Sgt. Slaughter Comments On The Iron Sheik’s Legacy – “He Loved The Fans”
The legendary Sgt. Slaughter had some kind things to say about a former on-screen rival and friend, The Iron Sheik.
Over the last week, the pro wrestling world has been mourning the death of the colorful WWE Hall of Famer, The Iron Sheik. The proud Iranian whose real name was Khosrow Vaziri passed away on Wednesday at the age of 81.
Since his death, many media outlets covered it due to his legacy in pro wrestling while plenty of people in pro wrestling gave touching tributes to him as well. Hulk Hogan also had some kind things to say about his on-screen rival even though Sheik was known for being a bit harsh towards The Hulkster.
This past Friday on Smackdown, WWE aired a special tribute video in honor of The Iron Sheik, who was a former WWE World Champion.
Another man that spoke kindly about The Iron Sheik is Sgt. Slaughter, who feuded with him on screen for many years with Slaughter as a proud American while Sheik was a villain that loved to get heat. They also became allies around 1991 when Slaughter was the WWE Champion and Sheik was known as Colonel Mustafa.
While speaking to TMZ, Sgt. Slaughter spoke about how The Iron Sheik loved making fans angry while talking about how Sheik was a family man as well.
“He just got the people so irate and he loved every second of it. [But he was] a family man completely. We were characters, but we both had families. We loved our families. Outside the ring was a different story [because we] never brought any [of our characters] in the house… [But in the ring,] we were the kind of entertainers that if you bought a ticket to see us you got your money’s worth.”
As he continued, Slaughter spoke about how The Iron Sheik loved to perform, and most of all, he loved wrestling fans.
“He just loved wrestling and, whether people know this or not, he loved his fans. He just loved to perform and he loved the young children. But once he went through that locker room and toward the ring, he was all business. He was the Iron Sheik… [and he] was never afraid to put a little heat on him [when] he went into the full Iron Sheik character.”