Hossein Khosrow Ali Vaziri (born March 15, 1943) is a retired Iranian professional wrestler better known by his ring name The Iron Sheik. He is known for ending the near six year World Wrestling Federation Championship reign of Bob Backlund and for being the man Hulk Hogan defeated for his first WWF Championship, setting off the "Golden Age" of professional wrestling. He was also a bodyguard for the Shah of Iran and his family for several years while they still lived in Iran.

He has gained popularity on The Howard Stern Show due to his infamous outbursts on the wrestling industry and his hatred for various wrestlers. He is responsible for bringing the word "Jabroni" to its popularity, frequently used by The Rock (Dwayne Johnson).

The character Ayatollah in the 2008 film The Wrestler is based on him, in terms of appearance.

Khosrow was the 1971 AAU Greco-Roman wrestling champion at 180.5 pounds. Khosrow also was the assistant coach of two US Olympic squads in the 1970s.

Although billed as having been a 1968 Olympic medallist, Khosrow was actually eliminated during his country’s trials.

After moving to other territories, Khosrow was turned into a heel and would do a few things that would complete his signature look. First, he grew a traditional "buffo" style mustache, added wrestling boots with the toe curled up (a nod to his ethnic background which, according to Khosrow, was an idea from Jimmy Snuka), and shaved his head bald. In addition to adding the Persian clubs and challenging wrestlers to do as many or more swings than him as part of his gimmick (a sport in his native Iran), he would also change his ring name. Now known as The Great Hossein Arab, he won his first title, the Canadian Tag Team Championship, with partner the Texas Outlaw. He caught the eye of the WWF where he made his debut in 1979 and won the first-ever Battle Royal in Madison Square Garden, New York City. This earned him a title shot at then-champion Bob Backlund, who pinned him later that night in a 30-minute battle. He later feuded with Chief Jay Strongbow and Bruno Sammartino before leaving in 1980.

Khosrow would resurface as The Iron Sheik in the NWA territories. Playing on real-life political matters (notably the Iran hostage crisis) and the animosity Americans had for the country of Iran, he moved on to the Mid-South and Mid-Atlantic territories, capturing the Mid-Atlantic title from Jim Brunzell before moving to Georgia Championship Wrestling. There, he had notable matches with Dusty Rhodes, Dick Murdoch, and Tommy Rich, and traded the National TV title with Ron Garvin.

Khosrow would return to the WWF in 1983 as The Iron Sheik and challenged Backlund once again; he defeated him on December 26, 1983 at Madison Square Garden for the World Wrestling Federation Heavyweight Championship. Sheik also injured Backlund during a Persian club challenge prior to this title match.

During his title reign, The Iron Sheik held memorable bouts against Backlund, Chief Jay Strongbow, Pat Patterson, and Tito Santana before dropping the belt just four weeks later to Hulk Hogan. The WWF's owner, now Vince McMahon, Jr., had wanted to take the WWF in a different direction as part of his plan to turn the WWF from a regional promotion into a national one. Part of his plan involved taking the title from Backlund and putting it on the charismatic Hogan, who had left the AWA to wrestle for McMahon, (in the process making an enemy of the AWA's owner Verne Gagne). He would then engage in a bitter feud with Sgt. Slaughter, to whom he would eventually lose a "Boot Camp Rules" match. The Iron Sheik would go on to team with Nikolai Volkoff as the "Foreign Legion", and under the management of "Classy" Freddie Blassie, won the WWF Tag Team Championship from the U.S. Express at the first WrestleMania.

In 1987, the Iron Sheik competed in Dallas' World Class Championship Wrestling. He stayed with that organization for only a few months, followed by brief stints with the AWA, where he attacked Sgt. Slaughter during a match, and Puerto Rico's World Wrestling Council. In addition to re-igniting his feud with Slaughter and teaming with Col. Debeers, his main opponent during this time period was Tony Atlas, who he feuded with in both WCCW and WWC.

In 1988, he had a brief return to the WWF.

In 1989, he had a short stint in the National Wrestling Alliance, where he feuded with Sting over the NWA World Television Championship. He left after about half a year into his stint with the company.

He returned to the WWF again in 1991 and was aligned with former enemy Sgt. Slaughter, and began calling himself Col. Mustafa. Along with General Adnan, the three played Iraqis (actually, Slaughter and Mustafa were protrayed as Iraqi sympathizers) during the first Persian 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.

The Iron Sheik wrestled independently afterward, and went on a wrestling tour to Nigeria in 1994, promoted by Chris Adams and co-sponsored by Pepsi, and featuring former WWF stars Jimmy Snuka, Greg Valentine, Demolition Ax, and World Class wrestler/owner Kevin Von Erich.

The Sheik was the first champion of "Boston Bad Boy" Tony Rumble's Century Wrestling Alliance, dropping the championship to Vic Steamboat on October 23rd, 1993 in Wakefield, MA.

In 1994, the Sheik tried his hand at strong style professional wrestling in the UWFi in Japan. He lost by tap-out to Yoji Anjoh in about 5:30 (the in-ring action of the UWFi, though tailored to resemble an actual competitive bout, was in fact made up of predetermined outcomes).

In late 1996, the Sheik would team up with his old nemesis Bob Backlund to manage WWF wrestler The Sultan, who was doing a Middle Eastern gimmick, until the Sultan was taken off TV in the middle of 1997.

On April 1, 2001, at WrestleMania X-Seven, the Iron Sheik was the victor of the Gimmick Battle Royal, a match between other popular wrestlers from the 1980s and 1990s. Rather than being booed for winning, he was cheered as a fan favorite. He went on to wrestle in various independent promotions to age 60.

In 2005, the Iron Sheik was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame by his old rival, Sgt. Slaughter.

On the June 11, 2007 episode of Raw, he along with Jimmy Snuka appeared in a taped segment showing their apprecation of WWE owner Vince McMahon.

On the June 18 episode of Raw, he approached McMahon's executive assistant Jonathan Coachman about having his own interview show (like Piper's Pit and The Brother Love Show) to show on Raw. Coach replied saying, "I like the idea and I will really take some time to consider it."

On August 13, he appeared on an episode of Raw held at Madison Square Garden for a WWE version of American Idol. Sheik came out with Nikolai Volkoff while Volkoff sang the Soviet anthem.

The March 10, 2008 edition of WWE Raw, featured rematches from previous WrestleManias. Iron Sheik appeared along with Nikolai Volkoff to face off against the U.S. Express in a rematch from the first WrestleMania. The match was cut short however by Jillian Hall, who came out to sing the Bruce Springsteen hit song "Born in the USA". (courtesy: wikipedia)