Remember When: Jim Duggan & Iron Sheik Almost Killed Kayfabe By Getting Arrested Together

TheSportster

By Josh Coulson

Published Dec 1, 2018

There was a time in wrestling were heels and faces were forbidden from traveling together. That's why this story was bad news on so many levels.

Jim Duggan has never been Iron Sheik's biggest fan, and he probably went off him even more when the pair got arrested together.

If you're anything more than a casual wrestling fan, you will have likely heard the accusation from older wrestlers that the business today has killed kayfabe. That thanks to the internet, podcasts, and interviews, fans know everything that's going on behind the scenes. That just because two wrestlers hate each other in the ring, it doesn't mean they're not best friends once the cameras are off.

25 to 30 years ago, wrestlers were dedicated to keeping kayfabe alive. Wrestlers who hated each other for the sake of an on-screen angle may have been friends backstage, but by no means could they ever let the fans know that. Heels and faces weren't allowed to travel in the same cars together. Plus, when on tours, WWE would supply two buses, one for the heels and one for the faces.

That's why when Jim Duggan and Iron Sheik were pulled over and arrested in 1987, it was a big problem for a number of reasons. Mainly because Duggan had marijuana in the car and Sheik had three grams of cocaine, but not just that. Anyone who knows either of these wrestlers' histories will be very aware that at the time, Duggan was a face and Sheik was a heel. They shouldn't have been traveling together at all.

What's even worse for Hacksaw, as he explains in the video above courtesy of The Hannibal TV, is he didn't even actually like Sheik. "The worst thing about that whole arrest with me and the Iron Sheik is that folks think me and the Sheik are friends," Duggan explains. He probably disliked Sheik even more after the fact as it was the former WWE Champion who had cocaine on him which obviously made the whole situation that much worse.

Duggan and Sheik might not have killed kayfabe that night, but it certainly derailed Hacksaw's career. Duggan had only been with WWE for a few months at that point and believed he was going to lose his job, even calling WCW to see if he could get a job there. He would return later that year though and even won the 1988 Royal Rumble match. However, Duggan believes had the above incident never happened, he would have won championship gold in WWE.

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