History Wrestling / NikolaiVolkoff

* NiceHat

As usual, you can find the basics at [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Volkoff The Other Wiki]].

-->-- '''Wrestling/HowardFinkel''' standard announcement before every Volkoff match. This was usually followed by Volkoff singing, with the fans booing and throwing garbage.

* HeelFaceTurn: After the fall of the USSR, Volkoff happily turned face, glad to rid himself of the communist moniker he despised so. It helped that not only were fans more than willing to embrace Volkoff as a face, but the fact that longtime "Super Patriot" wrestler "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan was the first to openly welcome him to the face side of the locker room. Nikolai embraced the United States and its fans, and his genuine love of the nation was all it took for the fans to embrace him right back. Even when he was forced to work for Ted [[=DiBiase=]], fans refused to boo him, knowing that he was, at least in-storyline, stuck between the proverbial rock and a hard place. The fans kept a place for him in their hearts right up till he passed away even in his worst on-screen moments.

* HeelFaceTurn: After the fall of the USSR, Volkoff happily turned face, glad to rid himself of the communist moniker he despised so. It helped that not only were fans more than willing to embrace Volkoff as a face, but the fact that longtime "Super Patriot" wrestler "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan was the first to openly welcome him to the face side of the locker room. Nikolai embraced the United States and its fans, and his genuine love of the nation was all it took for the fans to embrace him right back. Even when he was forced to work for Ted {{DiBiase}}, fans refused to boo him, knowing that he was, at least in-storyline, stuck between the proverbial rock and a hard place. The fans kept a place for him in their hearts right up till he passed away even in his worst on-screen moments.

* HeelFaceTurn: After the fall of the USSR, Volkoff happily turned face, glad to rid himself of the communist moniker he despised so. It helped that not only were fans more than willing to embrace Volkoff as a face, but the fact that longtime "Super Patriot" wrestler "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan was the first to openly welcome him to the face side of the locker room. Nikolai embraced the United States and its fans, and his genuine love of the nation was all it took for the fans to embrace him right back. Even when he was forced to work for Ted DiBiase, fans refused to boo him, knowing that he was, at least in-storyline, stuck between the proverbial rock and a hard place. The fans kept a place for him in their hearts right up till he passed away even in his worst on-screen moments.

* HeelFaceTurn: After the fall of th USSR, Volkoff happily turned face, glad to rid himself of the communist moniker he despised so.

Josip Nikolai Peruzović (October 14, 1947 - July 29, 2018) was a UsefulNotes/{{Croatia}}n {{professional wrestl|ing}}er best known for his work in Wrestling/{{WWE}} in the 1980s as Nikolai Volkoff. He started his career in UsefulNotes/{{Canada}} in 1967 after having escaped from UsefulNotes/{{Yugoslavia}}. He was trained by Newton Tattrie and debuted as Bepo of the TagTeam the Mongols with Tattrie, who was known as [=Geeto=]. He also competed in the [[Wrestling/AmericanWrestlingAssociation AWA]] as Boris Breznikov. He started the Volkoff role in the [=WWWF=] in the 1970s and took it to Mid-South, Florida, Mid-Atlantic, Georgia and other territories. His biggest career moment was most likely when he and Wrestling/TheIronSheik defeated Wrestling/BarryWindham and Wrestling/MikeRotunda for the [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/wwe/wwe-world-t.html WWE World Tag Team Titles]] at the first ''Wrestling/{{WrestleMania}}'' in 1985. He [[HeelFaceTurn turned face]] in 1990 after his team the Bolsheviks with Boris Zhukov was scrapped and sided with wrestling's resident AllAmericanFace Wrestling/HacksawJimDuggan. He was eventually pushed to the background until he left in January 1992. He would work for a variety of independents, including Wrestling/{{ECW}}, before returning to WWE in 1994 as an unwilling heel. (See FallenOnHardTimesJob below.) Since leaving WWE, he has wrestled on and off for various independents for years. He was inducted into the Wrestling/WWEHallOfFame in 2005.

-->-- '''[[Characters/WWECommentators Howard Finkel's]]''' standard announcement before every Volkoff match. This was usually followed by Volkoff singing, with the fans booing and throwing garbage.