Sculptor, singer, song writer, clothing designer, actor and professional wrestler. Most people would be satisfied to have been any of these, but to have been all of them seems like an unattainable task. Yet the subject of this interview achieved them all and more. He left the coal mines of Wales at the age of 16 never to look back. He nearly starved to death on the streets of London but he never lost sight of his dreams of wrestling greatness. And greatness he did achieve. He held five world titles in three different weight classes as well as regional titles everywhere he worked. He has worked in virtually every corner of the globe in his nearly fifty years in the ring. Many words have been used to describe him: innovative, charismatic, bizarre, outlandish and controversial are just a few. But the one word that best describes him and he is known the world over by is Exotic.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Exotic Adrian Street!

Born December 5, 1940 in Brynmawr, South Wales, Adrian Street started his amateur wrestling career before even leaving the womb.

ADRIAN STREET: In actual fact, it wasn't an easy birth, either. Apparently the cord that I was fastened to my mother with was much shorter and thicker than normal. When I was being born it was wrapped around my neck. So I managed to escape from the mother of all strangle holds at an age unprecedented by any other wrestler that I have ever heard of.

KAYFABE-WRESTLING: How large of a family are you from?

AS: There were three of us. My brother is six years older, and my sister, Pam, is six years younger. My brother was a tough guy, kind of the man of the family, and my sister was the baby and I was kind of stuck in the middle. I had it kind of bad. I used to do all kinds of bloody stuff to get attention, and it always kind of backfired on me. Made me the black sheep of the family. The thing is, I guess the desire for attention sort of carved out a career for me later on.

K-W: Your father was a miner, correct?

AS: Yes, and my brothers as well. And I was working in the mines by the time I was fifteen.

K-W: When were you first exposed to wrestling?

AS: I was always a very aggressive kid. I was crazy about “red Indians” and I guess I imagined they could wrestle and all that kind of thing. I was more into bodybuilding and I had a friend named Peter Inge who was crazy about wrestling. He used to tell me about the different American wrestlers. I had gone to the nearby town where I bought my bodybuilding magazines and saw an American boxing and wrestling magazine. I bought it for Peter and read it on the bus going home. That’s when I got hooked. I mean really hooked! After that Peter and I used to wrestle all the time. I remember my mom saying about my bodybuilding, “So when you get all your muscles, what are you going to do with them?” Then I had an answer for her.

K-W: When did you start bodybuilding?

AS: When I was about eleven.

K-W: Who were your bodybuilding heroes?

AS: Spencer Churchill was my British hero, and that sort of got magnified when he became a professional wrestler. My favorite bodybuilders were guys like Steve Reeves and all the Americans. All my wrestling heroes were the Americans as well. I could tell you the names of just about all the American wrestlers when I was a kid and hardly knew of any of the British wrestlers. It just wasn't so popular over there especially in the smaller towns like where I came from. I didn’t see my first live wrestling show until I was 15 in a nearby town called Newport. Then I found out they ran shows every Wednesday in Cardiff. So I would take the train to Cardiff every Wednesday to see the matches. In order to catch the last train back I could only watch the first two matches and then I had to leave. It really sucked. I never got to see the Main Event. I'd sleep all night in the station and go straight to the pit. I had to go to work in the coal mine at five in the morning. In the winter I never saw daylight except on a Sunday.

K-W: So when did you actually start wrestling and training to wrestle?

AS: When I was in Wales I used to wrestle with Peter Inge and another guy named Dar Hughs. We all used to practice together in the mountains and in a gym where we could wrestle on the mats and that sort of thing. The gym was in Ebervaile and it was only open two days a week. We used to have to walk three and a half miles over the mountains to get there and then walk back. The gym only had one mat and one 150 lb barbell. The rest of the time I trained at home in the garden. I had a barbell made of an iron railing with a bucket of rocks on each end. We were not a rich family. I couldn't afford a barbell. Anyway I used to train every day, lifting weights and lifting rocks what have you. Then I left the coal mine and moved to London to become a professional wrestler.

K-W: Did you receive any kind of formal training or did you just learn as you went along?

AS: I just sort of learned as I went along. I became an amateur. I wrestled amateur in the YMCA and in the Foresters Club. I also became 11 and 12 stone weightlifting champion of the Foresters Club. I could beat everyone in both classes. The lifts consisted of the curl, which I was never very good at, and the bench press and squat, both of which I was very good at.

K-W: What were your best lifts?

AS: In those days, I weighed between 144 and 150 and in competition I bench pressed either 320 or 325. I could do more than that, but you dare not risk it in the actual competition. I squatted well over 400 but my curl was pathetic. I can curl more now at the age of 65 than I could back then. Several years later there was a new magazine called TV Alive that was the big sensation and they did a seven page spread on me. They followed me around London to the matches and restaurants and so on. I did some crazy things for them like going to a beauty salon to have my hair done, which I normally wouldn’t do. We went to this sports complex to shoot some photos of me training. By that time I was a household name and everyone knew me. They cleared out the weight room except for the reporter, photographer, Linda and myself. There were two walls of windows in the weight room and everyone was watching through them. I guess my ego was sky high at the time, and I was weighing about 170 and really not weight training a lot but figured if they were doing this "The Life of Adrian Street" thing I should include some training. I guess with all the attention I was getting and the adrenalin flowing, and the chance to show off in front of everybody. I had never in my life bench pressed as much as 400 pounds, and I kept bench pressing and adding weight and I actually got not one rep but two reps with 435 pounds.

K-W: When was that?

