The Iron Sheik

 

Another professional wrestler, from the era I first became a fan of the WWF, has passed away.

The Iron Sheik was one of the main baddies in the early 1980s WWF and was even the person Hulk Hogan defeated to become the WWF Champion for the first time.

I have read a handful of wrestling autobiographies lately and The Iron Sheik has been featured in a lot of them due to how he was around some of the people I've read.

He was a very good friend of 'Superstar' Billy Graham, whose autobiography I revisited following Graham's passing a few weeks ago. I have also read Bob Backlund's book recently. Sheik is an important part to Backlund's story because Backlund's lengthy reign as the WWF Champion ended at the hands of The Iron Sheik.. and a white towel.

In his later years, Sheik had, for want of a better word: renaissance. Suffering from some personal tragedies and drug problems, Sheik became somewhat of a cult figure by being a loose cannon in interviews. It was hard to determine what was and wasn't a work due to the aforementioned issues I referred to.

I felt that The Iron Sheik was used - and enabled - by certain individuals who preyed on his mental health.

Another thing I detested about Sheik's later years is the Twitter account. It was obvious he wasn't behind the tweets yet someone who had been given authority to use Sheik's name would write as if they were Sheik to play on the unbalanced person - or character - that Sheik had become.

I was not a fan of that whatsoever because it humoured his apparent issues. And a lot of people actually believed Sheik was writing those tweets. That made it all the more sad and troubling.