💃 "The Exotic One Exposed: Adrian Street’s Wrestling Revolution!"

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Three to one fifty seven Talk dot Com. Gary Cubetta
back once again and with me today, a legend from
the past and professional wrestling Exotic Adrian Street Adrian, pleasure
to have you with us.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Pleasure to be on that Gary. I'm not so much
of them from the past. I'm still wrestling now. You know.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
Well, that's what I want to That's what I want
you to tell us about. But first, Adrian, you were
brought up wrestling in Europe, right, Yes, what year did
you make your debut?

Speaker 2 (00:34):
I had my first professional match in London in nineteen
August eighth, nineteen fifty seven, when i was just sixteen
years of age, and I'd already been boxing professionally on
a fairground boxing boost.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
And you came to the United States many years later,
which is very interesting at the age of forty one,
you flew into Los Angeles. We're going to get back
to your career in Europe. I want to talk about
Los Angeles. What gave you the what gave you the
idea of coming to the United States to wrestler at
a later age.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
Well, I didn't plan onstead of coming in a later age,
I just happened to be the hole when I came,
I did just about everything in Europe, in Africa, in
Asia that that I could do. And you know, before
I ever thought about retiring, I think I just hit
my hit my prime about that time. And the thing is,

(01:39):
the United States of America was the birstplace of all
my own, my own heroes, people like Don Leo Jonason
was my first was my first hero. In actual fact,
when I first started wrestling professionally in nineteen fifty seven,

(02:00):
I borrowed his I borrowed his name and call I
was called Kid Tarzan Johnathan and then they called me
Nature Boy. I was wrestling all over Europe, his Nature Boy,
twelve years before Rick Flair was even was even a
professional wrestler. And I actually got that from there. Was

(02:20):
there there was a writer that that used to write
for for all the European promotions. Although he was a
Canadian called Charles Maskell. He has actually wrestled as as
Spider Maskill sort of back in the late thirties, I think.
But he was very aware of Buddy Rogers and I

(02:43):
reminded of him and reminded him of him, and the
fact that I had my own unique way of training
and I lots of country walks and and that sort
of training, sort of hill climbing and what have you.
It was that dubbed me the nature boy back in

(03:04):
back in about nineteen sixty one, ninety sixty two.

Speaker 1 (03:07):
So you were a little bit ahead of your time,
to say.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
The least, very much so actually.

Speaker 1 (03:14):
And in Europe you were a champion many times over.
Would can you give me some of the titles you held?

Speaker 2 (03:21):
Well, Like I said, I've been wrestling. Next year it
will be my seventh decade. It'll also be my second
century and second millennium. But I've been a champion in
every weight division, from a lightweight up to a heavyweight.
I know you don't have anything but sort of light
heavyweights and heavyweights in the States. Yeah, but in Europe

(03:42):
they've they've I've wrestled fantastic wrestlers. It didn't weigh any
more than about one hundred and thirty pounds. I was
first of all, I was. The first title I ever
held was the lightweight Championship of no I was a
worldweight Championship champion of Wales in the Independence. Then when

(04:04):
I started wrestling for the Big Time Promotions, I won
the lightweight title. Then I've been middleweight Champion of Europe.
I've been light heavyweight Champion in Europe and heavyweight Champion
of Europe. I've been middleweight Champion of the world, like
heavyweight Champion in the world and heavyweight Champion of the world.

(04:27):
And in most of the in most of the states
that I've wrestled in, I've held titles title belts. The
first state I was ever in was California, and I
won the America's title within within the first months of
actually coming into the States. And then they only had

(04:47):
two other belts in the in the territory at the time,
and I was the America's Tag team belts and I
won those belts on my own. I didn't have a
tag team partner when I when I won the when
I went.

Speaker 1 (05:00):
To belt Adrian, when you went in and wrestled with
Michael Bell, that was his last year in promotion, wasn't it.

Speaker 2 (05:07):
Well? When I went in there, the Olympic Auditorium had
been closed for I believe for a number of years.
And after the first show that Michael Bell saw me on,
he knew that he had a hit on his hands,
and he opened up the Olympic Auditorium again and it

(05:29):
was opened the whole time I was there. I would
have liked to stayed longer. I was there for I
think I was there for about eight or nine months,
but I'd already signed a contract with the German promoters
for the tournaments and everything like that they had, And
as though I really didn't want to go, if I
promised somebody I'll do something, I'll do it. So I

(05:50):
went back to I went back to Germany to sort
of do the tournaments. There After that, I came back
to the States and I've been here since and I've
done my touring from here, been as far as Japan
on a few occasions from here, but I've been in
the States ever since.

