Known for his prolific career as pro Wrestler and manager General Adnan during the 1970s through the 1990s for the AWA and WWE (formerly WWF). In 1991, he competed against Hulk Hogan and the Ultimate Warrior at SummerSlam as part of an Iraqi tag team that included the Iron Sheik.
He began his amateur US wrestling career at Oklahoma State University in 1958. His first gimmick for the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF; now WWE) was in the 1970's as the Native American character Billy White Wolf.
He defeated Andre the Giant in a wrestling match at Al-Shaab Stadium in Baghdad, Iraq in 1971. In June 2005, his memoir The Sheik of Baghdad: Tales of Celebrity and Terror from Pro Wrestling's General Adnan was published.
His father was a Muslim preacher, which is known as an imam, in Iraq.
He has claimed repeatedly throughout his career that he was high school classmates with Saddam Hussein.