AS: That would have been in 1974, so I had been working for several years by then.

K-W: When did you have your first pro wrestling match?

AS: That would have been August 8, 1957. It was against Gentleman Jeoff Moran and it took place at the Addington Hotel in Addington, New Town, which is a suburb of London.

K-W: And the result of that first match?

AS: Well I won. It was the main event and they told me to do seven rounds. I didn’t know what the business was or anything like that. I didn’t understand the business so I dislocated his shoulder as soon as I got my hands on him in the first round.

K-W: So you went and hurt this poor guy because you didn’t know how to work?

AS: Yes, I was fuckin’ awful! (Adrian chuckles)

K-W: At least you knew you were supposed to win though. Right? You knew that much?

AS: I wasn’t supposed to win actually, but I didn’t know that.

K-W: You fucked up!?

AS: I was a real fuck up. The best part of it is, I was so arrogant that I had already made my mind up what wrestling was all about long before I ever met a wrestler. I already knew in my mind what it was all about as far as I was concerned. I could not be told. I was very stubborn I was a very slow learner.

K-W: But didn’t someone tell you what they wanted you to do?

AS: I didn’t understand. What they said to me was, " Do 2, 1 in 7." I just looked at him and said, “What?” He said, "2, 1 in 7… do 7 rounds." Now that pissed me off because I had seen the event poster saying it was an 8 round fight. I figured he didn’t think I was good enough to last 8 so he told me 7.

K-W: Were you working under your own name, Adrian Street?

AS: No, my name was Kid Tarzan Jonathan after my hero Don Leo Jonathan.

K-W: How were you supporting yourself at that time?

AS: I was boxing on a fair ground booth. Mostly I was doing 3 round matches and now and again I would get a 5 round contest which was main event. I got a few of those but mostly got 3 rounds. For 3 rounds I would get 1 pound and for the 5 rounds I would get 3 pounds. I was out of work and just about starving to death at the time. That’s how I got so light at that time. I weighed about 179 when I first went to London and by this time I was down to about 144. I was boxing on the booth between 4 and 7 times a day. I am no great boxer but I can fight. Don’t piss me off because I have so many ways to hurt you, you will have to invent new ways to scream! But anyway with boxing and all sorts of rules…well, I was getting the shit kicked out of me. If a guy couldn’t box he was in deep shit, but if a guy could box then I was…

K-W: Going back to the bodybuilding, did you ever compete?

AS: I only entered one bodybuilding competition. That was the Mr. Wales contest. And I made a bit of a mistake. I had a few bodybuilding magazines with me. And knowing how modest I am I had to take them out and show the other competitors my pictures. One front cover and another with several pages and so on. I told them I was a professional wrestler and they went and told the judges. I would have won the contest easily and I think they knew that so they went to the judges. The head judge came to me and told me that since I was a professional sportsman I couldn’t compete in an amateur contest. I denied being a professional. They said, “You told the other chaps you were a professional wrestler.” I told them, “They are mistaken, I told them I was gonna' become a professional wrestler after I win this competition.” That didn’t go over very well. They allowed me to compete but I was not one of the winners. They told me I placed in the top eight, I believe. But not my exact placing. I am not being egotistical but I would have easily won had I not said anything. I never did another bodybuilding competition. Not because I didn’t win, I just wasn’t comfortable with it. I enjoy showing off and could pose for photographers and I can show off like hell in the ring, but being up on stage doing a series of poses just wasn’t my thing.

K-W: Your first pro match was in 1957. When did you first come to the United States?

AS: My last match in Britain was the beginning of 1981. I went to Canada to work for Stu Hart (that cheap old bastard) and I wasn’t happy there. I was contacted by a German promoter who wanted me to come back to Europe. I really didn’t want to go, so I told Stu I had the offer and he needed to come up with more money or I was leaving. I don’t think he believed me, but I left and took Bret with me. He was the only one I liked. After that was done I went back to Canada and then to Mexico. I was doing pretty well in Mexico when I was contacted by Mike LeBell about coming to work for him. I set foot on American soil for the very first time on January 31, 1982

K-W: So you had been wrestling for 25 years in Europe before you ever appeared in America?

AS: While working in Mexico I lost a great deal of weight. I wasn’t sick, I just couldn’t stand the food. I love Mexican food as long as it’s cooked in America. When I first arrived in America I was one month past my 41st birthday and at a height of 5’7 I weighted about 170 pounds.

K-W: So from 1957 to 1982 you worked all over Europe?

AS: All over Europe, all over Africa and through most of Asia.

K-W: What was the first title you held?

AS: First was the Welsh welterweight title. They wouldn’t recognize that when I first started wrestling for Dale Martin’s, which is, like the big time over there. They said if I could make weight they would give me a shot at the lightweight title.

K-W: When did you start with Dale Martin and were you still Kid Tarzan Jonathan?

AS: I started working for the Dale Martin Office of Joint Promotions in 1961 and by then I was using my own name.

K-W: When and how did your flamboyant side begin to surface?

AS: The chap who wrote for the Martain office was a Canadian named Charles Mosco, and unlike most of the English he knew about all the American wrestlers. He began to refer to me as “Nature Boy” Adrian Street when he wrote about me. He and I were probably the only two in Britain who knew who the “Nature Boy” was. (Buddy Rogers, of course.) And I was so flattered to be given this name…well that’s what sort of prompted me to bleach my hair blonde and to start wearing the fancy robes.

K-W: And when was this?

AS: About 1962-63.

