Hoodslam wrestling events are filled with storylines that would never survive the WWE writing room. At the end of 2014, Sam Khandaghabadi had an idea that felt transgressive — even for Hoodslam. What if they did a drag wrestling night? OnlyAGameNPR
Seated on a couch, chain-smoking cigarettes in a leather jacket, Sam ran through a list of skills and credits that served as a kind of resume to start Hoodslam.
That feeling of being other was accentuated when Sam’s mother passed away from cancer when Sam was just 10. Sam retreated inward, in a home now overflowing with grief. When Sam was in eighth grade, the Khandaghabadis moved to Northern California’s East Bay. Sam found there was a value in seeming like you didn’t care and got tough and wild — sunglasses, baseball hats, a beard, and whatever drugs were in reach.
“And they actually had all these creative names like 'Sheik Osama,' or 'Sim Sim Salabim.' I'll never forget that one," Sam says."All kinds of fun ideas of what my name should be. But I, luckily, put my foot down on there and was able to choose a name I was not so embarrassed by: Sheik Khan Abadi, which is a play off of my last name, Khandaghabadi.”
"It went from maybe 20 people the first few shows, to over 200 people and, like, overflowing out of that venue within a year," Sam says. Sam wanted a night of wrestling — a sport defined by over-the-top performative masculinity — where fans and wrestlers alike would be their most feminine selves. So, Sam pitched the idea to the locker room of wrestlers. It would be called “Femmed Out.”
"And what he said to me was, 'If you feel like you can't live in this body another moment, like you would rather die than be who you are, then that's how you know. And if otherwise, you're probably not.' And I did not feel that way," Sam says."So, I kind of put it back to the side and ignored it for a little bit. And, you know, I had all these other things I wanted to kill myself about, so that one hadn't made its way to the front yet.
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