Bret Hart had his first contact with the late Iron Sheikh in the early 1970s: an Iranian amateur wrestler – real name Hossein Khosrow Ali Vaziri – who then came to Calgary to learn the craft from Stu Hart.
In the famous dungeon of the family home, Stu, along with his teenage son Bret, worked with the Iron Sheikh to help him transition into professional wrestling.
“First I was a sidekick, but then I became one of the guys he originally trained with,” said Hart, from Calgary.
“When I met him years later in his heyday in the WWF (now WWE), he never forgot that I was with him in his early days. »
The Iron Sheik, who had become a huge star during the Hulkamania era in the mid-1980s, died on Wednesday at the age of 81.
“He often addressed me as if I was his student,” Hart recalls. We had an excellent relationship because he experienced his beginnings with me when no one knew him. I helped him when he was a young amateur wrestler. I’ve always had a wonderful bond with him. He was a character. »
According to WWE, the Iron Sheik excelled in Greco-Roman wrestling in the Amateur Athletic Union, becoming a gold medalist in 1971.
In the documentary The Sheik, he said he once served as the Shah’s bodyguard. A professional wrestler, he admitted to exploiting hostility towards Iran following the Tehran hostage crisis in 1979.
In 1983 he won the WWF heavyweight belt from Bob Backlund before losing the title to Hulk Hogan a few weeks later.
He won the tag team championship with Nikolai Volkoff at the inaugural WrestleMania in 1985.
Hart became a star team with Jim Neidhart and later solo.
The Hart Foundation has also occasionally looked into Sheik and Volkoff.
“They’ve always drawn the ire of the crowd given the Iran-Russia connection,” the hitman said. It was always easy (being the good guys working with them). »
The Iron Sheik worked with Minnesota promoter Verne Gagne before heading to Calgary.
He later returned to Minneapolis and soon found great success, with the camel clutch as the last move.
“He wasn’t the greatest technical wrestler,” Hart said. With him it was often necessary to establish a little correspondence from one sequence to another. He could improvise. At the same time, he was a guy we had a lot of laughs with (outside the ring). »
Hart Stu’s late father, who ran Stampede Wrestling for decades, often helped develop athletes with backgrounds in amateur wrestling, soccer, or other sports.
“He identified their best qualities and showed them what they need to do if they want to be professional wrestlers,” Hart said.
The Iron Sheik was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2005 and was once one of America’s most hated wrestlers.
“He was actually a very pro-American guy in real life,” Hart said. If you knew him, you knew what a good person he was. He had good qualities.
“He was a real friend until the end. I always had love and respect for him. Several men felt the same way. »