K-W: Right at the peak of Rogers’ career.

AS: So I would go in the ring all dressed up. The first robe I had was powder blue velvet with a silver lame lining and I had trunks and boots to match. It might not sound like the height of sartorial elegance today, but at that particular time in Britain when they were so conservative… I mean everyone either wore black boots or brown boots. No one ever wore anything but black, navy blue or maroon trunks. Believe me they were great wrestlers but they didn’t have the color and flair and showmanship the Americans had. As I said, I grew up on the American wrestlers through the American boxing and wrestling magazines I used to get. Anyway I decided to interject some of that into it. If he was gonna’ call me “Nature Boy” there was no way I could go in there with dark hair and sort of drab clothes. So I decided to brighten up my wardrobe. At that time I had a 27 inch waist and a 48 inch chest, a great sun tan, the blonde hair and everything like that. I have to say I looked fantastic! Anyway, I figured I would walk to the ring and the people would be impressed with how great I looked and admire my physique and cheer me. Instead they made rude comments like, “Isn’t she so pretty” and “Oh, look at her…”

I had dealt with that kind of thing in the dressing room from some of the other wrestlers. When I showed my bodybuilding magazines around the dressing room and the other wrestlers started making comments about those guys all being gay, etc. I had been around long enough to know that if I had tried to argue that bodybuilders were not gay I would never hear the end of it. So I would just make little comments like, “Well, I am sure they are not all gay. Some of us are, but certainly not all of us.” So I turned it around on them. I actually chased big guys out of the shower room. I would go in wearing a towel up under my arms as though I was trying to cover my bust. It would end around my waist and I just let everything else just swing about. I’d walk into the showers and say something like, “Oh my, my, my, a smorgasbord!” It would be like a stampede of hippos with them all running. I turned their gests around on them, so when the fans started with me I knew how to respond, even though I was very disappointed. Instead of yelling at them and acting mad I would fluff my hair and blow them kisses and admire my legs and so on. All the while I was seething inside that they didn’t get what I was trying to do. I used to think maybe tomorrow night's crowd will get it. But they never did. And I hated them for it. So a lot of what I did was to punish the people for not appreciating what I was trying to show them. Looking back, in retrospect, it was them not getting the point that created my gimmick.

K-W: So then you gradually went further and further with it?

AS: I would be back in the dressing room being upset thinking they are just not getting the point. That is not the reaction I was looking for. Then the word reactionstuck in my mind. I had never gotten a reaction from the crowd and I had never heard anyone else get it either. Not even the main event guys. So I decided, “Fuck it, if that’s what you want, then I’m gonna’ bloody well give it to you!” I decided to take it a little further every time. When I first started wearing make up it was very subtle. So people would look and wonder, “Is he wearing make up?” But were never really sure. I kept taking it further as I went along. The one thing I never did was come out and say I was gay like some of the other silly fuckers who copied me later. I just kept them wondering. Then I would wear a different robe every time I was on TV. It became a standing joke amongst the other wrestlers. They would say “Well, when Adrian Street finishes wrestling he won’t have any money, but he will sure have some pretty robes.” What the bloody fools didn’t realize was that I was becoming more and more in demand and in a short time I was making more money than any of them and could afford all the new robes. I have still got some of them to this day and have sold some to collectors who have paid me big money for them… far more than I paid to have them made years ago. I guess I am not quite as daft as I look. (Much laughter)

K-W: So when did the “Nature Boy” give way to the “Exotic One”?

AS: Not until I went to Mexico, actually. I eventually decided to give the “Nature Boy” thing a rest and they started calling me “Mr. Magnificent.” That was years later when I was thinking along the lines of going to the States. I wasn’t foolish enough to come to the states in the 1970s calling myself “Nature Boy”.

K-W: By then Flair was very popular and it wouldn’t have been wise for you.

AS: No it wouldn't. Funny thing, just a few years ago I was working in Florida, and as I was going to the ring in my robe and so on, this guy who obviously had no idea who I was made the comment that I looked like a Ric Flair wannabe. I felt like stopping and telling him that I had wrestled all over Europe and Asia as “Nature Boy” for 12 or 13 years before Ric Flair ever had his first match.

K-W: How and when did you and Miss Linda get together?

AS: We met in 1969. I had always been interested in exotic animals and …

K-W: Wait a minute Adrian... are you calling Linda an exotic animal?

AS: Yeah, (laughter) she sure is. Anyway what happened was, I had a day off and I went to the Ideal Home Exhibition which was in Earls Court in London. I had always wanted to see it and amongst everything else they had there was a display of marine tropical fish. I had never seen them outside of a public aquarium. They were absolutely beautiful and the guy gave me his card. He had the first store to deal in these fish in Britain I believe. When I went to the store I met Linda. She worked there. I used to joke that Linda sold me all the sick ones so I would have to come back to the store. Linda was quite an equestrian. She actually taught several English celebrities to ride and we had a love of animals in common. We both were interested in sculpting and as we got to talking we found more and more in common. Of course I was always trying to seduce her. I invited her to the matches several times but she had no interest in wrestling. That’s basically how it all started with us.

K-W: When did Linda become part of the wrestling business?

