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WWE legend The Iron Sheik died of cardiac arrest last month ... this according to his death certificate, obtained by TMZ Sports.

Officials said in the document that Sheik -- real name Hossein Khosrow Ali Vaziri -- also suffered from congestive heart failure as well as hypertension before his passing.

The manner of death was ruled to be natural.

As we reported, Sheik passed away in Georgia on June 7 ... at 81 years old.

His family and friends called him "a true legend, a force of nature, and an iconic figure who left an incredible mark on the world of professional wrestling" following his death.

His good pal, Sgt. Slaughter, also remembered him fondly in an interview with TMZ Sports.

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, meanwhile, posted a video tribute to Sheik in remembrance ... calling him "Uncle Sheiky" -- while recounting a story back when he was a rookie wrestler.

The former heavyweight champ was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2005 ... and he'll forever be known as one of the greatest heels to ever step in the squared circle.

RIP

The Chief of Hoover Police says there's no risk to public safety in the Carlee Russell disappearance case ... implying she was never abducted as claimed. Chief Nick Derzis addressed the media Wednesday to share the facts uncovered by investigators in the time since Carlee returned home.

Derzis says Carlee was captured on surveillance leaving her work, July 13, the day of her disappearance, taking a robe and toilet paper with her. She then ordered food and stopped at a Target to buy granola bars and Cheez-Its.

From there, Derzis says Russell hit the road, making a 911 call on her way to report she saw a child on the side of the freeway. He played the 911 call in full, where you hear Russell say it appears the child was 3 or 4 years old and walking in a diaper.

Derzis says his officers responded within 5 minutes of Carlee's call -- and she was nowhere to be found -- she was also the only person to report the child on the side of the road ... despite it being an area with lots of traffic.

Officers discovered Carlee's phone, wig and the food she ordered in her car ... but say the Target items, robe and toilet paper she'd taken from her workplace were gone.

As we reported, Carlee showed up two days later, July 15, at her parents' home.

Derzis says detectives were able to briefly interview Carlee who claimed when she got out of the vehicle to help the young child a man with orange hair and a bald spot came out of the woods, grabbed her, and led her over a fence and into an 18-wheeler trailer.

Carlee told cops at one point she was able to escape the trailer, and she was put in a car, blindfolded and taken to a house where she says she was forced to undress and the man and a female accomplice -- who Carlee says she never saw -- took photos.

Derzis says Carlee told them she was eventually able to escape when she was loaded into another vehicle -- running through the woods until eventually arriving at her family home.

Derzis also revealed some searches Carlee did on her phone in the days and even hours leading up to her disappearance. These included, "Do you have to pay for an Amber Alert?" "How to take money from a register without getting caught?" "Birmingham bus station?" "One-way bus ticket Birmingham to Nashville" and also the movie "Taken" about being abducted.

What's more ... Derzis says there were also searches Carlee conducted on her phone that revealed her state of mind leading up to the disappearance -- but he wasn't going to share those out of respect for her family.

Antonio Brown is horny as hell and he doesn't care who knows -- the controversial ex-NFL star just expressed his desire to have sex with Lena The Plug ... publicly asking her husband, Adam22, for permission.

The podcasting couple recently went viral after Lena filmed an XXX-rated scene with porn star Jason Luv ... the first time she worked with another man since she and Adam22 became a couple seven years ago.

If Lena and Adam decide to go down that road again, AB is volunteering as tribute ... going to Twitter to share his interest in getting in on the action.

"Lemme get next @Adam22," Brown tweeted for all to see.

Adam quickly responded ... but we're not going to include it here, 'cause it's a bit too graphic for us to share.

What we CAN say is Adam didn't flat-out say no ... and that might be because he recently told us Lena's new scene has been a cash cow, with their profits far exceeding their expectations.

It hasn't all been positive, though -- Adam and Jason have recently sparked a feud online ... with the former threatening to "expose" the porn star.

Ice Spice says she and Taylor Swift immediately hit it off when recording their hit record "Karma" ... and they still keep in contact via text to this day!!!

