For the 2nd day in a row the wrestling world has lost another legend.
Ivan Koloff born Oreal Perras in Montreal, Quebec, Canada in 1942.
"The Russian Bear", age 74, announced 2 weeks ago he was battling liver cancer and the wrestling world rallied to his side but as I personally know, liver cancer is a rapid and always deadly form of the disease. He died early this morning, February 18th 2017 just a day after the passing of another WWF/WWE legend George "The Animal" Steele. Rest in Peace to these legends, we will never see the likes of them again.
The man known as “The Russian Bear” actually got his start in his homeland of Canada, where he began his career in the early 1960s as Red McNulty, an Irish hooligan character. After gaining some experience, Koloff traveled to Japan where he honed his craft before returning to Canada as Ivan Koloff, a Russian villain from the Ukraine. In 1969, Koloff debuted in the World Wide Wrestling Federation, managed by Captain Lou Albano and becoming one of the biggest stars in the company. Koloff’s target was the WWWF World Heavyweight Champion Bruno Sammartino, who was the biggest hero the company heralded. After feuding with Sammartino for some time, on January 18th, 1971, Koloff defeated Sammartino in Madison Square Garden for the WWWF Championship with a knee drop from the top rope, ending Sammartino’s 2,803 reign as champion!
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