Brian Adams (wrestler)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources.
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. (help, get involved!)
This article has been tagged since February 2007.

This article is about the professional wrestler. For other people with a similar name, see Brian Adams.

Brian Adams


Statistics
Ring name(s)	Demolition Crush Crush Kona Crush Brian Adams B.A. The Demon
Billed height	6 ft 6 in (198 cm)
Billed weight	315 lb (143 kg)
Born	April 14, 1964 Kona, Hawaii
Trained by	Tatsumi Fujinami Antonio Inoki
Debut	1986
Retired	2003

Brian Adams (born April 14, 1964 in Kona, Hawaii) is a former actor and professional wrestler who performed for the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and World Championship Wrestling (WCW). He has had several gimmicks, the most notable of which is Crush.

1 Career
2 Boxing Career (2002)
3 Post wrestling career(2003)
4 Wrestling facts
5 Championships and accomplishments

[edit] Career

[edit] Early career in PNW

Brian Adams started wrestling in 1986 in Portland, Oregon's Pacific Northwest Wrestling. Starting out with the nickname "American Ninja", he was in a tag team called The Wrecking Crew with The Grappler, better known as Len Denton. They held the Pacific Northwest Tag Team title and feuded with Steve Doll and Rex King, among other teams. He also captured the Pacific Northwest Heavyweight title in 1990, defeating Larry Oliver in a tournament final in Portland on April 21, 1990. He lost the title to Scott Norton on May 12, 1990 in Portland.

[edit] World Wrestling Federation: The First Stint (1990-1991)

The popular tag team Demolition needed a third member to substitute for Ax, who was suffering from health problems. In 1990, Brian Adams was introduced as Crush, the third member of Demolition, turning the tag team into a stable. After Ax left the team, Crush is considered to have been awarded one-half of the WWF World Tag Team Championship as Demolition Ax and Smash had been the reigning champions. However, the debut of the Road Warriors in the WWF later that year, along with the absence of founding Demolition member Ax, greatly diminished the popularity of Demolition; who were widely regarded as an imitation of the Warriors, and the stable was soon disbanded.

[edit] Return to PNW (1991-1992)

Adams, still using the Demolition Crush gimmick, returned to PNW after leaving the WWF and won a second Pacific Northwest Heavyweight title on October 12, 1991 in Portland by defeating Rip Oliver by submission to the full Nelson, sending Oliver into retirement due to a neck injury inflicted by the hold. This time around, Adams was a more dominant champion, defending the title until he lost it to Ron Harris on January 18, 1992 in Portland. He also teamed with former rival Steve Doll to win the Pacific Northwest Tag Team title, upending The Bruise Brothers for the championship on July 27, 1991 in Portland.

[edit] World Wrestling Federation: The Second Stint (1992-1998)

After later returning to the WWF, he had numerous other gimmicks as Crush, including a surfing Hawaiian, an evil ally of Japan, and a biker. He was a member of the Nation of Domination and later the leader of the Disciples of Apocalypse. He also wrestled with Road Warrior Animal as the New Legion of Doom after Road Warrior Hawk was released due to substance abuse problems, but the duo was only used on house shows and never made it to television.

As a singles wrestler, Crush was first known as good-hearted surfing strongman from Hawaii who often wore bright fluorescent colours and used a head-vice finishing move known as the 'Cranium Crunch' aka 'Kona Crush'. While he retained the same name from his Demolition days, his history with the tag team was never mentioned. He first feuded with his former tag team partner Smash (who at the time was Repo Man) and the two clashed at the 1992 Summerslam (although it was never mentioned on-screen that the two were former tag team partners). Crush then engaged in a feud with Doink The Clown which began when the prankster Doink attacked Crush with a prosthetic arm. The rivalry culminated at Wrestlemania IX where it was revealed that there were in-fact two Doinks. In 1993 Crush was injured in a WWF Title Match match by Yokozuna and had to take several months off (kayfabe). When he returned in autumn, he attacked his onscreen friend Randy Savage because Savage had failed to contact him during his convalescence. Crush dropped Savage on the guardrail giving him a lacerated tongue, and allied himself with Yokozuna, Mr. Fuji and Japan. This led to a falls count anywhere match at WrestleMania X. During that time, he changed his trademark florescent colors to purple, silver and black, began painting his face and was sometimes referred to as Kona Crush.

