"Second Chances" are a huge benefit of living in the United States of America. In the case of "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan and The Iron Sheik, both were released by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) days after being pulled over in a traffic stop and arrested on drug charges in New Jersey and later found themselves in the WWE Hall of Fame years later. Arrested on Tuesday, May 26, 1987, both men were released that day and were able to wrestle against each other later that evening in the main event at the Asbury Convention Center in Asbury Park. While the arrest made headlines nationally as reported by the Associated Press (AP News), and impacted both men's professional wrestling careers, both men were given second chances by Vince McMahon and the WWF.
One lasting impact involving the events of May 26. 1987, was the accidental breaking of kayfabe (the attempt of presenting the storylines in professional wrestling as genuine or authentic) by the national press when the "American Patriot" Duggan and the "Anti-American" Sheik who were currently involved in a heated rivalry were arrested together while traveling in the same vehicle. The fact that professional wrestling was entertainment was pretty much known at the time, but many professional wrestlers still maintained kayfabe and avoided each other when involved in rivalries. The Iron Sheik later attempted to reestablish kayfabe with the press by blaming Duggan for his arrest and vowed revenge, but by that time he had already been "suspended indefinitely" by the WWF. Despite this, the two wrestlers would see a rare Canal+ televised return match in Europe on October 23, 1987, which would be the last meaningful WWF televised match for the Iron Sheik until his return to the company in 1991.
While Duggan ended up winning the inaugural Royal Rumble in January 1988, the Iron Sheik would not see his WWF career return to any kind of prominence until he reemerged in March 1991 as the repackaged Iraqi sympathizer Colonel Mustafa for a short-lived resurgence, during the Gulf War.
