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Those were the words of the Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer. The man he was writing about was 1996 Hall of Fame inductee Ed Farhat, known to wrestling fans worldwide simply as The Sheik, one of the most fascinating, feared, and influential characters in wrestling history.
Though he was billed from Syria, Farhat was born and raised in Lansing, Michigan, and played college football for Michigan. In 1950, he began wrestling as The Sheik of Araby in Chicago.
The gimmick was an immediate success. Prior to each match, The Sheik would pray to Allah and mistreat his attractive “Slave Girl” to raise the ire of the crowd. For more than five decades, Farhat lived the Sheik gimmick inside and outside the ring. He never spoke or did interviews, and insisted friends and family refer to him as “The Sheik” in public and private. Through his eccentric behavior and unquenchable bloodlust, The Sheik created an aura of mystery and fear that made him one of wrestling’s top draws of the 1960s and 1970s.
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Even at the end of his career, fans fled in terror from their seats whenever this sadistic madman headed their way with fire.
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The Sheik was a top attraction in Detroit and Toronto, two hotbeds of the territory era. Once a match was underway, Sheik would tear into his opponent with a blinding rage, ripping into his flesh with his teeth, fingernails, or weapons such as pencils. Sometimes he even taped razor blades to the fingers on his right hand and left both opponents and referees bloody before order could be restored. When that didn’t work, The Sheik brought out his secret weapon: the fireball.
Once The Sheik beat the fight out of an opponent, he would try to clamp on his variation of the camel clutch until the referee stopped the contest.
In 1969, Sheik was legitimately banned for life in New York by the State Athletic Commission after he caused a riot following a bloody match with Bruno Sammartino. The contest had to be stopped for blood in the third fall, and thousands of fans tried to avenge Bruno by going after The Sheik themselves.
On February 6, 1965, The Sheik defeated Johnny Valentine to win a version of the U.S. title (a championship he would hold 12 times) in Detroit. Incredibly, The Sheik would hold that title until May 29, 1971, when he finally dropped the belt to long-time nemesis Bobo Brazil.
Making that title reign even more impressive was the fact that Sheik went undefeated in main event matches in Toronto for some 109 matches during that time, scoring wins over the likes of fellow Hall of Famers Andre the Giant, Sammartino, Harley Race, Abdullah the Butcher, Dusty Rhodes, Terry and Dory Funk Jr., and Giant Baba.
Fans nationwide exchanged hushed tales of Sheik’s latest atrocities, and gory photos of his victims graced magazine covers. When The Sheik toured Florida, Texas, or California, fans frequently sold out venues in hopes of being there when the sadistic Syrian would get his long-deserved comeuppance.
While The Sheik was an undisputed draw, some promoters also saw him as a major headache. Once he hit the ring, pandemonium ensued. But he was also known to those who knew the real man as a big spender who was generous with those he considered friends.
The Sheik also became a major star in Japan, where he attacked fans and devoured the flowers that were ceremonially presented to main-eventers before their bouts. In 1977, he teamed with Abdullah the Butcher in a nine-team tournament and wrestled a splatterfest match against the Funks that made all four men a little more famous.
The Sheik continued to compete on independent cards for decades after his prime. In 1992, he nearly died when the ring caught fire in, appropriately, a “Ring Of Fire” match pitting Sheik and Sabu, his nephew, against Atsushi Onita and Tarzan Goto. The Sheik suffered third-degree burns, yet he was back in action less than one month later.
His last major U.S. match took place in ECW on February 5, 1994, as he teamed with Pat Tanaka to beat Kevin Sullivan and Tasmaniac (Tazz) after hitting Tasmaniac with a fireball.
The Sheik’s final appearance at a wrestling card was December 11, 1998, at Korakuen Hall in Japan, where he was honored with a retirement ceremony. Intent to give the fans what they wanted, the 72-year-old wrestler put on the old show and teased attacking fans and menaced them with fire.
Ed Farhat died on January 19, 2003, at age 76 after being in poor health for several years. We can only hope he did so knowing that The Sheik’s legacy as wrestling’s all-time greatest heel remains secure.
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| Sheik’s last match occurred in 1996, when he made quick (and bloody) work of Damien in Japan. |
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