Decades after reigning as one of the biggest wrestling superstars of the ’80s, the Iron Sheik gained a new kind of fame thanks to his comedic and frequently profane Twitter posts.
You can see more than 60 of the Iron Sheik’s best rock ‘n’ roll-related tweets below.
Born in Iran in 1942, Hossein Khosrow Ali Vaziri followed up a gold medal-winning amateur wrestling career by becoming one of the WWE’s most dastardly villains. His America-hating Iron Sheik character was a frequent foil to heroes such as Hulk Hogan and Sgt. Slaughter.
In 2009 he joined Twitter and proved to be a natural on the site, using his promo-cutting ability to mock a wide variety of pop culture targets. Rock music was one of his favorite subjects, with Sheik frequently warping the lyrics of famous songs to include swear words, his famous catchphrases and a nonstop barrage of insults about his in-ring and apparent real-life enemy Hogan.
When he wasn’t calling somebody a jabroni (a wrestler who is in the ring only to lose and make other wrestlers look better) or telling everybody to go fuck themselves, Sheik would occasionally offer sincere praise for rock stars such as Freddie Mercury, Steely Dan and Matchbox 20 singer Rob Thomas. He’s also credited with putting an immediate end to a feud between Insane Clown Posse and Limp Bizkit.
After the Iron Sheik’s death on June 7 at the age of 81, rock star and fellow Twitter master Jason Isbell offered the wrestling legend the perfect tribute: “Goodbye, Sheik. You were no jabroni. You were the real.”
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