I wasn't into pro wrestling in the 1980s, so I don't have much firsthand experience with the Iron Sheik, but I know he's an icon and I know he's still extremely popular, given how many people follow him on his hilariously profane Twitter account.
What I didn't know until I read this story on Yahoo! this morning is that the Sheik, born Hossein Khosrow Ali Vaziri, is essentially broke and in constant, head-to-toe pain. Apparently the bones in one of his knees are essentially grinding against each other with every move he makes. A guy like Sheik, who still makes money for the WWE (as evidenced by his sparkling new WWE Legends shirt in the picture above, not to mention classic DVD sales and income from WWE Classics On Demand), shouldn't be in this position.
But now his managers, Page and Jian Magen, are using Indiegogo to crowdsource the money for a documentary about this amazing dude and maybe pull in enough scratch to help the 73-year-old pay for some much-needed surgeries.
The Yahoo! piece is well worth reading for other details about "Sheiky Baby's" life. For instance, I didn't know he escaped his native Iran for fear of being assassinated by the government. I think a donation to fund this documentary and help this guy live a relatively pain-free life is a great way to spend your crowdsourcing budget, if you have one.
