June 12, 2023 Observer Newsletter: The Iron Sheik passes away, Roman Reigns passes 1,000 days as WWE Universal Champion

The Iron Sheik, the Iranian heel who was part of pop culture at two different points in his life and was best known for feuds with Hulk Hogan and Sgt. Slaughter, passed away on 6/7 at his home in Fayetteville, GA.

He was listed as being 81 years old, but given he didn’t know his own birthday and there are different years listed in different places at different times for his birth, it’s more safe to say he was probably 80 and may have been as old as 84.

He was listed as being born on March 15, 1942. In 1983 when I saw the Texas database with listed birthdays for pro wrestlers who were licensed in the state, his birthday at the time was listed in their records as March 15, 1939. His biographer, Keith Elliot Greenberg, who wrote what he once said was the best wrestling biography never published, said he was actually born September 9, 1942, which would have made him 80.

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