The "Munch" rapper relived her experience working with the pop powerhouse with Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1 ... openly admitting she was having a crummy day until her manager told her TS was requesting her for a collab.

Ice says Taylor wasn't acting Hollywood once they pulled up to the studio either ... the "Midnights" singer was actually waiting for her outside, eager to collaborate.

The song immediately became a hit when it dropped in May, and is one of the reasons Ice is tied with Morgan Wallen for most Top 10 hits in 2023.

According to Ice, Taylor keeps her LOLing at all times, dubbing her "the funniest person ever" as they still keep in frequent contact via text.

Collaborations aren't always guaranteed to create friendships, but Ice also counts her newfound partner-in-rhyme Nicki Minaj as well as Drake as mentors — and soaks up all the advice they give her!!!

Next up for Ice, is the deluxe follow-up to her debut EP "Like..?" which arrives on Friday.

The home cops raided in Vegas this week in connection with the unsolved Tupac murder belongs to the wife of a guy who says he was in the car with a man who shot and killed the late rapper.

TMZ has confirmed the address where Vegas Metro executed a search warrant Monday night ... it's owned by a woman named Paula Clemons -- who's married, we've learned, to Keefe D.

Folks familiar with Tupac lore know exactly who Keefe D is -- he's a former Crip, and for years now he's been doing interviews claiming to be the uncle of the late Orlando Anderson ... who's been suspected, at least on the streets, to have been the shooter.

Orlando and his crew -- including Keefe -- were in Vegas that night ... and Orlando was actually jumped by Tupac, Suge Knight and other Death Row affiliates at the MGM Grand. It's an altercation that was caught on surveillance video ... and many thought Orlando might have orchestrated a revenge shooting after the Mike Tyson fight that night. FWIW, Orlando himself had denied any involvement before he was killed in a shootout himself.

As for Paula, she also owned a home in Compton in the '90s ... what's interesting, in 1998, the L.A. County Sheriff's Dept. recovered a gun in the backyard of a Compton home ... a home the Sheriff's Dept. said belonged to the girlfriend of known Crip who was in Vegas the night of the murder.

As we reported, cops raided Paula's Henderson, Nevada home Monday. The reason the raid is significant is because, to obtain that warrant, police had to show a judge there was probable cause to believe there was evidence in the home connected to Tupac's murder.

Cops are not saying what they recovered from Paula's Henderson home.

We covered it all on the latest of The TMZ Podcast, available on all podcast platforms.

Ryan Cabrera just announced the gender of his baby with Alexa Bliss like an absolute rockstar ... completely destroying a guitar that revealed he and the WWE Superstar are having a girl!!

Bliss posted video of the epic reveal on her Instagram page Wednesday ... and check out the clip, everyone was fired up to see pink smoke billow through the air!!

You can see Bliss raised her hands with joy ... while Cabrera had a massive grin on his face.

"BABY GIRL!" Bliss said in a caption on the video.

The couple announced back in May they were expecting ... saying their first child would be arriving sometime in December 2023.

Hilariously, they said it was an unplanned pregnancy ... showing a photo of a baby onesie with the words "best oops ever!" on it.

Kim Kardashian's popular clothing line, Skims, has officially hit the $4 billion mark ... growing at a staggering rate -- at nearly $1B higher than last year's evaluation.

KK's brand recently grabbed another $270 mil in funding for the company -- according to The New York Times, which says helps catapult her into the new financial circle.

FYI, Skims was marked as a $3.2B company at the beginning of 2022 ... after another round of financing which brought in $240M. Kim's brand had a $1.6B evaluation just a year before that ... so clearly, things are moving up, and FAST.

What's more -- we're told the company is set to achieve net sales of $750M in 2023 -- up from the nearly $500 it hit in 2022.

In case ya forgot, Skims has only been in the game for 4 years, founded in 2019 by Kim, Emma Grede, and Jens Grede.

The shapewear line has been a staple of the apparel industry practically since it launched ... and the company even made it on TIME's List of 100 Most Influential Companies last year.

