John Mikels was born in Pittsburgh, PA. Mikels a lifelong wrestling fan met the Legendary Iron Sheik at an autograph signing in 1996 when Mikels was only 14 years of age at the time and got his first real exposure in professional wrestling when spending the day with the Iron Sheik and helping carry his bags to his car, due to this John Mikels got an invitation to a wrestling event the next day where Iron Sheik faces Ko Ko Beware in the main event. The Event is a yearly event in Pittsburgh known as Deaf Wrestlefest and during the event The Iron Sheik challenged any fans from the audience to match or beat The Iron Sheik Persian Club Challenge. The challenge consist of 30 pound clubs by swinging it as many times as you can over the head, a record held by Iron Sheik was 106. John Mikels was al