Dara Shawn Daivari (born April 30, 1984) is an American professional wrestler, manager and producer best known for his work for WWE as Daivari. He debuted in 1999 at the age of 15 and worked in Midwest independents for years, as well as wrestling four matches for Ring of Honor. He arrived in WWE in 2004 as the manager for Muhammad Hassan. After that ended in disaster, he worked as the manager for Kurt Angle, Mark Henry and The Great Khali. He would later wrestle for TNA as Sheik Abdul Bashir, and for Lucha Underground as DelAvar Daivari. He has also wrestled for All Japan Pro Wrestling, Juggalo Championship Wrestling and numerous other promotions.
Along with his reign as TNA X-Division Champion, he is also a former Neo-Pro Cruiserweight Champion, a former ICW (Wisconsin) Tag Team Champion, a former AWR (Ireland) No Limits Champion and he was the inaugural VPW (England) Champion.
"Magic Carpet Tropes":
- Arab Oil Sheikh: As Sheik Abdul Bashir, as the "sheik" in his name indicated, although he would eventually become more of a Muhammad Hassan derivative.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: He wore a suit in his managerial role in WWE, even if he would ocassionally wrestle.
- Bilingual Dialogue: His pairing with Muhammad Hassan featured Daivari speaking in Persian/Farsi and Hassan in English. In this case, there were several wrestlers besides Hassan that couldn't understand Daivari, which allowed Chris Jericho to invoke this trope for their amusement.
- Blood Knight: His main reason to come to the Temple in Lucha Underground: Dario Cueto liked to observe violence, Daivari liked to inflict it.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: In Lucha Underground, he was never heard from again after Season 1. The only 'mention' of him since was a photograph of him appearing in Captain Vasquez's office alongside photographs of Alberto El Patron, Konnan, Hernandez and Big Ryck (other characters who stopped appearing after Season 1) under a Missing Persons banner.
- Expy: As Sheik Abdul Bashir, TNA made him a pretty blatant expy of Muhammad Hassan, right down to a similar excuse for the gimmick (post-9/11 prejudice being the reason for him being a heel), and even engaging in some similar risqué stunts to (though never reaching the heights of) the ones that caused Hassan to be canned off WWE TV (such as having Bashir's theme start with the sound of an airliner taking off for a while).
- Finishing Move: Magic Carpet Drop, Flying Legdrop.
- Foreign Curse Word: Once called Chris Benoit a "motherfucker" in Persian.
- Foreign Wrestling Heel: Sometimes billed from Tehran, Iran.
- A Glass of Chianti: In Lucha Underground. Not wine, but Daivari was often seen sipping a glass of (what was probably very expensive) whisky, going along with his golden color motif in Lucha Underground. He even was drinking a glass of the stuff inside the ring while waiting to start his first match against Texano!
- Gold-Colored Superiority: Both his ring attire and his title of "The Golden Warrior". Also, the whiskey he drank was a golden-brown color.
- Hate Sink: In Lucha Underground, a combination of him being a Heel and not using the shows's flashy in-ring style led him to being one of the most hated people (if not the most hated person) in the Temple, to the point where fans openly cheered Texano over him. The only guy who got more hate at the time was Hernandez.
- I Have Many Names: Besides going by just Daivari, there's his actual name Shawn Daivari, Khosrow Daivari, DelAvar Daivari, and Sheik Abdul Bashir.
- I Was Beaten by a Girl: ODB defeated him for the MPW Cruiserweight Title.
- Improbable Weapon User: He'd perform a top rope splash while dropping a carpet on his opponent.
- Institutional Apparel: As Sheik Abdul Bashir in TNA, he would wear a cut-off orange T-shirt evoking the image of the orange jumpsuits given to American prisoners, with them even having "POLITICAL PRISONER" emblazoned on them.
- Jerkass: John Cena called Hassan and Daivari out on this.Cena: These people don't hate you because you're Arab-American. They hate you because you're (censored) Asshole-American.
- One-Steve Limit: WWE renamed him Khosrow Daivari when he was in OVW, in part as a tribute to The Iron Sheik, whose real first name that is, although the first name never made it to WWE TV, and as a way to avoid anyone possibly confusing him with Shawn Michaels. This was lampshaded by John Cena calling him a "bootleg Iron Sheik" on the December 12, 2005 episode of Raw.
- Politically Correct Villain: Hassan and Daivari were angry about Arab-Americans being stereotyped as terrorists following 9/11.
- Power Stable:
- (in ROH): Prince Nana's The Embassy.
- (in TNA): World Elite, led by Eric Young.
- (in MLW Fusion): Contra Unit.
- Red Baron:
- (as Bashir): "The Middle-Eastern Nightmare"
- (as DelAvar Daivari in Lucha Underground): "The Golden Warrior."
- Status Cell Phone: In Lucha Underground. He was constantly texting and having conversations on his phone. It served double duty as a way to condescend to people by putting more attention to the phone than the person, as Dario Cueto found out.
- Tag Team:
- The Daivari Brothers/The P-Dogg Millionaires/The Sheiks, with his brother Ariya (sometimes billed as Mustafa)
- Weapons of Mass Destruction, with Sonjay Dutt.
- Then Let Me Be Evil: Sheik Abdul Bashir took the Eviler than Thou route, deciding to give the fans the mad Arab terrorist character they had accused him of being.
- Wrestling Family: Has a younger brother, Ariya, that wrestles for WWE in their revived Cruiserweight division.
