Nikolai Volkoff

Ante was born in Cetina, a small village near Sinj, Croatia to Croatian parents Stipe and Katerina in 1872.

Josip Hrvoje Peruzović (October 14, 1947 – July 29, 2018), better known by his ring name Nikolai Volkoff, was a Croatian-American professional wrestler from Yugoslavia, best known for his time in the World Wrestling Federation where he usually played a Soviet heel.

Steve Gobb, born Gobrokovich, wrestled as USSR's Nicoli Volkoff in the 1960s before the character was picked up by Josip.

During his 1963–1968 tour, Tattrie took Peruzovic under his wing as a protégé and trained the non-English speaking, 315-pound man to become a professional wrestler and tag team partner.

Peruzović was on the Yugoslavian weightlifting team until 1967, when he emigrated to Canada after a weightlifting tournament in Vienna, Austria.

While trying his luck as a wrestler in Calgary, Alberta, in 1967, he met the wrestler Newton Tattrie, who was wrestling for Stu Hart's Stampede Wrestling.

When Tattrie left the territory in 1968 for the US, Peruzovic left with him, working in various territories for the National Wrestling Alliance including NWA Detroit, the International Wrestling Association and the National Wrestling Federation where they won tag gold.

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.

He received training in Calgary from Stu Hart, followed by his arrival in the United States in 1970.

A fellow Croatian-native played the first Soviet Volkoff character in American pro-wrestling.

In 1970 he began wrestling in Vince McMahon Sr.'s World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) (currently known as WWE).

Wrestling as Bepo Mongol, managed by "Captain" Lou Albano and partnered with Newton Tattrie (as Geeto Mongol) as the Mongols, he captured the WWF International Tag Team Championship from Tony Marino and Victor Rivera on June 15, 1970.

After losing the title to Luke Graham and Tarzan Tyler in a match over a year later that unified the WWWF International and WWWF World Tag Team Championship, Peruzovic left the WWWF and went on to singles competition under the name "Nikolai Volkoff".

In 1974, Volkoff returned to the company and appeared in a memorable match at a sold out Madison Square Garden and wrestled one of the sport's most famous champions, Bruno Sammartino.

Late in 1974, Volkoff moved to the AWA where he wrestled under the name Boris Breznikoff, managed by Bobby "The Brain" Heenan, he used the same gimmick with a different ring name.

In 1976, he was masked as an Executioner as he became the third member along with Killer Kowalski and Big John Studd.

They captured the World Tag Team Championship, but it was vacated due to a third member interfering.

Later he reverted to the Volkoff name.

During this time in the WWWF, Volkoff was announced as being from Mongolia.

He had a very successful feud with Bruno Sammartino, which started when Volkoff attacked him during an interview segment.

They sold-out arenas throughout the Northeast.

During this tenure, he began crushing fresh apples with one hand as a sign of what he would do to his opponents.

He later had a feud with Bob Backlund during Backlund's tenure as champion.

From 1977 to 1983 he wrestled in Japan for New Japan Pro-Wrestling and All Japan Pro Wrestling.

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 1983, Volkoff wrestled for "Cowboy" Bill Watts in the Mid-South region.

In July 1984, Volkoff returned to the renamed WWF defeating S. D. Jones on Georgia Championship Wrestling and teamed with The Iron Sheik with the pair being managed by the "Hollywood fashion plate" "Classy" Freddie Blassie.

It was at this point that Volkoff began to sing the national anthem of the Soviet Union before every match after which the Sheik would grab the microphone and proclaim "Iran number one, Russia number one" before exaggeratedly spitting after saying "USA", in order to gain even more heat for being foreign heels.

The new team of Volkoff and The Iron Sheik captured the WWF Tag Team Championship from the U.S. Express (Mike Rotundo and Barry Windham) at the first WrestleMania, on March 31, 1985, after the Sheik had knocked out Windham with Fred Blassie's cane.

After losing the title back to Rotundo and Windham three months later, Volkoff began to wrestle more in singles competition.

On October 29, 1989 he returned to AWA for a one night appearance as he lost to Ken Patera.

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.

Peruzović grew up in the Socialist Republic of Croatia, which was then part of Yugoslavia.

His parents were Ivan and Dragica (née Tomašević).

His brother is Croatian footballer Luka Peruzović.

Despite what he sometimes claimed, his actual middle name was not Nikolai but Hrvoje, and his mother's maiden name was not Volkoff but Tomašević.

These inconsistencies cast doubt on his ethnic background and seem to indicate a Croat ethnicity.

His maternal grandfather Ante Tomašević was world champion in the Greco-Roman wrestling style at the turn of the 20th century.