"Russian Bear" Ivan Koloff Passes Away At 74

Oreal Perras who was better known as Ivan Koloff in the professional wrestling world has passed away last Saturday. He was 74 and it was something notable that the WWE lost one more legend George "The Animal" Steele last week who was 79 because of kidney failure.

Ivan Koloff was from Montreal and suffered from a liver disease from last few years and his health was declining day by day as his wife told in an interview with the Post and Courier. Koloff had a career of long four decades who was always shown as a monstrous bearded heel character. Koloff was better known as "Russian Bear" who originally signed with WWE in the year 1967 and played a negative role of a villain with the International Wrestling Association in Canada.

One of the most memorable moment of Koloff's career was when he defeated Bruno Sammartino on January 18, 1971, at the Madison Square Garden for WWWF championship which ended the world title reign which lasted for more than 7 years and which still is a record of longest WWE world title run in the history of WWE. Later on, he had a long career with National Wrestling Alliance where he became five-time NWA tag team champion, four-time NWA Mid-Atlantic heavyweight champion and a three-time NWA champion as reported by ESPN.

On getting this news of Koloff passing away on Saturday morning, Ric Flair tweeted, "I'm Sad To Wake Up And Hear of the passing of my very close friend the Russian Bear Ivan Koloff. You will be missed, My Friend. Rest In Peace" as reported by daily mail. Also, WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan tweeted for Koloff, "RIP Ivan Koloff, it's been a tough week, Chavo, Nicole Bass, George Steel, Ivan and Marty Prince, I would feel helpless if not for my faith1loveHH."

In the year 1990 Koloff became a born again Christian and was ordained as Minister. A few weeks ago Koloff's daughter indicated through twitter that Koloff who was suffering from a liver disease from last 10 years needed financial help.