AS: In the early ‘70s I left Joint Promotions and started to work for the British Wrestling Federation. They offered me a lot of money so I went. They also included a girls match on many of their cards, and one day Linda suggested that I teach her a bit of wrestling just in case one of the girls didn’t show up. When you have several guys on the card and someone doesn’t show, it’s no big deal. You just have someone wrestle twice. When there is only one girls match and one doesn’t show you have a problem. So as it happened one night one of the girls didn’t show and Linda took her place. She did fantastic. In fact, the following week we had a tour of Ireland booked and I fired the girl who no showed and put Linda in her place. That was in 1973. As it happened Linda became a minor sensation. She shared my love for “red Indians” and wrestled as Blackfoot Sue. I was used to being the center of attention when we went to Ireland. All the press paying attention to me. Not that time. They all wanted to know about Linda.

K-W: So when did Linda start working as your valet?

AS: Never in Europe -- It was too dangerous. Not until we went to Canada. I had a rough time just getting to the ring some nights and after beating up their local hero, sometimes it was really a chore to get out of the ring. We always entered the building separately and no one other than the other wrestlers had any idea we were together. Except in Germany where they made me a good guy. We actually wrestled as a tag team in Germany and held the world mixed tag team championship.

K-W: We have some questions from fans. Actually we have several from one in particular. Harry Grover wants to hear some of your memories of Les Kellet and Jackie Pallo.

AS: Oh, I could keep you bored for hours on both of them. Les Kellet was one of the toughest wrestlers I have ever met. One of the most unlikable people I have ever met. You know when you have your opponent outside the ring on his knees and you slam him head first into the floor? Well, we all know you take the bump with your forearms and bounce up holding your head and really sell it for the reaction. When I would do that with Les he would just aim his face straight at the floor. We were working in a place once that the floor was old and kind of broken up and I slammed him into the concrete and he came up with chunks of concrete sort of imbedded in his forehead and face and then growled, “Do it again! Do it again!" All I could think was, “You stupid old fucker, no one here can appreciate what you are doing except me.” But that was how he was with all the wrestlers. It wasn’t for the crowd, he wanted to intimidate us and show us how tough he was. He had an unbelievable pain threshold. There was a time when he was working in Norman Morell’s gym and he and a bunch of other wrestlers were moving things around and setting up a new ring and what have you, and a large steel girder fell on his foot. It took several of the other boys to remove it. They wanted to take him to the hospital and he refused. He insisted they finish their work as promised and then worry about his foot. It was a few hours later when they finished and by then they needed to cut his foot out of his boot it was so swollen. The story went all about England about how tough he was.

I’ll give you another story. Les used to own a farm. One day he was feeding the hogs and talking to someone and he got his hand really badly bitten. It got infected and swole up like a boxing glove. He was in the dressing room that night or the next night and the guy he was supposed to work with told him he couldn’t wrestle with his hand like that. Les agreed and suggested that he put his hand on the ground and the other guy stomp on it to get the poison out. When his opponent refused Les told him in front of the whole locker room, “You either stomp on my hand or I’ll stomp on your face.” Needless to say the guy stomped on Les’ hand and there was all sorts of blood and puss squirting all over the place.

K-W: You are not gonna tell me that’s a true story.

AS: Knowing Les, it’s a true story. Here’s another that I was present for; We were working in winter somewhere and it was cold as hell. We were all sitting in the dressing room which was nothing more than a little shed and we had a coal stove in the middle which we were all huddling around to try to keep warm. Gentlemen Jim Hussey (father of the wrestler we all know as the Black Tiger) was in the ring. Jim was a great guy, real funny and likeable. He was a great heel as well. Well we are all sitting around and we hear this commotion out towards the ring and Jim comes running in being followed by this big farmer. Les blocks the guy's way and tries to calm him down. The guy is livid wanting to get his hands on Jim for whatever he did in the ring. Now Les is trying to calmly explain this is the dressing room and you need to leave. The guy either tried to push past Les or threw a punch or whatever and next thing we know Les has him in a headlock and drags him to the stove. He actually held the guys head in the headlock against the top of the stove. The thing was red hot. The guy was screaming and Les wouldn’t let him go. You could see the blisters popping up on Les’ arm. He was probably getting burned as badly as or worse than the guy. You could smell them both cooking. Then Les picks the guy up and throws him through the window into the snow. We were all real happy about that. It was cold enough before, and now thanks to Les we had a broken window with snow blowing in. We really froze our balls off.

Les was a good guy -- you just didn’t want to fuck with him. One last story on Les, He ended up living on his farm alone when he got old. Story goes that the postman used to always show up early in the morning and wake Les up. Les told him several times not to do it. The postmen didn’t know Les and just took him as a grouchy old man and just kept showing up early and pounding on the door. One day the postman didn’t show up for work. They went searching for him and eventually found him tied to a chair in a shed on Les' farm. They took him and placed him in a home after that. He actually escaped from the home and went back to his farm. They took him to the home again and he died there shortly after. In his early ‘80s I think.

K-W: Wow! Okay, how about Jackie Pallo?

AS: Jackie was one of the biggest names ever over there. Actually, my first match with Joint Promotions was against Jackie in August of 1961. That would have been in Weymouth. It was the main event not because of me, because Jackie was the big star.