Speaker 1 (06:10):
And once you left, Michael Bell, that was the end
of his promotion. You wrestled mil Mascars in the Olympic Auditorium.

Speaker 2 (06:16):
Yeah, I wrestled him a number of times and his
brother Doskaras in Mexico. But I wrestled with Miel Mascerus
in the auditorium. It was built as the battle of
the undefeated, and Michael Bell told me after the match

(06:37):
that we drew the last time they drew as many
people in any event was going right back to when
Lou Says defended his title against Baron Michelle Leoni back
in I think it was nineteen fifty.

Speaker 1 (06:55):
Wow, and you leave, he goes out of business. You
come back, and then you really establish yourself in the
southeastern United States and your style just gets over. Big Adrian.
Where did you get this whole style? I see pictures
of you from earlier in your career, and then you
get a little bit exotic. You might say, well, how

(07:18):
did that come to be?

Speaker 2 (07:20):
Well, quite honestly, I knew I was a good wrestler.
I knew I was a very good wrestler. But the
thing is coming from Britain was an advantage and a disadvantage.
The thing is, they are great wrestlers. They're great wrestlers
in Britain and in Europe, and I knew I was.

(07:43):
I knew I was one hell of a good wrestler.
But the thing is I was a good wrestler in
a land of great wrestlers. So it was just my
way of getting of getting attention. When I was a kid,
I had a brother who was six years older and
a sister was six years younger. Like the baby of
the family. They could they could get attention without even trying.

(08:05):
The only way that I could get attention when I
was a kid usually got myself into into trouble. But
even though I couldn't get the attention I wanted without
getting myself into trouble as a kid, I made a
living later on. So I guess I I guess I

(08:25):
learned the hard way out of out of how to
attract attention. And that made a difference between me and
other great wrestlers in Europe.

Speaker 1 (08:34):
When you first debuted the style, what was what was?
What was people's reaction overseas well?

Speaker 2 (08:40):
Quite honestly, when I really started, when I really started
doing the the the the glamorous thing, it was like
in tribute to my to the to one of my
heroes who had been who had been named after by
Charles Maskew, and I was a nature boy, Buddy Rogers.

(09:02):
I was trying to do my own European version of
Buddy Rogers. But they're so conservative in Britain that something
was like sort of lost in translation. Instead of people
going like, oh, I've gotta find Oh it doesn't he
look great? You know, the twenty seven inch waist, the

(09:23):
great suntine, I just bleached my hair blonde. I was
dressed from head to toe in powder blue, including my boots.
I imagine the reaction I got when I walked into
the ring was like, oh, Wow, what a super young
athlete he is. Instead of that, I got like, wooh, Mario,
isn't she cute? Give us a kiss. I was shocked

(09:44):
and horrified, you know. But the thing is, I'd learned
a long time ago, from a time I worked in
a coal mine, to like the miners making fine, you'll
never be a wrestler, to the wrestlers themselves. I was
a bodybuilder. I had like a lot of photographs in magazines,

(10:04):
and instead of the other wrestlers sort of admiring the photographs,
I showed him It's like, oh, like, all your bodybuilders
are all queer as int you. But I wouldn't let
them get into my skin. I'd say, well, some of
us are dear, not all of us, you know, And
he kind of sort of threw it back in their faces.
And fortunately enough, fortunately enough, I've been schooled by fist

(10:25):
taking miners and fist taking wrestlers not to allow people
to sort of see how upset I was. I was
really upset, so instead, I threw it back in their
faces instead of instead of sort of sort of showing
them how dismayed I was. I started growing kisses at
the people and even grabbing my opponent by the backside

(10:49):
instead of giving him a kiss, and the same with
a referee, and just about the lifted roof off the place.
Back in the dressing room. There was no way I
was going to let the other wrestler who'd made fun
of me before I went into the ring. There was
no way I was going to let him say I
was dismayed. It was like sort of falling flat in
your face and sort of jumping up and going haha,

(11:12):
I meant to do that. You know. There was no
way I was going to give anybody any satisfaction. And
as though I was hurt by the reaction I got,
then suddenly that sort of that sort of word reaction
sort of stuck in my mind. It wasn't the reaction
I was looking for, but damn nobody else on the
card got reaction like that, So I got hooked. I

(11:37):
thought to myself, you know, it might not be the
reaction I was looking for, but damn I want more
of it. So things just got more and more outlandish,
more and more outrageous. And really it was the people
who made fun of me that that were really responsible
for launching my career. I give all my ANIMI is

(12:00):
full credit.

