Jake “The Snake” Roberts remembers a funny story about the legendary Iron Sheik.
Roberts paid his respects to the recently deceased Sheik during an appearance on Busted Open Radio, where he recalled a time in the 1970s that they were driving to a show and almost came to blows due to a misunderstanding.
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.’
The Snake says he let Sheik get out of the car, then immediately drove away to let him cool off. He later explained to Sheik that due to the difference in languages he wasn’t insulting him but complimenting him.
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.
Numerous members of the pro-wrestling industry have been paying their respects to the Iron Sheik following his passing. You can read their tributes here.
(H/T and transcribed by Fightful)