I’ll tell you how Jackie became such a big star. First let me say if Jackie Pallo were to be hanged for being a great wrestler he would have been wrongfully executed. Not saying he was bad, but there were many guys who were better than him. He became such a big star because of TV. When they had the very first TV show it was a sort of pilot to see if it would go over. Everyone on it became instant stars. Jackie, the biggest. He was supposed to lose his match and he decided he needed a good excuse for losing so he threw his opponent into the corner and followed up with a dropkick. The opponent moved out of the way and Jackie sort of mashed his “Christmas cookies” against the ring post. He fell on the mat and writhed around and either got pinned or counted out. Nothing like that had ever happened before on television. No one had ever seen anyone get whacked in the crotch before. There was a huge flood of mail from all over Britain. People being concerned about Jackie. It made him an overnight star. They put him back on TV to let everyone see he wasn’t crippled or anything and he went over huge. All the promoters in Joint Promotions used to take turns with their guys getting on TV and they all wanted to use Jackie since he got so much attention over that one match. It wasn’t like here where you are on TV all the time. Over there a top guy was lucky to get on once a month. Jackie was on all the time though. I worked for Joint Promotions for a good while before they ever used me on TV. He was so popular he started calling himself Mr. TV.

K-W: Okay Adrian, how about one good Jackie Pallo story?

AS: Well there was a promoter named Peter Keenin. He had been a world champion boxer in three different weight classes. When he finished up boxing he began promoting mostly in Scotland where he was a major celebrity. Now this story shows how much jealousy there is in our business. Something I have always hated. So, Jackie Pallo’s people, his uncles and father were the Guthridges. That’s his real name, Guthridge. They were all boxers. I don’t know but I would guess Jack did a bit of boxing when he was young. Anyway everybody in the business either regarded Jackie as annoying or a loveable buffoon. He was always kind of clumsy and fucking things up a bit. So we were all wrestling in an ice rink in Glasgow and Jackie needed to talk to Keenin about the money. Keenin threw a fit and Jackie Jr. (Jackie’s son) stepped into the conversation. Peter knocked him cold with one punch and turned to Sr. (who was probably in his fifties by then) and said something like,”and if you want any of me, I’ll give you the fuckin’ same.” Jackie replies, “now you’re talkin’ about my game mate…” and tosses his coat aside and beats the living shit out of Peter Keenin. Just totally beats the living shit out of him. Now this is what I don’t like about the business. Not two days later I heard a wrestler who wasn’t even there telling another fella, “Did you hear about Jackie Pallo and Peter Keenin?” Keenin knocked both Pallo and his son cold with one punch each.” It spread all over. Everyone was jealous of Jackie’s success. I was there and Keenin never laid a single punch on him.

K-W: When you say he was a buffoon, do you mean he just clowned around too much?

AS: Well I remember we were working together once and we were both heels. I had given him a lot to do to piss me off before I really got going. My way of heeling was never to just come out and poke an eye or kick a guy in the balls right from the start. I would rather show a bit of wrestling and have the guy I am working with foil me every time I really get going so I gradually can show some frustration until I finally explode and really start cheating and beat the crap out of him. Anyway I was wearing white boots with gold wings on them and long ribbons strung through them and around my legs. Anyway I am kicking the shit out of him and instead of selling it he yells to the crowd, “look he’s got bows on his trousers!” Looking for the laugh. I got really pissed off and didn’t give him another thing for the rest of the match. I just beat the crap out of him. He came storming back into the dressing room ranting and raving that he could never come back to this arena. That I ruined him. I finally calmed him down and told him, “Yes I beat the shit out of you and I will do it again if you don’t sell for me!” He understood what he had done and apologized. That was just how he was. He was always looking to spring a punch line and work the crowd. Sometimes it was just at the wrong time.

K-W: So its January of 1982. You have just come to California from a successful run in Mexico. What was your first program for Mike LeBell?

AS: They wanted to switch the Americas title from Sweet Brown Sugar to me. I made my debut by interrupting one of his interviews. He was talking about all his challengers and who he was going to defend the title against and I just walked on to the set and told him not to concern himself with all the other challengers. I had come all the way from England just to take the title and he need only concern himself with me. The next time he was doing an interview I came out and interrupted again. This time I punched him in the face. I took the title from him shortly after

Then they decided I should challenge Gentleman Chris Adams and Ringo Rigsby for the Americas Tag Team titles.

K-W: Who was your partner?

AS: I didn't have one. We made a big deal out of the fact that I didn't feel I needed a partner to beat them and, of course, I didn't. So at one point, there were three belts in the territory, the Americas heavyweight title and the Americas tag titles and I held them all by myself. A bit later Diamond Timothy Flowers came into the territory and became my partner. He never won the belt. We just had a little ceremony on TV and I presented the belt to him. Eventually we did a split. Mil Mascaras and I both had never been defeated in the Olympic Auditorium. So Mike LeBell promoted a “battle of the undefeated” between us. After the match Mike told me that was the biggest house in Los Angeles since the fifties when Lou Thesz defended the NWA title against Baron Michele Leone. That was good for my ego.

Getting back to the match… Mil and I are going back and forth and he has the advantage and things are looking a bit rough for me and Flowers takes it upon himself to jump in the ring to “save” me. He got me disqualified and I beat the crap out of him after the match. That started a feud between us. I never knew it, but several of the boys kept telling me Flowers was very jealous of me. Didn't really matter to me very much, but he would try to do things to take the limelight away from me. Didn't bother me. That’s what its all about doing things to make yourself noticed. It just brought the best out in me anyway. So back then we worked in the Showboat Casino in Las Vegas every month and this one night I was defending the Americas belt against him. So of course I enter the ring after him as the champ. Now understand, this was all done without my knowing a thing. So I get in the ring and there is Diamond Timothy Flowers with a priest and a girl in a wedding dress. He actually got married before our match. I won the match and made sure the crowd knew he wasn't going to have much of a honeymoon. I dropped a few bombs on his “Christmas crackers” during the match. So later on it ends up on TV as a news story. It shows Flowers and the wedding briefly and the commentator states, “Not only was his opponent more feminine, but he was prettier than the bride as well”. Then it turned out to be a piece on me. I had nothing to do with it just happened that way.

