The Iron Sheik played a crucial role in professional wrestling’s rise to the heights of popularity it now enjoys, despite not being as well known as other wrestlers like Hulk Hogan, The Rock, or Stone Cold Steve Austin. He did this back when he used his signature move, the camel clutch, to defeat opponents.
He reportedly contributed to the beginning of the “Hulkamania” wrestling frenzy when, on January 23, 1984, at Madison Square Garden, he lost the WWF (now the WWE) world championship to Hogan. Hulk Hogan’s first WWF championship came from a victory, which helped to popularize the sport.
Additionally, it was the first time a wrestler had ever managed to escape the Iron Sheik’s agonizing camel grasp. When The Iron Sheik ended Bob Backlund’s six-year winning streak, he also won the championship belt a month earlier. The Iron Sheik wasn’t finished, despite the fact that he was no longer the world champion.
He still possessed a few years and a rivalry. However, while playing a crucial part in the multibillion-dollar industry’s ascent to fame on a global scale, the Iron Sheik is significantly less valuable than you might imagine.
Name | Iron Sheik |
Profession | Wrestler |
Age | 80 |
Date of Birth | March 15, 1943 |
Birth Place | Tehran, Iran |
Height | 1.83m (6 Feet) |
Weight | 258 lb (117 kg) |
Net Worth | $500,000 |
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Iron Sheik Net Worth
The Iron Sheik was born in Tehran, Iran, in 1942. His real name is Hossein Khosrow Ali Vaziri. According to his official WWE bio, he later had a very famous rivalry with Sgt. Slaughter, whose act was that of an all-American Marine, as you might guess.
After losing to Slaughter in a famous Boot Camp Match at Madison Square Garden, the Iron Sheik teamed up with wrestler Nikolai Volkoff to win a World Tag Team Championship in 1985, but that was about it for him in the WWE.
He left the promotion in 1988 and came back a few times in the 1990s, most famously as Colonel Mustafa to work with his old rival Sgt. Slaughter, but he never won another championship.
Even though The Iron Sheik had a pretty good name in the ring, he isn’t worth as much as you might think today. Celebrity Net income says that the former wrestler’s income is only about $500,000 today.
Like a lot of wrestlers, he had trouble with drugs and got into trouble when he said things that upset people about his past opponents and coworkers. On his pro wrestling Fandom page, it says that he lives in Georgia and was admitted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2005.