Nikolai Volkoff

Nikolai Volkoff
Volkoff in 2015
Birth name	Josip Hrvoje Peruzović
Born	(1947-10-14)October 14, 1947[1] Split, PR Croatia, FPR Yugoslavia[2]
Died	July 29, 2018(2018-07-29) (aged 70) Glen Arm, Maryland, U.S.
Children	2
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)	Nikolai Volkoff[3] Bepo Mongol[2] Boris Breznikoff Executioner #3
Billed height	6 ft 4 in (193 cm)[3]
Billed weight	313 lb (142 kg)[3]
Billed from	Moscow, Russia Soviet Union[2] Mongolia (as Bepo Mongol)
Trained by	Stu Hart[3] Newton Tattrie
Debut	1967

Josip Hrvoje Peruzović (October 14, 1947 – July 29, 2018),^[4][5] 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.

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. 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 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.