K-W: How long did you stay in LA and where did you go next?

AS: Not as long as I would have liked. I really enjoyed working for Mike LeBell. Unfortunately, when I was in Germany the previous year I made a commitment to come back the following year. They have a big tournament every September and I agreed to come back. I really didn't want to but I made a commitment and I do what I say I will do.

When we finished in Germany there was some confusion about our working papers and instead of being sent to Hanover (where we were) they were sent to England. So we had no choice but to go home to England. It took over a month to get all that sorted out before we could come back to the States. When we got back we went to work for Jerry Jarrett in Memphis.

K-W: So did you starve in Memphis like most guys say they did?

AS: Bill Dundee was the booker while we were there and he said it was the most money he had seen there. We broke all kinds of attendance records for them. We made money while we were there.

K-W: Chuck Morris from Marks, MS asks about your memories of working with Jesse Barr in Memphis.

AS: Got a great story about working with Jesse. It’s the first time we are going to Tupelo and Linda and I are riding in Jesse’s car with him driving. Jesse gets totally lost somewhere in the backwoods of Mississippi and then his car dies. Don't recall if we ran out of gas or what, just the car died out in the middle of nowhere. I knew we were gonna’ be late so I had already changed in the car. I was wearing silver boots and trunks with pink tights and this white fur coat. So we get out and we are trying to hitch a ride to Tupelo. Finally this red neck guy stops and agrees to take us. We offered to pay him and all and told him it was important that we needed to get there as soon as we could. He takes us on this tour of trailer parks and is driving us all around and finally stops and picks up this woman. God she was a rough looking sot. I mean she really looked like she had lost a few fights. Anyway she kept turning around and staring at me. I had my long blonde hair down and the fur coat and all and she just kept staring at me. Finally after riding around for a while we end up back in the trailer park where we first picked up the woman and the guy says he ain’t taking us. So now we have wasted an hour or so and we are no better off. We start walking and trying to thumb another ride. Finally these two guys in a pick up stop for us. Looked straight out of that movie… Deliverance. Anyway we are riding in the back and they are driving crazy! Taking corners real fast, and it starts bloody raining. So there I am, blonde hair all matted to my face and this soaking wet (used to be) white fur coat. Jesse was scared to death trying to get the guys to slow down and all they wanted to know was where we were from since we all talked funny. Finally they stopped and let us out…I don’t know where. We found a phone and called the police and they eventually got us to Tupelo. We missed the show and we had to call Memphis to get one of the other wrestlers to come pick us up. It was the middle of the night and we had to make it back to do TV early the next morning. God, what a bloody mess that was.

K-W: After you left Memphis ?

AS: We headed down to Florida. to work for Eddie Graham. I took the Florida title from Scott McGee, but my main program was with Dusty Rhodes.

K-W: Do you remember Dustin Rhodes hanging around back then?

AS: Sure. He was a nice polite young kid and he was always around watching us work. Obviously I made a much bigger impression on him than his father, considering where his career went years later.

K-W: That brings up my next question. What did you think when you first saw Goldust? Did such a blatant rip off of your gimmick upset you?

AS: Not at all. Here’s the funny thing. When I first saw Goldust on TV, I thought it was me. I remember looking and thinking, where the hell was that filmed? And then I realized it wasn’t me. At the time Goldust “came out” several of the wrestling magazines contacted me for my thoughts. Everyone wanted to know the same thing you just asked. Was I upset? Well they were all interviewing me and saying Goldust is a blatant rip off of Adrian Street, so that meant they were talking about Adrian Street, now didn’t it? It just brought me back into people’s minds. It's just too good of a gimmick to waste, and by then I wasn’t wrestling so much so I was glad to see him do it. He did a pretty good job with it actually. Not as good as me of course, but pretty good. I was kind of proud a few years later when Rico started doing it. Vince actually made Rico come to me to fine tune his gimmick. He said he wanted him to come into the ring all “poofy” like a French poodle, and when the bell rang to turn into an American pit bull like Adrian Street. Rico told me Vince insisted on him coming to me. I was proud of that

K-W: And after Florida?

AS: I had an offer to go to work for Joe Blanchard in Texas. I also got a call from Bill Dundee, who was now working with Ole Anderson in Georgia. I had worked with Bill before in Memphis, so we agreed to go to Georgia. I headed to Georgia just in time for Dundee and Anderson to have a falling out and the promotion folded in about two weeks. So from there we headed to Texas to work for Blanchard. While there I held the Southwest version of the Texas title. During that time I got a call from Dory Funk Jr. asking me to come to the Carolinas to work for Jim Crockett's Mid Atlantic office. I came in as a heel and feuded with Jimmy Valiant, and eventually they turned me and we became a tag team. We feuded against Paul Jones’ group and we were really hot. The fans loved us. After a bit Dusty came in to replace Dory Jr. as booker. He did a few six man tags with us and occasionally tagged with each of us. Then he let me go. He told me that Bill Watts had expressed an interest in me and I should go work in Mid South for a while. He said he liked me better as a heel and after a bit, when the fans had forgotten about me as a babyface a little, he would bring me back and we would rework what we had done in Florida.

K-W: Since we are on the subject of Dusty, any thoughts or comments on “The Dream?"

