The Most Famous
WRESTLERS from Croatia
This page contains a list of the greatest Croatian Wrestlers. The pantheon dataset contains 1,027 Wrestlers, 1 of which were born in Croatia. This makes Croatia the birth place of the 53rd most number of Wrestlers behind Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Greece.
Top 2
The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Croatian Wrestlers of all time. This list of famous Croatian Wrestlers is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.
1. Nikolai Volkoff (1947 - 2018)
With an HPI of 46.63, Nikolai Volkoff is the most famous Croatian Wrestler. His biography has been translated into 22 different languages on wikipedia.
Josip Hrvoje Peruzović (October 14, 1947 – July 29, 2018), 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.
2. Vlado Lisjak (b. 1962)
With an HPI of 37.47, Vlado Lisjak is the 2nd most famous Croatian Wrestler. His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.
Vlado Lisjak (born 29 April 1962 in Petrinja) is a former Croatian Greco-Roman wrestler who competed in the 1984 Summer Olympics for Yugoslavia. He won gold in the 68 kg category, beating Tapio Sipilä in the final. Because of his feat he won the Croatian Sportsman of the Year award in 1984. Lisjak retired from competitive wrestling in 1993, and has since worked as coach and director of the Croatian national wrestling team.
People
Pantheon has 2 people classified as Croatian wrestlers born between 1947 and 1962. Of these 2, 1 (50.00%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living Croatian wrestlers include Vlado Lisjak. The most famous deceased Croatian wrestlers include Nikolai Volkoff. As of April 2024, 1 new Croatian wrestlers have been added to Pantheon including Vlado Lisjak.
