Jim Duggan Recalls Him & The Iron Sheik Getting Pulled Over With Marijuana & Cocaine In The Car, Vince McMahon’s Reaction, How It Impacted His Career

On the latest edition of Talk Is Jericho, Jim Duggan discussed how he and Iron Sheik were pulled over and Duggan got tickets for drinking while driving and marijuana possession and that the Iron Sheik got arrested for cocaine possession, and how he nearly got released from WWE over the incident. Highlights are below.

On how the incident started: “It was the absolute penthouse to the poop house in one afternoon, man. We flew into Newark and we were wrestling in Asbury Park and I’m standing in the rental car line and the Sheik comes up, Iron Sheik goes, ‘Duggan, baby, I ride with you to the building.’ I was like, ‘Sure, Sheiky,’ I’m a young guy, I should have known better.”

On getting pulled over by the cops with marijuana and cocaine in the car: “So I get the Sheiky in the car and we’re driving down the road, he says, ‘Maybe I get some St. Pauli Girl beer.’ I’ll never drink another St. Pauli Girl beer as long as I live. We picked them up and we’re driving down the road. I’m like, ‘Well, Sheik, I have some pot, you want to smoke a doobie?’ He’s like, ‘Yeah.’ So we burn the weed and we’re driving down on Garden State Parkway, I’m sippin’ on the beer, we go by the trooper, I’m sippin’, the trooper is like, ‘Oh my God,’ he comes pulling up behind me. I live in Louisiana, that’s got drive through daiquiri huts. So the cop, he comes up, he goes, ‘You’re drinking while driving.’ I go, ‘Yes, but I’m not drunk, I’m just sipping on a beer.’ He goes, ‘That’s illegal in New Jersey!’ ‘Oh.’ And so he goes, ‘You got anything in the car you want to declare.’ Obviously he can smell the pot. My dad was chief of police in Louisiana, you get caught with pot, the cops would take it and say, ‘Get the hell out of here, Hacksaw.’ So I said, ‘Yes sir, officer. There’s a small amount of marijuana under my seat.’ ‘Out of that car, feet back, and spread ’em!’ ‘Hooo?’ ‘U-S-A?’ Now they got me and they go over to Sheiky and he does the purse gimmick back in the day and they open it up, sitting right on top is a big gram of cocaine, so boom they pull him out of the car, now the two of us are against the cars and it’s like a police banquet, there are cops everywhere. So everyone is going down the road, ‘There’s Hacksaw Duggan and… The Iron Sheik?!?’ So now we go and I had gotten a ticket for drinking while driving and having four doobies, less than a half ounce whatever it was, so I got two tickets, but the Sheik got a felony arrest because he ended up having three grams of cocaine, so he had to go in front of a judge, but we got bonded out and we made the show that night and we didn’t tell anybody.”

On Vince McMahon’s reaction to the incident: “My next call was to Vince, and I’ll remember verbatim what he said to me. And usually you called Vince, especially me, I’m on hold for half an hour. ‘Jim Duggan for Vince McMahon.’ Click, click. ‘Jim?’ I remember he goes, ‘Jim, what have you done to us?’ And I said, ‘Vince, I’m embarrassed and ashamed.’ He says, ‘Turn in your tickets and go home.’ Boom, and slammed the phone down. And I flew home, what an unbelievable shot to my career, I was lucky to survive it. And I went home and I went crazy, I’m surprised my wife stayed. I got a big softball of cocaine, I was drinking whiskey, if a rabbit ran through my backyard, pow, pow, pow, pow. Choppin’ down trees. Because, I achieved my goal, you worked so far, you had the opportunity, all of a sudden, I’m on top of the world at WrestleMania III, and one stupid move, boom, I flushed it all down the toilet, everything.”

On how his career was never the same after the incident: “I went off for awhile. Finally I realized I had to do something, go back to work, so I called Dusty down at WCW and I set a meeting up with Dusty, but before I went down, Prichard called me and said, ‘Don’t do nothing drastic, we’re gonna bring you back, just keep your head down.’ And they brought me back, but like I said again, they never, they kept me strong, obviously working with Andre and stuff, they kept me really strong, but I never had the momentum that I had if I didn’t screw up. So it was a big shot to my career.”

If using any of the above quotes, please credit Talk Is Jericho with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.