MVP pays his respects to the Iron Sheik.
The WWE star spoke about the recently deceased legend during an appearance on the Cheap Heat podcast, where he reflected on the Hall of Famer’s accomplishments in the sport of pro wrestling. MVP states that watching Sheik when he was younger made him believe that wrestling was real because the Sheik was 100% real.
In honor of Sheiky baby, I went down the YouTube rabbit hole. And I was watching some of his old, old stuff when he was Khosrow Ali or when he still had hair. And he was, like, I’d say maybe 215 pounds, 220. Shredded … He was a babyface in that particular match and the crowd was popping for him because of his athleticism. He was doing cartwheels [and] suplexes. And, you know, watching wrestling from that time, and watching him wrestle that way at that time, it just kind of made me smile and remember why I used to think wrestling was real because he was real.
MVP later declares the Iron Sheik as the ultimate WWE bad guy, a status that in his mind cannot be topped. The former Hurt Business leader cites Sheik’s transitional WWE championship run and pairing with Nikolai Volkoff as top moments in the history of the company.
And when you ask me about the all-time great heels, you know, I was born in ’73, so I remember the Iran hostage crisis and the Ayatollah Khomeini, and, you know, that was a part of my childhood. So when, you know, Iron Sheik came on the scene and lost to Hulk Hogan and later on was teaming up with Nikolai Volkoff … This is iconic. This is legendary. We’ve never forgotten this. So in the pantheon of all-time great WWF/WWE bad guys, I mean he’s got to be right up there at the top. You know, it’s subjective, but certainly for me, if you ask me, he is the most memorable all-time WWF bad guy.
Current AEW star and fellow WWE Hall of Famer recently shared a very funny story about the Iron Sheik trying to fight him. You can read about that here.
(H/T and transcribed by Wrestling Inc.)