Nikolai Volkoff
Croatian-American professional wrestler (1946–2018) / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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{{Infobox professional wrestler[1]
|name=Nikolai Volkoff
|birthname=Josip Hrvoje Peruzović
|image=WrestleMania 31 Axxess 2015-03-28 11-05-11 ILCE-6000 DSC04678 (17232263810).jpg
|caption=Volkoff in 2015
|names=Nikolai Volkoff[2]
Bepo Mongol[3]
Boris Breznikoff
Executioner #3
|height =6 ft 4 in[2]
|weight =313 lb[2]
|birth_date=(1947-10-14)October 14, 1947[4]
|birth_place=Split, PR Croatia, FPR Yugoslavia[3]
|children = 2
|death_date= July 29, 2018(2018-07-29) (aged 70)
|death_place= Glen Arm, Maryland, U.S.
|billed=Moscow, Russia
Soviet Union[3]
Mongolia (as Bepo Mongol)
|trainer=Stu Hart[2]
Newton Tattrie
|debut=1967
|retired=
|image_size=150px}}
Josip Hrvoje Peruzović (October 14, 1947 – July 29, 2018),[5][6] 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.