10 Awesome Facts From The Iron Sheik’s Documentary

6. He Was Constantly Getting Legit Heat From The Crowd

When it comes to really p*ssing off a crowd, there have been few people in the wrestling industry as the Iron Sheik. Due to a combination of real-world circumstances and his own commitment to character, the Iron Sheik character was able to capitalize on real-world Islamophobia and tension vis-à-vis the Iran Hostage Crisis, and amplify the hatred towards his pro-Iran character a hundredfold. The results were one of the most hated wrestlers in the entire history of professional wrestling. According to Jimmy Hart, who makes a cameo appearance in the film, when he and Sheik were doing a radio interview together, a man and his father came down to the station and brought their guns with them, and were going to shoot both Hart and Sheik, but thankfully the duo escaped thanks to a police escort. As another example, in Madison Square Garden, Sheik had such serious heat that people would wait outside for him, and he feared that they would hurt him. So Vince McMahon had him leave in ambulances to get to his hotel room, and other creative measures had to be taken. While most fans today know that WWE is scripted by nature and aren€™t likely to do something drastic like attack a wrestler, things were very different during Sheik€™s era. He was a genius in getting heat from the crowd, and set the standard for how good a heel can be for decades to come.