AS: Here’s a funny thing. You know they always exaggerate your weight when they announce you. When I was working in Florida. I weighed just above 200. I remember we were in a building one night and there was a scale in the dressing room. I weighed a bit over 200 and Dusty weighed 313. Anyway that night I worked with Scott McGee and they announced me at something like 220 and later that night Dusty was working with someone else and they actually announced his weight at 313. The following week it was to be Dusty and myself, and they announced me at 251 and Dusty at 279. He couldn’t have his opponent weighing a hundred pounds less than him.

K-W: Well how could the fans ever believe a little guy like you could ever have a chance against someone so much bigger? You could never beat him.

AS: Unless it was real.

K-W: So you headed to Mid South for a while and…?

AS: Well I went to Watts' territory and defeated Terry Taylor for the TV title and after a nice run there, I headed back to Memphis where I did a program with Randy Savage. Then I got a call from Continental and they wanted me to come in. I wanted to take a bit of a break first though. I brought my three kids over from England and spent a couple weeks between Las Vegas, NV and Hollywood, CA. We stayed with a producer friend of mine who had a beautiful home in Hollywood. While there I did some promotion work for The Factory, Oingo Boingo and some other people. While doing one of the advertisements I met some folks who were casting a wrestling movie and they asked me if I would be willing to be in it. Of course I jumped at the chance, and we made Grunt: The Wrestling Movie. I had written a few songs and we made arrangements with Rhino records to record them. Three of which were used in Grunt. Later on we produced music videos to go with the songs. (NOTE; you can purchase the albums and music videos off of Adrian ’s website www.bizarebazzar.com). Finally all of that got wrapped up and I headed back here to Gulf Breeze (FL) and started full time for Continental Wrestling. I took the Southeastern title from Wildcat Wendell Cooley. The man was strong as an ox and at least twice as smart. I used to upset him so by calling him Gwendolyn Cuddly.

K-W: It seems like you pretty much settled into Continental for a nice long run.

AS: Well Linda and I really love it here in Gulf Breeze, and working for Continental I could be home most of the time in my own house instead of a hotel or rented apartment.

K-W: When Continental folded in ’89, what did you do? Were you semi retired then?

AS: No, actually I have never stopped wrestling except for when I was sick a few years ago, ( Adrian had a bout with throat cancer which he obviously has won) and when I blew out my knee a few years before that. I worked here and there a few shots for the Jarretts, and a few shots in Texas where Jonathan Boyd was booking. Boyd wanted me to move back to Texas and work for him full time, but a week here and there was all I wanted.

K-W: When was the last time you worked in Japan?

AS: 1993

K-W: Did you ever get the chance to work for New York?

AS: There were two different occasions; First when I was working in LA I got a call from Vince Sr. but unfortunately it was just before we were to leave for Germany. The only other time was in the early ‘90s when they wanted me to manage an English tag team. Initally I said sure I could be a manager. Then JJ Dillon called me to go over the details of the character and he explained the tag team was gonna be The British Skinheads and they wanted me to be a racist manager. I refused. I know my gimmick is pretty over the top and all that but I have never been a racist and I just didn’t feel comfortable with it.

K-W: You never had the chance to work for Jim Barnett?

AS: Well, honestly when I first came here I really didn’t know how things worked in America . I didn’t realize you were supposed to exaggerate your size and so on. Anyway again back while in LA I get a phone call from this guy with this very effeminate voice wanting to talk about me coming to Atlanta. He said he was Jim Barnett but I thought it was one of the other wrestlers ribbing me. He asked me “how big I was” and we talked for a while but I thought the whole thing was a joke.

K-W: Who was your favorite opponent?

AS: Well John Cortez, whom I am sure you have never heard of, and George Kidd, who was a world champion. I made a lot of money and got a lot of credibility working with him. I was the only guy to ever beat him. I never beat him when it was for his title and I was at the proper weight. If we wrestled and I was at my normal weight at that time (around 160-165) I would always beat him. But if I dropped to the light weight class which was 147 I couldn’t beat him. I saw plenty of big guys weighing up to 200 wrestle him and never beat him. I was the only one who did.

K-W: Who here in the states was your favorite?

AS: Randy Savage.

K-W: Lets take the other side of the coin. Either in the US or abroad, who did you just absolutely hate having to work with?

AS: That would be another guy in Britain. He was an African witch doctor and about 6 foot 3. He was like wrestling with a bloody three wheel bike. His name was Masam Bula the African Witchdoctor. Just bloody awful and he was a big name over there too.

K-W: Who would you have liked to work with that you never had the chance to?

AS: I would have loved to wrestle Lou Thesz. I think Nick Bockwinkel and I would have had great matches as well. I think I would have enjoyed working with Bruno Sammartino as well. I just met him this past year you know We were both booked at a fan fest. I really didn’t think he would even know who I was but he did. He’s really quite a nice guy.

K-W: I can hear in your voice that you were pleased Bruno knew of you. Sounds like you kind of marked out over that.

AS: I am 65 years old and have been wrestling professionally since 1957 and we all know how full of myself I am, but I still mark out over some of these people. My God, I was totally flabbergasted to finally meet Don Leo Jonathan last year in Vegas. Here’s how I got my name; When I first challenged the guy to box on the booth I was nearly starving to death. I had a job in a factory and then one at Wimbley Stadium and got fired. There were race riots going on at that time and just no work. So when I heard this guy yelling, “three pounds for anyone who can last six rounds!” I nearly killed myself running up the stairs. The guy was more than twice my size and the promoter said he would only let me go three rounds for one pound. Then he said “what’s your name kid?” And Don Leo Jonathan came into my head and I said “Jonathan.” He asked “Jonathan what…?” and I said "Kid Jonathan." When I went for my first pro wrestling match the promoter was named Johnny Charles and he didn’t like Kid Jonathan. He said I looked like Tarzan and wanted to call me Kid Tarzan. I countered with Kid Tarzan Joinathan and we agreed on that.

