Andre The Giant Received A Scary Message From An Infamous World Dictator

Few wrestlers are as mythical, or sad, as WWE Hall of Fame Andre the Giant. And not just from his WWE run either. Though Andre has become best known for his WWE exploits, including his battles the latter half of his career with Hulk Hogan, Andre was a world renowned performer who became a star in every territory, or country, he went to. It's because of this that his matches with Antonio Inoki for New Japan Pro Wrestling or El Canek for the Universal Wrestling Association in Mexico — matches that featured Inoki and Canek slamming Andre in a similar way Hogan had — are remembered just as much his legendary WWE moments. Alas, not every trek Andre made to foreign soil proved to be as fruitful; in fact, one such event almost could've led to Andre missing out on key moments of his Hall of Fame career.

In the early 1970s, a mid-20s Andre was not yet a household name in the wrestling business, particularly in the United States. Things gradually improved, however, thanks to his work in other countries, with Andre finding success for Japan's International Wrestling Enterprise, Canada's Grand Prix and Maple Leaf Wrestling, and several European promotions, where he wrestled under the names Jean Ferrer, Monster Roussimoff, and his real name Andre Roussimoff. During this time, Andre wound up taking a rather interesting booking, one that took him to the Middle East sometime between 1970 and 1971. That booking saw Andre wrestle in Baghdad, Iraq's Al-Sha'ab Stadium, in a match against another future WWE star, Adnan Al-Kaissie.

Best remembered as General Adnan, a compatriot of Sgt. Slaughter during the latter's controversial turn as an Iraqi sympathizer during the height of the first Iraq War, Adnan had already carved out a successful wrestling career in the U.S. and England before returning to his home country to promote wrestling. Under normal circumstances, his match with Andre would've been classic pro wrestling; the hometown hero vanquishing the villainous foreign giant in a hard fought battle. But things changed thanks to future Iraqi dictator, and Adnan's former high school classmate, Saddam Hussein. Then the Vice President of Iraq, Hussein had kept in touch with Adnan and followed his career, though he remained ignorant to the fact that wrestling was scripted entertainment. 

As such, prior to Adnan and Andre's match, he produced a gold pistol to Adnan during a conversation, stating that Andre would be "sent back to France in a pine box" if Adnan didn't win the match. While Adnan had booked himself to beat Andre in a two out of three falls match, he had done so with Andre winning the first fall. Fearing for Andre's safety, as well as his own, if they had stuck to the original plan, legend has it that Adnan immediately grabbed Andre in a headlock as the match started, and informed Andre that he would be losing in two consecutive falls. Andre offered no protest, and Adnan would win in two falls, though there was still gunfire after the match, as the audience, made up of Iraqi soldiers, fired their guns in celebration, briefly making Andre fear for his safety. In the end, both Adnan and Andre made it out alive, and by 1972, Andre had begun working for WWE, then the World Wide Wrestling Federation. The rest is history.