Nikolai Volkoff

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Nikolai Volkoff
Nikolai Volkoff.jpg
Data
Ring name Nikolai Volkoff
Bepo Mongol
Boris Breznikoff
height 190 cm
Fighting weight 142 kg
birth October 14, 1947
Split , Socialist Republic of Croatia
death July 29, 2018
Maryland
Announced from Moscow , Soviet Union
Trained by Stu Hart
debut 1968

Josip Nikolai Peruzović (born October 14, 1947 in Split , Socialist Republic of Croatia ; † July 29, 2018 in Maryland ) was a professional wrestler who worked for WWE , among others . He became known by his ring name Nikolai Volkoff .

Beginnings

Peruzović grew up in Croatia , which was then part of socialist Yugoslavia . His mother was of Russian and his father of Croatian-Italian descent. He was a member of the Yugoslav Olympic weightlifting team until 1968 when he fled socialism to Canada during a competition in Vienna . There he trained wrestling legend Stu Hart to become a wrestler. Josip Peruzović himself became an American citizen in 1970. He came now to the World Wide Wrestling Federation and fought there under the ring name Bepo Mongol . Together with his tag team partner Geto Mongol and their manager Lou Albano , he won the WWWF International Tag Team title on June 15, 1970 .

Career

After the team had to surrender the title to the WWWF in a unification fight, he got a new gimmick and from now on competed alone. He was now Nikolai Volkoff, a proud Soviet Russian who, armed with a Soviet flag, always intoned the anthem of the USSR before his battles . In 1974 he managed with Bruno Sammartino to Madison Square Garden to sell out for a title fight. At that time Peruzovic was one of the most hated villains in wrestling among the public and therefore often contender for the title against the corresponding Face Champion.

At the end of 1974 Peruzović went to the AWA and called himself Boris Breznikoff . He was managed there by Bobby Heenan , but in 1976 he went back to the WWWF .

In the early 1980s, Peruzović competed for promoter Cowboy Bill Watts in the Mid South Region and returned to WWF in 1984 . It created a tag team with the Iranians The Iron Sheik and let this the day WWF Team Titles against the US Express at Wrestlemania I win. Three months later they had to give the titles back to them. Peruzović was now used more in individual fights and started a feud with Corporal Kirchner . Peruzović competed against Wrestlemania II in a special flag match , but should lose.

In 1987 Peruzović got a new tag team partner in Boris Zhukov . The team was called The Bolsheviks , but they weren't very successful.

After the end of the Cold War , Peruzović wanted to end the gimmick of the communist Russian and from now on take on as Face . For this purpose, the team with Zhukov was dissolved and Peruzović now feuded with Sgt.Slaughter, who was acting as an Iraqi sympathizer . After this feud, Peruzović left the WWF in 1992.

In 1994 he returned as part of the Stables Million Dollar Corporation and impersonated the lackey and bodyguard of the Million Dollar Man . Then Peruzović resigned from full-time wrestling.

Peruzović died on July 29, 2018, a week after being treated for dehydration in a Maryland hospital .

useful information

Manager

successes

  • Championship Wrestling from Florida
    • 1x NWA Florida Tag Team Championship (with Ivan Koloff )
  • Georgia Championship Wrestling
    • 1x NWA Georgia Heavyweight Championship
  • Jim Crockett Promotions
    • 1x NWA Mid-Atlantic Tag Team Championship (with Chris Markoff )
  • Universal Wrestling Federation (Bill Watts)
    • 1 time Mid-South North American Championship
  • Other titles
    • NWF Tag Team Championship (1x) - with Geto Mongol
    • NWA Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Champion (1 time)
    • WWA Heavyweight Champion (1 time)
    • WWA Tag Team Champion with Angelo Poffo (1) and Boris Volkoff (1)
    • WWWA Heavyweight Champion (2 times)

Web links

Commons : Nikolai Volkoff  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ WWE legend Nikolai Volkoff dies aged 70 . In: Metro . July 29, 2018 ( metro.co.uk [accessed July 29, 2018]).
personal data
SURNAME Volkoff, Nikolai
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Peruzovic, Josip Nikolai
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Croatian wrestler
DATE OF BIRTH October 14, 1947
PLACE OF BIRTH Split , Socialist Republic of Croatia
DATE OF DEATH 29th July 2018
Place of death Maryland , USA