame was a great
feeling.

1026
01:19:22,160 --> 01:19:26,320
It really meant a lot to him, and even
to this day, that is something he

1027
01:19:26,320 --> 01:19:27,320
absolutely cherishes.

1028
01:19:27,770 --> 01:19:31,290
I think that that was the highlight of
his life, and he just let everything out

1029
01:19:31,290 --> 01:19:35,910
on all the hardships he had endured over
the years to get to that point.

1030
01:19:36,170 --> 01:19:40,870
I used to drive the truck, put on the
ring, pick up the ring, yeah.

1031
01:19:41,450 --> 01:19:42,930
And I was referee.

1032
01:19:43,530 --> 01:19:45,290
I pay my dues.

1033
01:19:45,570 --> 01:19:49,750
You know, it was Sheik's moment in the
sun, and Sheik got exactly what he

1034
01:19:49,750 --> 01:19:52,270
deserved. I mean, he stole the show that
night.

1035
01:19:52,590 --> 01:19:56,210
I was 184, but I was so much.

1036
01:19:56,840 --> 01:19:58,640
Fall in love with wrestling.

1037
01:19:59,240 --> 01:20:01,440
He tells a story. He stops.

1038
01:20:01,700 --> 01:20:02,740
He starts again.

1039
01:20:02,980 --> 01:20:03,980
Everyone applauds.

1040
01:20:04,520 --> 01:20:11,440
They think his story is over. He tells
another

1041
01:20:11,440 --> 01:20:13,540
story. He thanks everybody.

1042
01:20:14,000 --> 01:20:15,040
Everyone applauds.

1043
01:20:15,300 --> 01:20:16,940
And then he tells another story.

1044
01:20:17,140 --> 01:20:19,120
I want to say again.

1045
01:20:19,660 --> 01:20:21,420
I want to say again.

1046
01:20:22,810 --> 01:20:26,070
Probably one of the greatest induction
speeches of all time.

1047
01:20:29,390 --> 01:20:35,670
That meant the world to him.

1048
01:20:36,010 --> 01:20:42,410
Why wouldn't it? My God, man. You
sacrificed your whole life and your

1049
01:20:42,410 --> 01:20:43,410
get a friggin' ring?

1050
01:20:44,770 --> 01:20:46,990
Well, not yet.

1051
01:20:47,910 --> 01:20:51,570
The fact that I got one and you don't.

1052
01:20:52,030 --> 01:20:53,190
God bless you guys.

1053
01:20:53,390 --> 01:20:54,390
Ya Allah.

1054
01:20:54,410 --> 01:20:55,410
Ya Muhammad.

1055
01:20:55,590 --> 01:20:57,090
Ya Ali. Peace.

1056
01:20:57,570 --> 01:21:00,010
Peace. Peace. We got a telephone call.

1057
01:21:04,130 --> 01:21:09,610
After years of watching the Iron Sheik
struggle, after years of financial

1058
01:21:09,610 --> 01:21:16,330
insecurity, after heartbreak, after one
rehab stint after another, his wife

1059
01:21:16,330 --> 01:21:19,590
Carol just had to leave him. She was
just fed up.

1060
01:21:19,840 --> 01:21:25,760
I found out he was using crack cocaine
with another one of his fellow

1061
01:21:25,760 --> 01:21:30,900
wrestlers and got to the point where we
couldn't stand him around.

1062
01:21:31,100 --> 01:21:34,060
We never knew what kind of personality
he would have.

1063
01:21:34,440 --> 01:21:36,540
You say that Iron Sheik is a heavy drug
addict.

1064
01:21:36,760 --> 01:21:39,460
At home, up here, when he's with me,
he's perfect.

1065
01:21:39,800 --> 01:21:43,180
Right. What's going on, Sheik? I'm
worried about you. I don't like to eat.

1066
01:21:43,400 --> 01:21:48,980
Come tell me I spent the money for the
crack or coke or marijuana.

1067
01:21:49,900 --> 01:21:51,640
Are we lying? You're lying.

