For many Gen Xers, pro wrestler the Iron Sheik—who died this week at 81—will be remembered as a former World Wrestling Federation champion who rose to prominence in the 1980s battling the likes of Hulk Hogan and Bob Backlund. But for younger generations who are Extremely Online, he’ll be remembered more as one of Twitter’s weirdest characters.
Sheik, real name Hossein Khosrow Ali Vaziri, was an idiosyncratic—and sometimes turbulent—character throughout his wrestling career. He admitted in 2013 to selling old autographed photos of himself to support a drug habit. He yo-yoed in and out of prison. And he was prone to fiery, inflammatory rants.
And, with a big assist from two brothers in Toronto, he became a massive social media star.
“The code of the Sheik”
Sheik’s unusual popularity caught the eye of Iranian-Canadian entrepreneur Page Magen, who with his brother, Jian, ran a party promotion business in Toronto called the Magen Boys, which specialized in organizing bar mitzvahs in the city.
As it happens, the Magens’ father, Bijan, knew Vaziri from their days together playing professional sport in Iran (Magen was a table tennis player; Vaziri an amateur wrestler); at his sons’ request, introduced Jian and Page to Vaziri. It wasn’t long before he and the Magen boys were friends, and then business partners.
“Anytime we were talking about something in the news, he would always have an opinion about it,” says Page. “Even though he was known as the bad guy, the code of the Sheik was for those that did good and to attack those that did the wrong thing.”
That code was put to the test in November 2006, when a racist tirade by Michael Richards, the actor who plays Kramer on Seinfeld, hit the news while Vaziri was visiting the Magens in Canada. Vaziri’s reaction was recorded for a video that almost immediately went viral, racking up 40 million views in two days. Media outlets started covering the video as much as they did Richards’ controversy; Howard Stern invited the Sheik to join his so-called wack pack.
The brothers quickly realized Sheik could capitalize on his eccentricity through social media, and set up a Twitter account for him in August 2009. Within four years, he had amassed more than 300,000 followers. By the time of his death, that number had grown to 650,000.
“We knew that his opinion as an authoritative, rulemaking figurehead allowed him to be able to speak on things culturally,” says Page.
“I hope we made everyone chuckle”
The Twitter account wasn’t run by Vaziri, but by Page, who would ghostwrite the wrestler’s tweets. They were argumentative and irreverent. When Sheik tweeted his anger at the existence of Mondays, he wrote “Fuck the monday forever.”
Sheik tweeted that fellow former WWF champion Ultimate Warrior was “only man to make baby from his ass.” He had similarly scathing words for his ringside nemesis, Hulk Hogan (though he also offered some words of kindness on occasion). He called the state of North Korea a “punk” and “jabroni.”
The tweets came rapid-fire, with more than 32,500 in the near 14-year lifespan of his Twitter account. At its peak, the Sheik was posting 120 tweets a week, written by Page as a hobby alongside his main business. “We took a lot of pride in [getting the voice right],” he says.
And the Sheik’s posts reached an extraordinary range of people. A few minutes before speaking to Fast Company, Page says, the Iron Sheik Twitter account received a direct message from The Black Eyed Peas offering their condolences. “It’s just remarkable,” he says. “In a world where there’s such a layer of judgment, this is probably one of the only things that is allowed to be celebrated.”
“I hope we made everyone chuckle,” Page continues. “I hope we made everyone feel connected to such a very unique and incredible human that had so much passion.”
Page is currently too busy thinking about Vaziri’s family while processing his own grief to decide on that. “I just want to figure out ways to respectfully give him his flowers in every possible way,” he says. The Iron Sheik’s last tweet to date sums up the strange contradictions of the character—which was an extension of Vaziri the man. Posted late on June 6, the day before Vaziri died, Sheik tweeted “FUCK THE WILDFIRES.”
It was crass, sure, but it was also caring.
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