Jason Aldean's new song has been hit with loads of controversy for its lyrics and music video ... but apparently, fans are still digging it -- because it's a chart-topper.

"Try That in a Small Town" has been called out for being threatening toward people with anti-police and anti-American beliefs. The song was first released in May, but it's been climbing the charts on multiple platforms lately ... and hit the #1 spot Tuesday on iTunes for songs in the U.S.

It's also #9 on Amazon's Hot New Releases list -- and his recently released video's trending on YouTube, reaching #12 amongst all things music on the site. Remember, CMT pulled the video from its channel this week as anger ramped up.

As we reported, Jason's been getting called out for his track and the music video ... which was filmed in front of the Tennessee courthouse where an 18-year-old Black man was lynched almost 100 years ago.

Jason claimed there was no ill intention behind the lyrics, telling his fans it had nothing to do with race ... but instead was just about growing up in a tight-knit community.

Fellow singer Sheryl Crow let him have it Wednesday, saying folks in small towns are sick of the violence happening in our country -- adding his song only supports more hate in America.

We discussed the controversy surrounding the song on the latest episode of The TMZ Podcast, available on all podcast platforms.

Conor McGregor rushed away from a funeral in the UK on Tuesday evening following an incident at the gathering ... and now, cops say they're trying to figure out what exactly happened.

Footage shot from outside The Saddle Club in Birkenhead shows the UFC star, flanked by two security guards, made the swift exit after he had been inside the venue for services for a late family member.

The 35-year-old fighter looked perturbed in the clip ... as he urged some of his fans to move away from his car so he could bolt from the scene.

Club officials said McGregor had actually been jovial earlier in the day -- even sharing several photos of him smiling with other guests at the event -- but they said he "was upset by the actions of certain people attending the funeral" and left.

"Mr. McGregor's security detail decided it necessary to leave to avoid unnecessary speculation and attention," they added.

Merseyside Police, meanwhile, said they were called to the club at around 7:50 PM ... following reports of an altercation. No further details surrounding the allegations were released, however.

"Officers attended the pub and spoke to a number of people," cops said in a statement. "Further enquiries are being carried out to establish what has taken place but at this stage no complaints have been made and nobody has been arrested."

We've reached out to McGregor's for comment on the situation, but so far, no word back yet.

Post Malone is a man of his word, fulfilling a promise made to a huge fan who'd gone through a life-altering medical episode, and we've got the pics from the super sweet face-to-face.

The whole thing started last year when Garrett Belanger's sister Taylor made a Tik Tok detailing his story and Post responded. Garrett, a longtime Post Malone supporter, suffered a brain hemorrhage in 2022 -- and he's been slowly (but surely) recovering following a coma.

Post actually sent Garrett a bunch of merch and a video last August -- not long after he came out of the coma -- telling him to hit him up whenever he was ready to come to a show and rock out ... and on Monday, he finally got that chance at Post's concert in Buffalo, NY.

On Monday, Garrett, his sister Taylor, family and friends took Post up on his offer -- getting to enjoy the singer's show. We're told not only did PM get them regular tickets ... but he and his camp rolled out the red carpet for Garrett and his loved ones with VIP tickets and a backstage meet and greet.

The photos are pretty awesome -- you can see Posty and Garrett hugging it out, and Garrett looks absolutely stoked. While he can't talk or walk just yet ... Taylor says Garrett can communicate by blinking now, and he was more than aware he was meeting his idol.

In addition to the meet-and-greet ... the family brought Post a Garrett's Army shirt that he put on while posing for the pictures. Considering how long this has been in the works ... it's truly full circle.

Garrett's family has started a GoFundMe to help with his care and recovery.

Sheryl Crow is coming after Jason Aldean -- saying his heavily-criticized new song spews nothing but violence -- echoing what many online have been up in arms about.

The "All I Wanna Do" singer didn't hold back on Twitter Wednesday morning about Jason's single, "Try That In A Small Town" ... which talks about bringing anti-police and anti-American views to a small community, saying "See how far ya make it down the road."

