Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts Recalls An Early Career Misunderstanding With The Iron Sheik

Stories about The Iron Sheik continue to pour in.

On June 7, Hossein Khosrow Ali Vaziri, also known as The Iron Sheik, passed away at the age of 81. In the days since, many in the wrestling community have come forward to share their favorite memories of The Iron Sheik.

Appearing on Busted Open, Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts opened up about an early career misunderstanding between him and Sheik that almost resulted in a roadside fight. 

“We were driving, this was back in 1975, and he was new to wrestling. He was also new to the English language. He didn’t understand some things. You could say something and it’d be good even though it sounds like it’s bad. I think I called him a bad son of a b*tch. He freaking lost it. I was driving the car and he was like, ‘You motherf**ker, I can’t believe you call Sheiky Baby bad son of a b*tch. Pull the car over, I’m going to teach you some respect. I’m going to f**k you in the a**. I’m like, ‘Oh my God. What’s wrong? I called you a bad son of a b*tch.’ So, I pull the car over and he jumped out and ripped his shirt off and said, ‘Come on!’ I just put the car in drive and drove off. I went down the road about a mile and he came walking up and I looked at him and he says, ‘Ah, Jake, my best friend. I can’t believe you leave The Sheiky Baby.’ But he didn’t understand that you could say one thing, but with the difference in languages, you call somebody a bad son of a b*tch in their language that means you’re a piece of sh*t. But in our language it means you’re a bad motherf**ker,” Roberts said.

You can read MVP’s tribute to The Iron Sheik here and learn why he earned the nickname of The Gimmick Man.

More reactions to The Iron Sheik’s passing can be found by clicking here.

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