Nikolai Volkoff

On July 29, 2018; Josip H. Peruzovic, “Nikolai Volkoff”, 70 of Glen Arm, Maryland; peacefully died at his residence with his family; beloved husband of 47 years to Lynn Peruzovic (nee Breidenbaugh); devoted father of Kara Nicole Lipinski and her husband Christopher, Kirsten Noel Peruzovic and her husband Craig Martin; son of the late Ivan and Drajica Peruzovic; dear brother of Ante Peruzovic and his family of Croatia, Tihomir Peruzovic and his family of Reisterstown and the late Fanita Peruzovic; brother-in-law of Sharon McGowan and her husband Robert and Betty Mielke; “Buddy” of Andy Vineberg; devoted godfather of Colin Vineberg; also survived by many nieces, nephews, cousins and friends.

His sister is not known as Franka and not known as Frances and if she is Fanita, there's no mention of a married surname of Kazolini.

Also there's no mention of the famous Croatian soccer player Luka Peruzović which means they're not siblings as Wikipedia says, but likely first cousins.

He played a villainous communist in the ring, belting out the Soviet national anthem before matches against Hulk Hogan and other Cold War-era giants of World Wrestling Entertainment.

WWE confirmed the death but did not provide details. He reportedly had heart problems and was recently released from a hospital in Maryland, where he was being treated for dehydration. According to WWE, he died on the same day as two other former wrestling stars: Brickhouse Brown and Brian Christopher Lawler, who performed as Grand Master Sexay and was the son of wrestler Jerry Lawler.

Mr. Volkoff, who was born Josip Peruzovic, was one of the most notorious “heels” in pro wrestling, known for entering the ring with a fur ushanka hat and a red-and-gold turtleneck emblazoned with “USSR.”

The burly 300-pounder made his biggest mark in 1985, partnering with the Iron Sheik — Hossein Khosrow Ali Vaziri, an Iranian supervillain — at the first WrestleMania. To the dismay of more than 19,000 fans at New York’s Madison Square Garden, the duo won the tag team championship against Barry Windham and Mike Rotunda, a team known as the U.S. Express.

While Mr. Volkoff portrayed a staunch anti-American in his matches, in reality he had fled communist Yugoslavia. At the suggestion of his manager, he took on the Volkoff persona as a way of making fun of communism.

Wrestling fans greeted him with jeers and sometimes violence, tossing garbage at him while he insisted they stand for his performance of the Soviet anthem. As tensions with fans escalated in the mid-1980s, Mr. Volkoff asked that his matches take place earlier in the show, rather than serving as the main event, so he could leave stadiums before the crowds. He said he sometimes wore a wig while dining with his family, to avoid public attention.

Mr. Volkoff demanded audiences stand at attention while he sang the Soviet national anthem before wrestling matches. (WWE)

In a 2016 interview with the Hannibal TV , a wrestling channel on YouTube, Mr. Volkoff said “the first time and only time I got scared in the ring” was while singing the Soviet anthem for the first time, at the Superdome in New Orleans in 1984. “I thought the whole building was going to come down,” he said.

After the fall of the Soviet Union — which Mr. Volkoff said he helped hasten, by fomenting anti-Soviet sentiment in the West — Mr. Volkoff decided he had had enough of the communist gimmick. He took on various roles of good guys and even sympathetic bad guys before retiring from wrestling in 1997.

Settling near Baltimore, he worked as a code-enforcement inspector and, as a Republican, ran an unsuccessful 2006 campaign for a seat in the Maryland General Assembly. He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2005.

Josip Nikolai Peruzovic was born in Split, Croatia — then part of Yugoslavia — on Oct. 14, 1947, to a Russian mother and Croatian father. He started out as a weightlifter, becoming a European junior champion before taking after his grandfather, who had also been a wrestler.

Mr. Volkoff defected from Yugoslavia in 1968 while at a weightlifting tournament in Vienna. He made his way to Calgary, Alberta, where he met up with wrestling trainer Stu Hart, who showed him the ropes of entertainment-style wrestling. During his career at WWE and other companies, he wrestled the biggest names in the business, including Bruno Sammartino and Sgt. Slaughter.

Mr. Peruzovic and his wife, Lynn Peruzovic, had two daughters. A complete list of survivors was not immediately available.

Asked how he viewed his legacy, he told the Hannibal TV: “I escaped from communism, I come here to this country, and I live American Dream. And I’m happy I’m here.”

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• Josip Peruzović (Nikolai Volkoff) rodom iz ex-Prvoboraca ulice (today Ulica Kralja Zvonimira) u Splitu, where he was lived.
• http://www.evansfuneralchapel.com/obituary/josip-peruzovic

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In the 1970s, Peruzović was Bepo of the Mongols tag team, one of the masked Executioners and feuded with Bruno Sammartino over the WWWF World Heavyweight Championship as Volkoff. In the 1980s, he tag teamed with the Iron Sheik and won the WWF Tag Team Championship at the inaugural WrestleMania event, and then with Boris Zhukov as The Bolsheviks.

In 1990, Volkoff turned face and defected to America, briefly feuding with Zhukov and newly-heel Iraqi sympathizer Sgt. Slaughter. In 1994, after a hiatus, he returned as a destitute and desperate character, exploited by Ted DiBiase as the first member of his Million Dollar Corporation. He continued to wrestle in various promotions until his death in 2018. ~wikipedia