DARK Sheik is a powerhouse in professional wrestling. In 2010, the independent star founded the promotion HOODSLAM. The Bay Area-based independent promotion highlights various wrestlers usually overlooked by the mainstream wrestling industry, including many pro-pot figures, herself included.
Starting her in-ring career in 2001, DARK Sheik (Sam Khandaghabadi) built a reputation in the wrestling scene for her vibrant persona and impressive in-ring performances, earning 11 championships through various promotions throughout the United States, Canada, England, Finland, and Japan. Beyond titles, she champions wrestling fans to be their authentic selves, with her Trans pride and Persian culture proudly on display.
DARK Sheik has cultivated a reputation for her creative approaches to combining cannabis and the art of professional wrestling. A prime example is the innovative match stipulations in HOODSLAM, such as the “Smoklahoma Iron Lung Challenge” match, where whichever team finishes the blunt wins.
For DARK Sheik, cannabis is more than just a personal preference; it’s a key component of her creativity, helping fulfill her goal of providing a space for performers and fans to enjoy the art of professional wrestling and occasionally share a blunt in the process.
In this interview, she shares how cannabis became part of HOODSLAM’s DNA, the importance of authenticity in wrestling, and the unique bond formed with fans over a shared blunt.
Cannabis & Tech Today: You’re a prominent figure in the wrestling industry. You’ve opened doors for many marginalized individuals in this space, especially with your promotion that you created with HOODSLAM. Talk to me about what your goals have been in hood slam.
DARK Sheik: At first it was kind of like I’d been wrestling already for like 10 years or some big number of years. I kind of reached a point where I was like, I don’t want to do this for any reason other than I like it.’ I traveled around. I spent, like, almost a year in Florida. That was a big mistake trying to be around the centers and the places where wrestling was happening. And I was like, ‘I’d much rather just go back to California, do something at home.’
I wanted to enjoy myself. I didn’t want to be like, ‘I’m trying to get signed or I want so and so to like this.’ It was for my enjoyment, for the wrestlers’ enjoyment. Let’s get back to ‘why did you want to be a wrestler? what’s fun for you today?…Let’s see what brings us joy.’
That was my mission to the HOODSLAM roster, and to get a lot of these names out more because, you know, now there’s streaming and everything and as long as you have a social media, you have an opportunity. But, back then…we were a little removed from people getting VHSs of their matches at that point. So, you had to make a big bang to really get anyone to look over in your direction. It couldn’t just be good wrestlers. It had to be something different, something new. And you know, maybe even something successful, beyond a wrestling crowd into like date night. Like ‘it’s Friday and I’m out in town and I’ve worked all week and I want to spend my money somewhere fun, but not to go to a high school gym and be put off by some weird super fan yelling at me,’ crazy stuff in front of children and like a church, you know?
No, let’s go to a nightclub. Let’s have some drinks. Let’s do a 21 and up. Let’s smoke weed. And yeah, apparently it’s gone well because we’re on year 14 now. I guess we did something right.
C&T Today: And with that connection with HoodSlam and cannabis come about? Was that always a part of the goal to have it be such an open space, especially with different shows and different characters that appear?
DS: Yes, absolutely. I used to work at what at the time was called a cannabis club. I guess now you’d call it a dispensary. Or you definitely would not, I guess. But it was like for doctor’s notes only. They were a lot harder to get back then.
I thought, ‘wouldn’t it be cool if we did a show where the patients could medicate while watching performances.’ So I was trying to get that together with the place I worked and they liked the idea, but they just never…So, I had a lot of leftover ideas from that to then apply to HOODSLAM…It should feel like a concert and not like a sporting event or like the Olympics or something.
So bringing cannabis into that was part of that party atmosphere. Wrestlers do all kinds of things, intake all kinds of stuff, and put it in their body sometimes, and they can be very judgmental. But I wanted to show them, like, ‘hey, the way you think it’s okay to have four energy drinks before you body slam me, or get your buddy to inject something in your butt…I’m gonna have a little joint. We’re all just getting to where we want to be.
C&T Today: When a fan hands you a blunt or a joint, what does that mean to you to have that connection with the fans through cannabis?
DS: I mean, it’s everything because it’s super cool for one that people would feel like that’s a nice thing they want to do for me. I’m always blown away by it. It’s always very flattering and more just the way, like, breaking bread with someone. You know, burning a bowl with someone or sharing a blunt with someone is a way that we can bond, share an experience and enjoy the same thing at the same time.
A lot of times it’s something that they give me and I have to do later because like I’m immediately departing to a hotel as soon as they make me stop selling merch. So, unfortunately I don’t always get to smoke with the person, but I remember that when I think about it, when I smoke it, and there’s a little moment of communion between me, the person, the weed, and the universe. So, it means everything. It’s so cool.
This was an excerpt from our interview featuring Alex Lajas and DARK Sheik. Visit cannatechtoday.com for the full interview.
