It is a sad day for wrestling fans as it is was announced today that former WWF World Tag Team Champion and WWE Hall of Famer, Nikolai Volkoff passed away today. He was 70 years old.
Volkoff was born Josip Peruzovic in the former Yugoslavia was competitive weightlifter in his youth. In a competition in Austria he would leave his home behind and emigrate to Canada (later the United States) where he would learn professional wrestling under the legendary Stu Hart. Along with Newton Tattrie (who introduced him to Hart) he would become Bepo, one half of the Mongols, and would win tag team gold in the WWWF in 1970. After leaving the organization he would adopt the persona of an evil Russian under the name he would use for the rest of his career, Nikolai Volkoff.
Volkoff worked across the United States but always seemed to find his way back to New York. He would have a run against World Champion Bruno Sammartino in 1974 and again later in the decade would challenge Bob Backlund for the World Title. His return in 1984 would lead to the most recognized run of his career, where he teamed with The Iron Sheik and became World Tag Team Champions and one of the top heels in the company. Volkoff appeared at the first four Wrestlemanias and again at Wrestlemania 6, where shortly after he turned on his then partner Boris Zhukov and became a liberated Lithuanian who was now anti-Russia and for the first time in his career he was a babyface.
His last main run saw him as a lackey for Ted DiBiase’s Million Dollar Corporation under the gimmick that he needed the money after being down on his luck. He would make sporadic appearances after for the WWE and other independent promotions.
Volkoff would be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2005.
It is believed that complications from a heart attack months earlier led to his death.
We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to extend our condolences to the friends, family and fans of Nikolai Volkoff.
Somehow we fell like having a moment of silence so we can play the Soviet National anthem.
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