Ivan Koloff, Canadian professional wrestler, Died at 74

Ivan Koloff was born Oreal James Perras on August 25, 1942, in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada and died on February 18, 2017.

He was a Canadian professional wrestler.

He was best known for once holding the WWWF World Heavyweight Championship.

Koloff was known as “The Russian Bear”.

He debuted as an Irish rogue villain character named Red McNulty, billed from Dublin, Ireland and wrestling with an eyepatch.

Over the next three years, he wrestled around the Toronto area, eventually quitting his regular job to wrestle in the north-western area of Canada.

While he was there, he acquired much wrestling experience, and from there he made his first trip to Japan.

He wrote a book titled Is That Wrestling Fake? The Bear Facts in 2007.

Ivan became a born-again Christian in 1995 and traveled to churches to share his testimony as an ordained minister.

He died in Winterville, North Carolina due to liver cancer.

Ivan Koloff passed away at 74 years old.