1068
01:21:51,880 --> 01:21:55,840
I'm not lying. You're lying. Me? I
remember thinking at the time I didn't

1069
01:21:55,840 --> 01:21:59,900
like there was any way he would come
back from where he had gone to as far as

1070
01:21:59,900 --> 01:22:04,520
how far gone he had gone on the drug.
The best thing that ever happened was my

1071
01:22:04,520 --> 01:22:05,520
mom leaving him.

1072
01:22:09,360 --> 01:22:16,220
When I finally left him, that's when he
stopped drinking, smoking, all

1073
01:22:16,220 --> 01:22:17,960
drugs, everything.

1074
01:22:21,740 --> 01:22:28,180
Despite many trips to rehab, it was that
woman that cleaned him up. And he did

1075
01:22:28,180 --> 01:22:32,940
it for her and his kids. And it brought
back the dad we knew as little girls,

1076
01:22:33,080 --> 01:22:38,500
the sweet, drug -free, alcohol -free man
who loved and worshipped his wife and

1077
01:22:38,500 --> 01:22:39,500
daughters.

1078
01:22:42,040 --> 01:22:48,440
He went back to being the man he was
meant to be, the man who his parents

1079
01:22:48,440 --> 01:22:50,700
Koshrau of the Immortal Soul.

1080
01:22:52,520 --> 01:22:57,420
From Tehran, Iran, the Iron Sheik.

1081
01:23:01,300 --> 01:23:05,020
Sheik's legacy, an icon, a legend.

1082
01:23:05,380 --> 01:23:12,360
It's like a book of fiction. The odds of
a kid from Iran being a household name

1083
01:23:12,360 --> 01:23:17,600
in American pop culture, it's really
hard to wrap your head around that.

1084
01:23:33,980 --> 01:23:39,360
I've always felt like he completely
defined the American dream.

1085
01:23:39,640 --> 01:23:46,260
As far as Iranians and Iranian
-Americans and how the diaspora of

1086
01:23:46,260 --> 01:23:47,440
Iranians in this country.

1087
01:23:47,980 --> 01:23:48,980
I found their way.

1088
01:23:49,280 --> 01:23:53,220
Part of that gateway was the Iron Sheep.

1089
01:23:54,220 --> 01:23:57,860
Perhaps one of the most sadistic men in
professional wrestling today.

1090
01:23:58,160 --> 01:24:04,960
To this day, probably one of the biggest
heroes in our business. You could

1091
01:24:04,960 --> 01:24:11,080
make the argument, and I would,

1092
01:24:11,320 --> 01:24:16,500
that without the Iron Sheep, Hulk Hogan,
Hulkamania large.

1093
01:24:17,200 --> 01:24:18,720
would not have been as effective.

1094
01:24:21,240 --> 01:24:27,420
And if it hadn't been as effective, who
knows if WWE or pro wrestling as we know

1095
01:24:27,420 --> 01:24:30,640
it would look anything like it does
today.

1096
01:24:31,060 --> 01:24:36,860
I think he's made his mark in history as
one of the innovators, one of the legit

1097
01:24:36,860 --> 01:24:39,620
bad guys that people love to hate.

1098
01:24:43,940 --> 01:24:45,000
He's one of the best.

1099
01:24:45,480 --> 01:24:47,160
Are you kidding? One of the top deals
ever.

1100
01:24:47,400 --> 01:24:50,640
Man, he embodies what it means to be
like a perfect villain.

1101
01:24:51,040 --> 01:24:52,520
I'm going to beat you up.

1102
01:24:53,400 --> 01:24:58,060
I'm going to beat you up. Oh,
disgusting.

1103
01:24:58,960 --> 01:24:59,960
He's a bad guy.

1104
01:25:00,840 --> 01:25:01,840
But I love him.

1105
01:25:03,140 --> 01:25:05,120
There's a lot of you out there that do
too.

1106
01:25:05,560 --> 01:25:10,340
Like all of us love him. And now today,
he's so respected.

1107
01:25:10,720 --> 01:25:13,880
To this day, you see the Iron Sheik and
there's no one like him.

1108
01:25:14,240 --> 01:25:15,520
Yeah, he was iconic.

1109
01:25:15,840 --> 01:25:19,860
It is the winner, the Iron Chief!

1110
01:25:20,220 --> 01:25:26,920
I love wrestling, and if I was in good
shape and healthy, I'd do it again.