10 Awesome Facts From The Iron Sheik’s Documentary

8. He Was Trained By The Absolute Best

There€™s a reason that the Iron Sheik was such a good athlete when he began wrestling professionally: before joining the legendary training group with the likes of Ric Flair, Jim Brunzell, and Greg Gagne in the AWA, he was trained in Iran by Gholamreza Takhti, who was the first Iranian to wrestle in the Olympics, and the best wrestler in Iranian history. At the time, Iranians had two real heroes: Takhti and Muhammad Ali, but it was Takhti who the people truly loved, because, according to Mohamad Tavakoli (a professor on the Middle East), €œIranians believed that physical training was viewed as the foundation of healthy citizenship and a healthy state.€ And both Takhti and Vaziri embodied this philosophy entirely. At one point, Vaziri was even considered to be €˜the next Takhti€™ in terms of his skill, popularity, and potential. That alone says a lot about Vaziri€™s athletic prowess and his determination: he idolized Takhti and wanted to become a champion like him, which he ended up doing. Unfortunately, Takhti was an outspoken critic of the Shah of Iran and died under controversial circumstances. The Iranian government ruled his death a suicide, but no one in Iran, especially not Vaziri, believed that. Fearing for his life, and realizing that €˜Iran would not be good to him€™, Vaziri came to the United States where, as we have seen, he would become one of the best wrestlers and heels of all time.