Guest Trivia247 Report post Posted September 7, 2003 The following are highlights from Xtreme Mayhem's interviews with The Iron Sheik and 1Wrestling.com's own Chris Yandek! The interviews were conducted by Mike Nagel and Jeff Meacham! Listen to the interview by clicking on one of the links below, or by visiting http://xtreme.themayhem.com which contains the current show plus archived shows! Listen in streaming Real Audio Listen in Windows Media Player The Iron Sheik - Sheik started off by giving a shout out to his fellow people and fans while speaking in Farsi, the language spoken in Iran. - He then talked about his amateur background in wrestling. After winning a gold medal for his country in the 1968 Olympics, he trained wrestlers in Greco-Roman for the 1972 Olympics, before turning professional wrestler in Minnesota in 1973. - Sheik said that he still wrestles part-time, but prefers to do things such as autograph sessions or birthday parties. - Sheik talked about winning the WWF title from Bob Backlund in Madison Square Garden after Backlund had been champion for six years. He praised Backlund as a great all-American college wrestler. - He said that wrestling was 10% entertainment but the other 90% was wrestling and being able to know what you were doing in that ring. He said wrestling was a tough and it is not easy for anybody to be champion or a big star. He said wrestling is still one of the top sports in the world today. - Sheik said he respects guys like Kurt Angle and Brock Lesnar and said that they don't need to play politics because they were tough guys. He said nobody could beat them if they didn't want to lose. He said Angle is a great entertainer, performer, and an excellent shooter. - He talked about losing the belt to that "Hollywood blonde jabroni" Hulk Hogan. He said that if the match was for one million dollars, Hogan would have never been able to beat him or pin his shoulders to that mat. In regards to Hogan, he said money talks and BS walks. He said that Hogan was not a good man and was just a guitar player who didn't compete in any types of sports. After he made Hogan champion, he said that Hogan forgot about him and broke his heart. After the match, Hogan kissed his hand and hugged him, saying that he owed Sheik one and then forgot about him. He said Hulk Hogan was only thinking about Hulk Hogan. He said that Hogan told the kids to not do drugs, and then he went ahead and did every drug A to Z. He said that Hogan and phony and a liar. When Sheik lost his job with WWE, he tried calling Hogan and Hogan never returned any of his phone calls. - Sheik said that Fred Blassie was one of the best managers in the world, and was lucky to have him as a manager. - Sheik talked about some of his Wrestlemania matches. He enjoyed working with some of the football players at Wrestlemania II. Sheik told the players to try and pin him, but none of them could. He said that the football players could never beat the wrestlers in a shoot. He said that Vince called him and invited him to be part of the gimmick battle royal Wrestlemania X-7, and he enjoyed being able to perform for both older and newer fans. He also talked about being at Wrestlemania XIII. He said he got along with everybody backstage during his career and Hogan was one of the few exceptions. Chris Yandek - Yandek started off by talking about some of the other sites/publications that he works for besides 1wrestling.com, including Total Wrestling magazine in the UK. He said that the magazine has carried many of the interviews he has conducted. He talked about the PWI 500 lists and how he feels that they need to stop using kayfabe in the magazine because he considers it dead. - He talked about being the last person to interview Fred Blassie, and how Blassie told Bill Apter that Yandek was a very bright kid who knew what he was talking about. - Yandek talked about interviewing Mick Foley, and how he was in talks with his book publisher for four and a half months. Foley was impressed with his age and said that he had a bright future. He said that he made a friendship with Foley and still talks to him from time to time. He said that he got an autographed copy of the book from Foley out of nowhere. - He brought up his interview with Shawn Michaels, and said he was able to get it done because of a WWE media tour. Going into the interview, he didn't expect much from Michaels, and was surprised how open and honest Michaels was with topics such as Montreal and the MSG curtain call. - Yandek mentioned the interview with Trish in November 2001, and how in-depth she was with her answers, and now she's burnt out from doing so many interviews and gives short answers. He said that she hasn't let the business get to her, though, and she deserves to be the diva of the decade. - He talked about some other interviews he conducted, one being with Jake Roberts who is another guy he became friends with. He said Jake was very open and honest. Bruno was another guy who was open and honest and couldn't believe that Yandek was 17 and knew as much as he did. - Yandek talked about the background of his interviews and how several years ago, the idea of recording an interview and putting it online was unheard of. - Yandek plugged his website www.neweraofwrestling.com, where you can read and listen to any of the 130+ interviews that he has conducted. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Lil' Bitch 0 Report post Posted September 8, 2003 I remember a few years back on an episode of Jerry Springer (I forgot what that show's controversy was for that day), the Iron Shiek came out of nowhere as being as one of the show's guests. I shit you not, the audience was chanting "Shiek! Shiek! Shiek!" It was awesome to watch. Took me completely by surprise and I sure as hell marked out. God, I miss wish I had a copy of that part of the show. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Trivia247 Report post Posted September 8, 2003 Iron Shiek from the Most hated to one of the most beloved gimmicks of the 80's gotta be a good legacy for the first WWF Gold metal winner and the first Human Suplex Machine Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Boo_Bradley Report post Posted September 8, 2003 Beloved Gimmicks??? Is his Gold Medal claim legit? That interview was way too eleoquent to be the Shiek talking (Sarcasm) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Trivia247 Report post Posted September 9, 2003 Beloved Gimmicks??? Is his Gold Medal claim legit? That interview was way too eleoquent to be the Shiek talking (Sarcasm) if you wanna check the 1968 record books for Greco Roman wrestling. I doubt it would say Iron Shiek. but would say Kosraw Vasori his real name. and perhaps not most beloved but very well known. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bob_barron 0 Report post Posted September 9, 2003 The Shiek never competed in the 1968 Olympics. Therefore he never won a Gold medal. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Trivia247 Report post Posted September 9, 2003 The Shiek never competed in the 1968 Olympics. Therefore he never won a Gold medal. actually going through the olympics page they do say in 1968 that the Iranian team had three metal winners in Wrestling free style and two for weight lefting Lightweight wrestling got the Gold metal and two hit the bronze for Feather and banthamweight so what could have been done is that either they messed up on his real name elsewhere and is listed here somehows or that he just took the general information and attached his name to anothers basically in the belief that who would actually go and research Iranian team's accomplishments in the 1968 Olympics but so glad Bob is here with his infinate knowledge and just knows on the top of his head who won what nearly 50 years ago http://www.olympic.org/uk/athletes/results...search_r_uk.asp the link only takes one back to the search engine in the olympics page and not the results Mexico 1968 Weightlifting - 56kg, total (bantamweight) Men Gold Medal NASSIRI-SERESHT, Mohammad Mexico 1968 Weightlifting 60 - 67.5kg, total (lightweight) Men Silver Medal JALAYER, Parviz Mexico 1968 Wrestling Freestyle 52 - 57kg (bantamweight) Men Bronze Medal GORGORI, Abutaleb Mexico 1968 Wrestling Freestyle 57 - 63kg (featherweight) Men Bronze Medal SEYED-ABBASSI, Shamseddin Mexico 1968 Wrestling Freestyle 63 - 70kg (lightweight) Men Gold Metal MOVAHED-ARDABILI, Abdollah Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
