13 Things We Learned From Dark Side Of The Ring: The Original Sheik

13. He Only Answered To Sheik

Not many people got away with calling Ed...Ed.

Sabu said that even Farhat’s grandkids called him Sheik: “If you called him anything else, he wouldn’t answer to it”. That’s how far The Sheik would go to protect his gimmick. He was obsessed with heaping on more mystery surrounding his wild man brawling style and protecting the pro wrestling biz as a whole. There were very few exceptions, if any.

Jim Cornette told VICE that he’d hang up if you called his house and “asked for Ed". That might've cost the guy a few bookings here or there earlier on his career! Meanwhile, Sabu recalls family dinners with wrestlers. They'd have heels at one table, babyfaces at another (in separate rooms, of course). That was fascinating to the future 'Homicidal Maniac'.

According to Sabu, his uncle “would always kayfabe, even when it wasn’t necessary”. This became a way of life for Farhat. Many wrestlers followed similar protocol during the 1950s, 60s, 70s and 80s, but few were willing to go quite as far as Ed. Sorry, Sheik. He remained in character each and every time he was out in public, which meant there were only scant clips of the man behind the terrifying persona on this week's 'Dark Side Of The Ring'.

VICE won big by getting their hands on some of this archived footage and personal family photographs though. Seeing Farhat play with his grandchildren or stick his tongue out during family get-togethers humanised him to the viewer. That was honestly needed, otherwise this would've turned into a routine wrestling character study and nothing more.