This week has been a rough one for wrestling fans around the world. It was announced on Friday that George “The Animal” Steele had passed away and now PWInsider is reporting that Ivan Koloff has also passed. Ivan Koloff, real name Oreal Perras, had been diagnosed with liver disease 10 years ago and it was recently reported that the symptoms were starting to get worse. Koloff was 74 years old at the time of his death.
One of Ivan Koloff’s most legendary moments took place at Madison Square Garden on January 18, 1971 when he defeated Bruno Sammartino to win the WWWF World Heavyweight Championship.
Although Ivan Koloff was known as “The Russian Bear” he was actually born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and raised in Ontario. He originally made his debut as Red McNulty, and he was billed as being from Dublin, Ireland. He later took on “The Russian Bear” moniker when he started working for IWA.
Koloff went on to join the WWWF and worked with the company through much of the 1970s. He worked with the National Wrestling Alliance throughout the 80s and he won several different championships in a number of different areas.
From all of us here at Still Real To Us we would like to offer out sincerest condolences to the family, friends and fans of Ivan Koloff around the world. May he rest in peace.