After an absence from WWF TV and a brief return at the 1995 Royal Rumble; Adams was arrested and jailed for purchasing steroids and owning an illegal stun gun in Hawaii. This led to his release from the WWF as Vince McMahon enacted a no tolerance drug policy following his 1994 acquittal on federal charges of steroid distribution. His incarceration was introduced as part of a storyline on Monday Night RAW when Crush was brought back to the WWF at the beginning of the Monday Night Wars in 1996. Crush was at first managed by Clarence Mason and then became a member of the Nation of Domination along with Faarooq and Savio Vega. After he & Vega were kicked out the group in favor of Ahmed Johnson & Kama Mustafa; he helped form and lead the Disciples of Apocalypse, a wrestling biker gang, who feuded with Faarooq's NOD and Savio Vega's Los Boricuas. In 1997, Adams left the WWF, apparently protesting the Bret Hart/Vince McMahon incident. In reality, he felt because the WWF was losing the war to WCW, he would fare better there.

He was the first WWF superstar to feature in a Bollywood movie "Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi" (1996). In the movie, he played "Crush" and was killed by "The Undertaker" in a wrestling match.

Adams shares a dubious honor with The Dudley Boyz for having the worst record at WrestleMania. His record stands at 0-4. His losses include:

With Smash, losing to Genichiro Tenryu and Koji Kitao at WrestleMania VII.
Losing to Doink the Clown at WrestleMania IX.
Losing to "Macho Man" Randy Savage at WrestleMania X in a Falls Count Anywhere Match.
With Faarooq and Savio Vega, losing to The Legion of Doom and Ahmed Johnson at WrestleMania 13 in a Six Man Chicago Street Fight.

[edit] World Championship Wrestling (1998-2001)

Adams signed with WCW in 1998, where he was part of the nWo and nWo Hollywood. As a lower card performer, he often tag teamed with the likes of Scott Norton and Stevie Ray and would occasionally be placed in a squash match against smaller and lesser known wrestlers. Of his most notable matches with the promotion would include a tag team tournament steel cage match on WCW Thunder in February 1999. He and Horace Hogan would lose to Chris Benoit and Dean Malenko that night.

Later, he was used as the original Demon, a take off of Gene Simmons of the band KISS. This saw him emerging from an iron maiden with a rendition of "God Of Thunder" as his entry way theme. The gimmick didn't work for Adams as he made only one appearance as the Demon. Dale Torborg took over that gimmick, while Adams went into tag wrestling again. He formed a team with Bryan Clark called Kronik, who won the WCW World Tag Team Championship twice. As with Demolition, Kronik were very much an imitation of another tag team, as they adopted the same "muscle for hire" business gimmick as the APA had at the same time in the WWF.

[edit] World Wrestling Federation: The Third Stint (2001)

Adams, along with Clark appeared as Kronik in WWF in 2001 as part of the Alliance storyline. During their time in WWF, they were managed by Steven Richards and had a short feud with Undertaker and Kane. The two faced the Brothers of Destruction at the '01 Unforgiven in a very poor bout, leading to them being asked to receive further training in WWE's farm territories. However, they both delined leading to their respectable releases.

[edit] Boxing Career (2002)

After briefly trying a career as a boxer in 2002, Adams retired due to spinal and shoulder injuries.

[edit] Post wrestling career(2003)

In January 2003, Brian Adams suffered a spinal injury and is no longer fit to wrestle. At the same event, Clark received a serious neck injury - he, too is no longer able to wrestle. [1]

While Kronik is retired, they still maintain their relationship and accept bookings for promotional events and autograph sessions.

Adams had surgery done in 2006 and had done an interview with www.newpathproductions.com in June 2006. He was recently involved with Icelandic singer Björk.

[edit] Wrestling facts

Adams as Crush (far right) as a member of Demolition

Finishing and signature moves

As Demolition Crush

Demolisher (with Ax or Smash) (Backbreaker hold, top-rope elbow drop combination)
Tilt-a-Whirl Backbreaker
Piledriver

As Crush

Kona Crush (Two Handed Head Claw)
Heart punch
Tour Of The Islands (Tilt-a-Whirl Slam)
Cranium Crunch

As Brian Adams

High Times (with Bryan Clark) (Double Chokeslam)
Chokeslam
Total Meltdown (with Bryan Clark) (Powerbomb, top-rope clothesline device style combination)
Cuts Like a Knife (Full Nelson Slam)
Gorilla press drop into Gutbuster

Managers

Quotes

"Shaka, Brah"
"We're all about breakin' necks & cashin' checks."
"It's all about the KroniK"

[edit] Championships and accomplishments

All Japan Pro Wrestling

AJPW World Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Bryan Clark

National Wrestling Alliance

NWA Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
NWA Pacific Northwest Tag Team Championshp (2 times) - with The Grappler (1) and Steve Doll (1)

Pro Wrestling Illustrated

PWI ranked him # 289 out of the 500 best singles wrestlers of the "PWI Years"
PWI ranked him # 59 of the best tag teams (with Bryan Clark) of the "PWI Years" in 2003.