The Sheikh of Baghdad: Tales of Celebrity and Terror from Pro Wrestling's General Adnan

by Adnan Al-Kaissy and Ross Bernstein

Saddam Hussein used a boyhood friend of his as a smoke screen when he was grabbing control of Iraq in the 1960s. Knowing that the country was enamored with wrestling, Hussein forced his former classmate, Adnan Al-Kaissy, to wrestle in giant spectacles that the public loved. Much like the gladiator matches staged by Roman Caesars, Hussein's wrestling matches featuring Al-Kaissy were intended to entertain and appease the masses while Hussein became dictator. Al-Kaissy became a living legend in Iraq, amassing great wealth and popularity, but he left all of that - and more than $2 million in the bank--when he fled in the middle of the night and bribed his way out of the country. Al-Kaissy became known to generations of wrestling fans in U.S. as "Chief Billy White Wolf", "The Sheik" and most famously as "General Adnan." No other celerity has a story similar to Al-Kaissy's, and his autobiography will keep sports fans and political enthusiasts equally raptured.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1572437308
• ISBN13: 9781572437302
• Release Date: April 2005
• Publisher: Triumph Books (IL)
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.3" x 9.2"