Nikolai Volkoff

Nikolai Volkoff was the kind of heel who could get an entire arena booing before the bell even rang, just by grabbing the microphone and bellowing the Soviet anthem in his thick accent. He played the Cold War villain perfectly during wrestling's 1980s boom, and his partnership with The Iron Sheik against the all-American babyfaces is classic Mid-80s WWF theater. What people forget is how genuinely warm he was outside the ring. A big, gentle man who leaned into a gimmick the crowd loved to hate. His 2005 Hall of Fame nod was richly deserved.

Nikolai Volkoff (October 14, 1947 – July 29, 2018) was a professional wrestler born Josip Nikolai Peruzovic in Split, Croatia (then Yugoslavia). Best known in the WWF/WWE as a Soviet heel who sang the Soviet national anthem before matches, he formed a memorable tag team with The Iron Sheik, winning the WWF Tag Team Championship in 1985. He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2005.

Name (English)

Nikolai Volkoff

Name (Japanese)

ニコライ・ボルコフ

Reading

にこらい・ぼるこふ

Born

October 14, 1947 – July 29, 2018

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Libra / Pig

Origin

Split, Croatia

Height

193cm

Occupation

Professional wrestler

Awards & achievements

• 2005 WWE Hall of Fame

Motto

Private

• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%8B%E3%82%B3%E3%83%A9%E3%82%A4%E3%83%BB%E3%83%9C%E3%83%AB%E3%82%B3%E3%83%95

Tags

• Professional wrestler

Last updated

2026-06-02

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.