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PWInsider.com is saddened to report that former AWA and WWF star Adnan bin Abdul Kareem Ahmed Alkaissy El Farthie, known professionally as Sheik Adnan Al-Kaissey and Gen. Adnan during his WWF run, passed away earlier today at 89 years old. His passing was announced by former WWF and AWA announcer Ken Resnick, who wrote, "So deeply saddened to learn that my friend of 40 years, the legendary Sheik Adnan Al-Kaissey/Gen. Adnan passed away this morning. May you rest in peace “ my brother”."
Born in Iraq, Alkaissy was actually best friends with future Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in High School, where he was an amateur wrestler as awell as a football player. His football skills led to him receiving a scholarship to play at the University of Houston before he moved to Oklahoma State University. As a wrestler, he almost qualified for the U.S. Olymouc team.
Alkaissy moved into professional wrestling in the late 1950s and early 1960s, billed as Native American competitor Billy White Wolf. He wrestled mostly in the Pacific Northwest and Oklahoma during that time period and in the 1960s, becoming an American citizen in 1964.
As Billy White Wolf, Alkaissy held the WWWF Tag Team Championship with another “Native American” Chief Jay Strongbow in 1976. After suffering a neck injury and needing surgery, WWWF ran an angle where Ken Patera, a massive heel at the time, broke his neck with the swinging neckbreaker, forcing the titles to be vacated.
Alkaissy also worked for Eddie Graham’s Championship Wrestling from Florida and in Hawaii, feuding with Tor Kamata. He toured New Japan Pro Wrestling in the mid-1970s, working against the likes of Osamu Kido, Haruka Eigen and Antonio Inoki, often teaming with Nikolai Volkoff and billed as The Sheik of Sheiks of Baghdad. He also worked for WCW in Australia.
Alkaissy produced live wrestling in Iraq in the 1970s, wrestling the likes of Bob Roop (who wrote a book about the experience) and Andre the Giant there. While he enjoyed tremendous success and financial rewards from the events and was the most popular wrestler in the country, he left in 1980 out of fear for his life. Hussein, already building a reputation of being paranoid of potential political rivals, saw anyone with legitimate popularity could be seen as a future threat. Overhearing conversations that led him to believe his life could be endangered, Alkaissy escaped and returned to the United States.
Having returned to the United States, where tensions with the Middle East were running rampant during the Ronald Reagan era, the character of Sheik Adnan El Kaissey soon debuted for Verne Gagne’s AWA, playing the role of an atypical evil oil mogul out to destroy the American way of life. After a run with AWA World Champion Nick Bockwinkel, he shifted over to managing and wrestling, overseeing Ken Patera and Jerry Blackwell’s careers. The duo won the AWA World Tag Team titles.
As Sheik Adnan El Kaisse, he was a big foil to Verne Gagne, losing to him in some of the AWA’s milestone events, including the April 1983 Super Sunday event, where Mad Dog Vachon and Gagne defeated The Sheik and Blackwell. At WrestleRock ‘86, The Midnight Rockers won a steel cage match over Boriz Zukov and Al Kaisee.
When the WWF opted to turn long-time American hero and G.I. Joe star Sgt. Slaughter heel to play off of the Iraq War in 1991 as the heel opponent for Hulk Hogan at Wrestlemania VII, Adnan was brought in as Slaughter’s manager. The storyline was seen as tasteless, but the matches between Hogan and Slaughter were very good for the most part with Adnan and later Col. Mustafa (The Iron Sheik) running interference. Adnan even wrestled Hogan in a USA Network special building to Wrestlemania VIII, with the irony being that he, who had escaped Hussein, was now portraying a sympathizer to the dictator.
Adnan wrestled his first and only WWF PPV main event at Summerslam 1991 in Madison Square Garden where he, Mustafa and Slaughter battled and lost to Hulk Hogan and The Ultimate Warrior in a handicap match billed as “The Match Made in Hell”, the counterpart to Randy Savage marrying Elizabeth that evening in “The Match Made in Heaven.” After Slaughter was turned babyface, declaring that he “wanted” his country back, Gen. Adnan closed out his run managing Col. Mustafa.
After the WWF departure, Al-Kassie wrote a book about his career and made appearances managing in the Paul Alperstein version of the AWF, working with Bob Orton, Manny Fernandez, Mr. Hughes and others. He regularly did convention and signing appearances with his last being TMart Promotions’ The Gathering several years ago in Charlotte, NC.
Our deepest condolences to the family, friends and fans of Adnan Al-Kaissey.
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