K-W: Where did you make the most money?

AS: The Carolinas . I made more for a single shot in Japan but for consistency the money was the best in the Carolinas. Second best was working for Bill Watts.

K-W: What was your favorite place to work, either in the US or abroad? Nothing to do with the money, just the place you and Linda had the most fun or just enjoyed being.

AS: Germany, and in the US, again the Carolinas. Continental, as well, because I could always be home in Gulf Breeze.

K-W: Going back to the list of questions from Harry Grover. Who in your opinion is the US equivalent to Big Daddy Crabtree? The most protected and overrated?

AS: Dusty Rhodes.

K-W: What was the best rib you have ever been a part of…either played on you or you played on someone etc?

AS: In England there was a referee named Lou Marco and he was a total primadonna. ,He honestly thought he was the star of the show and the wrestlers were the supporting players. Lou was a raging alcoholic and actually got run over once while he was drunk. He injured his leg so he couldn’t ref anymore. So the promotion used him as a ring announcer. With the bad leg he used to walk with a wooden cane. One night riding back from the matches I noticed it hanging over the back of the seat in front of me and Lou was asleep. I used to do a bit of carving to pass the time so I had a collection of little files and saws with me. I took the rubber stopper of the walking stick and just cut a bit off it. I did this over several trips until finally he was walking half doubled over and he never noticed it.

Another rib we played on him was coming back from the matches. We used to all travel in these old converted ambulances that several of us could ride in. Anyway the group of us were passing around a bottle of scotch and not letting Lou have any. We said, “No Lou, you will drink it all.” So finally he was on the verge of begging for a drink and we gave him the bottle. What he didn’t realize was that we had emptied most of the bottle and we all had pissed in it. After a bit one of us asked him if he thought it was good Scotch. He just said “It tastes like piss,” and kept drinking it.

K-W: When did you start your wrestling school?

AS: I started Skull Crushers Wrestling Scholl in 1993 or 94. It’s gone now though. It blew away last yea (during one of the horrible hurricanes that devastated the Gulf Coast). I’ve decided not to rebuild it. I am making more now renting the apartments out that I used to let the students stay in. That and I haven’t got 300 pound guys trying to pull my head off.

K-W: I should have probably asked this earlier but how did the American style differ from the European style and was it hard for you to adapt?

AS: The European wrestlers rely more on wrestling than showmanship and story lines. I probably stood out in Europe because all my heroes were the American wrestlers and I presented myself more like them, but since I had a solid background in wrestling I could get away with it. When I came over here it was an easy thing to adapt since many of the Americans were nearly as flamboyant as me and I was a better wrestler than most of them. It made up for my small size.

K-W: Did you ever have a problem with opponents who were uptight with your gimmick?

AS: Sure, there were guys who would say no kissing or patting my ass or any of that queer stuff tonight. I would just say, “Okay, so what are your big moves.” After they told me their specialty I would say “Okay, you don’t do any of that tonight.” They would argue, “What am I supposed to do if I don’t do that?” If I can’t do my special things then they couldn’t either and we would just wrestle. Most times I would take the guy and do whatever I wanted to with him. After the match I might say, “Maybe next time you can do your stuff and I can do mine and we can have a bit more fun with it."

I remember in the Carolinas in a dressing room once before I was gonna’ wrestle Wahoo McDaniel. I was talking with the Road Warriors and Paul Ellering and one of them said, “I can’t wait to see you lay that big kiss on Wahoo.” Wahoo heard it and said “There will be no kissing tonight!” So we are in the ring and I see this chance to give him a big kiss and just can’t resist it. He blew up and shoved me into the corner and laid in one of those chops. He hit me so hard he nearly bruised my back bone. Anyway at the slightest hint of pain my acting goes all to hell and I just grabbed him and tied him into a knot until I cleared my mind. Must admit Wahoo was a good sport about it. Whenever we were in the same dressing room he would tell people, “I told the little prick not to kiss me and he did. I shoved him in the corner and hit him with a chop and the little bastard tied me up like a fuckin’ pretzel. No one as small as him has ever been able to do anything like that.”

K-W: Wahoo was known as a legit tough guy so if you could tie him up that’s really saying something.

AS: I was proud of it. In spite of the sore chest it was great for a guy like him to put me over with the others. I sort of earned his respect.

K-W: Many people say it all started with Gorgeous George. Do you consider yourself a student of Gorgeous George?

AS: Not at all. As I said earlier, I was trying to emulate “Nature Boy” Buddy Rogers. The fans didn’t get it, so I just kept taking it further and further. Of course, I had heard of Gorgeous George and seen a picture or two of him in the American magazines, but he didn’t influence me. I never saw him wrestle and the first time I saw video of him was in 1982, when I came to Los Angeles . I have to admit I was impressed with what he did, especially for his time. But I was doing my gimmick for over 20 years before I ever saw any of his matches.

Adrian and Linda live In Gulf Breeze, Florida. where they run their clothing business and still wrestle on a fairly regular basis. You can contact Adrian either to purchase custom-made ring attire or book him to wrestle through his website.

bizarebazzar.com

** A big thank you to everybody who took part in this interview, especially Mr. Street, himself **