One of this year's inductees into the George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame is a man named Khosrow Vaziri. He is better known to all as the Iron Sheik.
While the Iron Sheik took some time to sign autographs and chat with fans before the ceremony Friday at the National Wrestling Hall of Fame's Dan Gable Museum, he also connected with Gable himself. Check out this video, posted to Gable's YouTube account, chronicling their public appearance:
Gable won two national titles at Iowa and a gold medal in freestyle at the 1972 Olympics in the lightweight division, before returning to his alma mater and coaching the Hawkeyes to a ridiculous 15 NCAA team titles, including nine straight from 1978 to 1986.
The Iron Sheik represented Iran at the 1968 Olympics. After moving to the United States, he won an AAU Greco-Roman wrestling national title in 1971. In 1972, he served as an assistant coach for the U.S. Greco-Roman wrestling team at the Olympics.
He then entered pro wrestling with his greatest success coming in the World Wrestling Federation (now known as World Wrestling Entertainment). He became WWF heavyweight champion in 1983 by defeating Bob Backlund, another class of 2016 Hall of Fame inductee.
The Iron Sheik had a profound impact on the wrestling career of Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson, as we learned in a 2014 documentary, The Sheik.
More Pro Wrestling:
-- That Time When Bud Collins Interviewed Gorilla Monsoon
-- Dusty Rhodes: When 'Some Asian Kid' Won American Dream's Boots In Contest
-- George 'The Animal' Steele Gives His Take On Randy Savage-Miss Elizabeth Angle