Sheryl, who says she is from a small town, thinks people in places like that are also tired of the rise in violence in the country ... calling the song "lame."

She adds, "You should know that better than anyone having survived a mass shooting."

For those unaware, Sheryl's referring to the horrifying 2017 Las Vegas shooting at the Route 91 Harvest music festival -- Jason was performing when Stephen Paddock opened fire on the crowd from Mandalay Bay.

As we reported, Jason's been receiving hate over this track ... and he responded to the communal noise Tuesday, saying the idea that it has racist and hateful undertones is BS.

Folks were pissed about his music video, too -- which was shot in front of the Maury County Courthouse in Tennessee ... the same place where 18-year-old African-American Henry Choate was lynched in 1927.

The suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer got off on talking about the slayings and provided obscure details only the assailant would know, this according to a former escort who says she survived an encounter with him.

Rex Heuermann went on a "date" with former prostitute, Nicole Brass, first meeting her on the escort website, BackPage, which was similar to how the victims crossed paths with the Gilgo Beach murderer, Brass told the New York Daily News.

The two reportedly arranged to have dinner at Steamroom seafood restaurant in Port Jefferson, Long Island, during the height of the deadly rampage about a decade ago. While the conversation started off normal, Brass recalled it soon took a scary turn.

Brass said, "He asked me if I’m a true crime fan ... We talked briefly about other serial killers, then he said, "Have you heard of the Gilgo Beach murders? That’s when he got real weird."

She claimed Heuermann brought up the Gilgo murders, which she had been following at the time, and he became enthusiastic while revealing details of which she was completely unaware.

Brass said Heuermann specifically discussed one victim she didn't know about and "it seemed like he was talking about it from experience, not a point of view."

She continued, "It didn’t seem like somebody who feels bad when he talked about the victims. It seemed like somebody who really wanted to brag about what they did, but couldn’t."

Brass went on to say Heuermann's body language changed while he discussed the crimes, appearing as if "he was visualizing it in his head and getting off to what he was saying."

Of course, Brass wanted to get the hell out of there, so she cut the dinner short, but Heuermann insisted on her leaving with him in his car to go to a hotel room he booked. Luckily, she was able to break away from him and split.

Brass said she never reported the incident to police because she was on parole at the time for a felony drug conviction.

As for Heuermann, prosecutors identified him as the Gilgo Beach killer last week, charging him with the murders of 3 sex workers and eyeing him in a fourth slaying. Heuermann has denied any wrongdoing.

Cops are clarifying some things after Carlee Russell was recovered following a 48-hour period of her having gone missing ... and it sounds like they, too, have more questions.

Hoover PD issued a new statement with a handful of details they say they can elaborate on as the investigation continues -- the most important of which, it seems, is the fact that even now ... they say they haven't gotten any further reports about a wandering child.

Remember, this was at the crux of the case from the beginning -- Carlee called 911 on the night she disappeared ... telling dispatchers she saw a toddler walking by itself along a local highway at night, and reiterated that to family members as well before pulling over.

After that, she vanished ... only to turn up 3 days later, with not very many answers as to what happened to her -- other than her loved ones claiming she was kidnapped, that is.

There's more info HPD is relaying in their new remarks ... including the fact that they say there's residential surveillance footage that apparently shows Carlee walking down the sidewalk in her neighborhood alone -- this before she showed up to her parents' front door.

The police are also clarifying reports -- citing dispatch chatter that went over the airwaves -- of Carlee having been transported to a hospital in an unconscious state. They say that's not true ... all that happened is that somebody called 911 reporting she was unresponsive -- but they say she was, in fact, awake and speaking when paramedics actually arrived.

One last important detail ... HPD says it's waiting for Carlee to be made available for a follow-up interview, claiming they've only been able to obtain a preliminary statement from her.

On its face, it sounds like they're somewhat suspicious themselves about this whole thing -- which echoes the growing public sentiment at this point ... people are raising an eyebrow.

