More than 115 cases of eye damage reported in Ontario after solar eclipse
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
Bret Hart's longtime connection with the late Iron Sheik was first made in the early 1970s when an Iranian amateur wrestler -- real name Hossein Khosrow Ali Vaziri -- came to Calgary to learn from promoter Stu Hart.
It was in the infamous wrestling dungeon at the Hart family residence that promoter Stu -- with teenage son Bret helping out -- worked with the Iron Sheik to help him make the transition to the professional style.
"I was mostly just used as a practice dummy, but I got to be one of those guys that he trained with when he first started," Hart said from Calgary. "When I met him years later in the WWF (now WWE) when he was really in his prime, he never forgot that I started with him."
The Iron Sheik, who became one of sports entertainment's biggest stars in the Hulkamania-fuelled mid-1980s, died Wednesday at 81, the WWE said.
"He treated me and often spoke of me like I was his student," Hart recalled in an interview with The Canadian Press. "We had a great relationship because he had this start with me when he was nobody, when he was this young amateur wrestler and how I helped him.
"I always had that special relationship with him. He was a character."
The Iron Sheik was competitive in Greco-Roman wrestling, competing in the Amateur Athletic Union and becoming a gold medallist in 1971, the WWE said.
In a documentary about his life called "The Sheik," he said he once served as a bodyguard for the Shah. In the squared circle, he acknowledged taking advantage of anti-Iranian sentiment following the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis.
In 1983, the Iron Sheik won the WWF heavyweight title from Bob Backlund before dropping the belt to Hulk Hogan a few weeks later. He also won the promotion's tag team championship in 1985 with Nikolai Volkoff at the first WrestleMania.
Hart, nicknamed "Hitman," also became a star in the promotion as a tag team with Jim Neidhart and later as a solo performer. The Hart Foundation tag team wrestled the Iron Sheik and Volkoff on occasion.
"They always had a ton of heat because they had that Russian/Iran connection thing going," Hart said. "It was always easy. For the lack of a better word, it was kind of cartoony.
"Like cartoon wrestling, it was so easy. There were good guys, bad guys and they were the total bad guys. It didn't matter what happened."
The Iron Sheik worked with Minnesota-based promoter Verne Gagne before heading north to Calgary. He later returned to Minneapolis and was soon on his way to working his gimmick -- with the Camel Clutch as his finishing move -- to great success.
"He wasn't the greatest technical wrestler in pro wrestling terms," Hart said. "He was often a guy that you had to wing it out there a little bit with him.
"He could ad-lib and at the same time he was a guy you could have a lot of laughs with (after)."
Hart's late father, who ran the Stampede Wrestling promotion for decades, would often help develop athletes who had amateur wrestling, football or bodybuilding backgrounds.
"He would turn out these guys because he could pick their best qualities and show them what to do if they wanted to be professional wrestlers," Hart said. "He always tried to toughen them up and show them what they needed to know (in) the ring."
Hart said the Iron Sheik became arguably the most hated wrestler -- ever -- in the United States.
"He was actually a very pro-American guy in real life," he said. "If you knew him, you knew what a good man he was. He had his good qualities. He was a real friend to the end and he was always a friend to me.
"I always had a love and respect for him. I know a lot of guys did."
Hart worked as both a babyface and heel -- a 'good guy' and 'bad guy' in wrestling parlance -- at various stages of his career.
The heat generated from storylines -- especially for someone with a hot character like the Iron Sheik's -- often made things challenging outside the ring, Hart said.
"It's not easy for someone like him. It becomes very real," he said. "People try to kill you and people try to run you off the road."
Hart said there were occasional bomb threats at venues in those days. Sometimes people would be waiting outside the arena exit for the heel wrestlers at the end of the night.
"You could joke that it was all pro wrestling and everyone knows it's a show but it was pretty serious stuff back then," he said.
The Iron Sheik was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2005.
"Even right now I'm thinking of him pulling on his moustache and laughing about the escapades that him and Nikolai Volkoff got into going from one town to another," Hart said with a chuckle.
"They were great characters and loved by everybody in the business."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 8, 2023.
With files from The Associated Press
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
A Sherwood Park family says their new house is uninhabitable. The McNaughton's say they were forced to leave the house after living there for only a week because contaminants inside made it difficult to breathe.
A man has been handed a lengthy hunting ban and fined thousands of dollars for illegally killing a grizzly bear, B.C. conservation officers say.
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) says it's investigating an interaction between a uniformed officer and anti-Trudeau government protestors after a video circulated on social media.
An emergency slide fell off a Delta Air Lines jetliner shortly after takeoff Friday from New York, and pilots who felt a vibration in the plane circled back to land safely at JFK Airport.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
A loud explosion was heard across Hamilton on Friday after a propane tank was accidentally destroyed and detonated at a local scrap metal yard, police say.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.