Signs of American self-hatred — even then, even there…
In recent years his manager has reanimated his patter in an attempt to re-monetize it, but it was the Iron Sheik’s 1985 title defense against Hulk Hogan that reverberated through history. If Argo was a simplified, fictionalized, rock-tumbler-smooth version of US/Iran relations, this match was the sharp and incongruous bits left over: the sub-verbal, ambivalent and angry parts — the spirited nonsense with a whole lot of addled 1980s rubbed on it.
While Hogan played the Reagan-American — entitled, brash, duplicitous, desperate for love (“now Hogan is spitting on the Sheik and the crowd loves it!”) — the Sheik was plucky champion turned underdog; hated heel putting on a doomed show.