Thus far, her family members have stuck to the same story ... namely, that she escaped her abductors, and that she fought for her life. They've also scoffed at the notion that anybody would question what happened to her ... and yet, folks still have their doubts regardless.

Tiger Woods is no longer being sued for allegedly cooking up a scheme to toss his ex-girlfriend out of his home after they broke up.

Tiger's ex, Erica Herman, recently dropped the $30 million lawsuit she filed against his trust ... this according to new court documents obtained by The New York Post.

Erica's decision to drop the suit comes on the heels of a related legal win for Tiger ... as we reported in May, a judge ordered the case to arbitration, which is what Woods wanted.

Tiger's ex originally filed suit against his trust back in March, alleging he wrongly kicked her out of the Florida mansion they lived in together.

Remember ... Erica claimed she was living with Tiger in his Hobe Sound estate for 6 years while they were dating, with Erica claiming she performed "valuable services" for Tiger in exchange for living rent-free.

Erica claimed they had an "oral tenancy agreement" which was supposed to last 5 years after their 2022 split ... but admitted she didn't have it in writing.

She sued Tiger's trust -- the titleholder on the house -- for $30 mil because she claimed it was the "reasonable rental value" of Tiger's house for the 5 remaining years on their alleged oral agreement.

When Tiger and Erica broke up in the fall of 2022, she claims Tiger cooked up a scheme to throw her out of the home, including alleged false promises and a spontaneous vacation.

She claimed Tiger's people convinced her to pack a suitcase for a vacation without Tiger, allegedly driving her to the airport, where they allegedly told her she'd been "locked out" of the house and couldn't go back.

The son of "Good Times" star John Amos is behind bars for allegedly sending threatening texts -- including images of guns -- to John's daughter ... the latest chapter in a family war over the actor's health.

According to the docs, obtained by TMZ, John's son, K.C., was busted last weekend after his sister, Shannon, claimed he sent her a slew of concerning texts, which she says made her fear for her life.

Shannon told West Orange, NJ police her brother texted about his supposed gang affiliations, showing a handgun and a rifle. She claims he also sent her videos of him firing a handgun in an open field, and wrote, "Gonna sleep much better tonight big sis."

According to Robert Florida, a spokesperson for the Essex County Prosecutor's Office ... Shannon said K.C. suffers from bipolar disorder, which has led him to believe she hired someone to kill him -- and now she's worried he might retaliate.

As we reported, Shannon started a GoFundMe last month for her father John, claiming he's been the victim of elder abuse.

However, John told us his daughter's lying, and he's not sure why she started the fundraiser. GoFundMe scrubbed the page after the "Roots" actor declined the cash.

After that mess, Shannon said K.C. no longer has authority to make medical decisions for John -- and she's sent him a cease and desist letter regarding online comments he's made about her.

Miranda Lambert might've had good reason to go off on some front-row fans who were snapping photos at her concert -- 'cause there were half a dozen of them ... all on their feet, blocking the view of the people behind them.

One of the ladies in question -- who's now copping to being part of the group that got chastised by Lambert -- posted two pics she says were being taken right before the country singer paused her show over the weekend to give them a piece of her mind.

As you can see ... there are six women pictured here, who are at the foot of the stage, with ML right behind them -- who's trying to get the show on the road. More importantly, all of 'em are standing ... and from the looks of it, apparently blocking the view of others.

On its face ... it sure looks like they, perhaps, might've been a distraction -- that's certainly how Miranda felt anyway, proven in her mini tirade ... which her audience had backed.

Miranda actually caught flak for this ... as some felt she'd overreacted to what many presumed was a couple of girls firing off some low-key selfies during her set. However, that's clearly not the case -- it was a much larger gathering ... and a bit of a photo shoot, it seems.

BTW, the lady who posted these definitely thinks Miranda was in the wrong -- evidenced in her caption.

She writes, "These are the 2 pictures we were talking when Miranda Lambert stopped her concert and told us to sit down and not take selfies 😱." She's echoing what many said about Miranda's response -- mocking her, essentially -- but now ... ML might be vindicated!