In mid-1974, Putski worked briefly with the American Wrestling Association.
Putski debuted in the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) in 1974. While in the WWWF, Putski feuded with many wrestlers, including Bruiser Brody, Stan Hansen and Ivan Koloff. On June 25, 1976 at Showdown at Shea, Putski defeated Baron Mikel Scicluna. Four years later on August 9, Putski was again victorious at the next Showdown at Shea, defeating Johnny Rodz.
On October 22, 1979, Putski teamed with Tito Santana to defeat Johnny and Jerry Valiant to win the WWF World Tag Team Championship. They held the title for six months before losing it to The Wild Samoans.
Putski worked in the renamed World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in the 1980's, primarily feuding with Roddy Piper and Sgt. Slaughter. In November 1985, Randy Savage defeated Ivan Putski in the opening round of the Wrestling Classic. He took a hiatus from wrestling in 1986, only making occasional appearances in the WWF as a jobber to the stars. His last high-profile feud was in 1984 with Jesse Ventura. His final appearance was in 1987, teaming on television with Junkyard Dog and Superstar Billy Graham in tag team matches. He then retired from the sport.
In 1995, Putski was inducted into the WWF Hall of Fame class of 1995 by his son, Scott. The father-and-son team returned in July 1997 to defeat Jerry Lawler and Brian Christopher on Raw is War, in what would be Putski's final match.