10 Biggest Wrestling Scandals Of The 1980s
7. Duggan And Sheik Arrested
On the subject of kayfabe, one of the biggest threats it faced in the 1980s came from two dudes hanging out and getting high.
Jim Duggan was one of WWE’s biggest babyfaces, a patriotic hero who always fought for what was good and just. Conversely, The Iron Sheik was a textbook example of a foreign heel, bad to the bone. That’s what made it awkward when, in May 1987, the two were pulled over by New Jersey State Police. The cops found that the pair were both on drugs, but that wasn’t even the worst part.
Faces and heels were strictly prohibited from travelling together, in order to preserve the illusion of real-life animosity. Duggan and Sheik had just broken wrestling’s cardinal rule and this simply could not stand. Both men were fired from the company, although both would return shortly thereafter.
While kayfabe was still sacred within the wrestling business, the outside world was beginning to get wise to the act. The practice was always going to fade out, but incidents like this are a reminder of just how seriously it was still taken at the time.