sheik, sheik, sheik!

Hossein Khosrow Vaziri (حسین خسرو وزیری in Persian), better known by his stage name The Iron Sheik (born on March 15, 1943 in Tehran, Iran) is an Iranian professional wrestler.

Politics entered the sport of wrestling with the Iron Sheik. The onetime bodyguard for the Shah of Iran was discovered at the 1972 Olympics by AWA promoter Verne Gagne. (Although he was billed as having been a 1968 Olympic medalist, this is untrue.) Known as The Great Hossein, he won his first title, the Canadian Tag Team Championship, with partner the Texas Outlaw. This victory caught the eye of the WWF where he debuted in 1979 and won the first-ever Battle Royal in Madison Square Garden, earning him a title shot at then-champion Bob Backlund, who pinned him later that night in a 30-minute battle. Arguably the best remembered transitional champion in pro wrestling history, the Iron Sheik returned to the WWF in 1983 and challenged Backlund once again, defeating him on December 26, 1983 for the World Wrestling Federation Heavyweight Championship.

One of the greatest legitimate wrestlers to ever hold a World title, Vaziri dropped the belt just four weeks later to Hulk Hogan and went on to team with Nikolai Volkoff as the "Foreign Legion", and win the Tag Team Championship at WrestleMania I. He was eventually fired from WWF for testing positive for Cocaine. He returned again in the early '90s as Col. Mustafa and was aligned with former enemy Sgt. Slaughter (though it was never acknowledged on-camera that Mustafa was in fact the Shiek). Along with General Adnan, the three played Iraqis (or, in Slaughter's case, an Iraqi sympathizer) during the first Gulf War and feuded with Hulk Hogan. Following Slaughter's face turn after Summerslam 1991, he teamed with General Adnan until the middle of 1992, when he left the promotion again. He went on to wrestle in various independent promotions to age 60, and is now retired. In 2001, at Wrestlemania X-Seven The Iron Sheik was the victor of the Gimmick Battle Royale a match between several other popular wrestlers from the 1980s.

what more can i say...this man was an effin' bodyguard to the shah of iran!