Speaker 1 (12:02):
So it did get over in Europe, the whole exotic
age in street appearance.

Speaker 2 (12:11):
It certainly did.

Speaker 1 (12:12):
It certainly did see you come to the United States.
I don't know if anyone had ever seen anything like
this before. When you go down south, the pretty conservative
part of the United States. What was what was the
first territory down south you worked in?

Speaker 2 (12:28):
That was Nashville? Jerry Lawler, Yeah, I actually when Bill
Dundee was a booker at the time, Okay, and Jeff
Jarnes that Jerry was the was a promoter. Well, the
first time I appeared on TV for UIM was in
was in Nashville. I was wrestling a black wrestler called

(12:52):
Ira Ira Rece And during the contest, as as as
you know, just as a matter of part of my repertoire,
when he got angry after this, first of all, I
wrestled him, turned him inside out, that got him angry,
and then just just to sort of pacify him and

(13:13):
what I've here, I grabbed him tied him in a
lock and give him a kiss when I came out.
When I came out of the ring, Jerry Jarrett and
Bill Dundee they go, oh my god, Oh my god.
They said, the the fushboard is absolutely lit up. It's
been lit up, he said. They said, since you went
in there and sort of start performing and everything like that,

(13:34):
they said, it's absolutely jammed. I said, oh, great, yeah, terrific.
You know, they said great. They said, you're gonna lose
his blood TV for crying out loud that Oh you know,
it's oh, what are we going to do? What are
we going to do? And they were really, i mean
really panicking. I wasn't. I thought it was good. But anyway,
they they have the TV show in the morning, there

(13:57):
an inn in the evening time. That was down in Memphis.
In the evening time, we did Nashville Fairground and what
have you. Well, the place is all but packed.

Speaker 1 (14:11):
So did the people did the people want to see
you get beat? Or was it a curiosity factor? How
did you get your eat?

Speaker 2 (14:20):
It was? It was it was a bit of everything.
I mean, they really didn't like me. They really didn't
like me. At the time, I was wrestling in there
as a bad guy.

Speaker 1 (14:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (14:30):
But the thing the next thing is they told me
was listen, Adrian, you're out wrestling. They said, you're out
baby facing the baby Faces. They said, you're a heel.
You know, they said, Tennessee has always been brought up
on what they call chicken shit heels. They said, you

(14:50):
do all your villainy when you get older. The microphone
before the match, you tell the crowd like, oh, you
know it's you're going to do this, You're gonna do that.
You're gonna do something else of the to the good
guy when you get him in there. Then when the
match actually starts, you know, you go out first, you
show off to the people. You sort of get them,

(15:11):
get them really hot. The baby Faces. It's the ring
and you running cow and you jump out of the ring.
You don't want to wrestle, you're frightened. You run in
the corners and generally you get beaten up. I said,
I don't do that, mate, you know. They said no,
but you your baby facing the baby Faces. I said, no,
I'm not. I'm out wrestling the baby Faces. And if

(15:32):
the baby Faces concert to keep up with me, they
can eat my smoke. I said, it goes for YouTube, Bill,
I wouldn't have it. But the thing is, Bill admitted
after I left that that was the only time they
ever made money in UH in Tennessee is when I
was there, because they were breaking I'll just give you

(15:52):
an example of the fairground, for instance, in in Nashville.
They told me that normally this is back in the
early eighties, right, So, I mean, these figures don't sound
very impressive, considering it's like no enormous arena, but they did.
They would growth between two and a half and four

(16:14):
thousand dollars on on on a Saturday night in the fairgrounds.
The first time I was there, after they saw the
kiss on TV, there was eight thousand dollars in there.
The next week there was ten thousand dollars in there.
The week after there was twelve thousand dollars in there.

(16:34):
And that's as many as you can get in there.
Rick Flair resident with Harley Race, couldn't have got more,
couldn't have got more people in in the arena in
those in those days. That was it. That was it,
Max were you.

Speaker 1 (16:49):
Were your main eventing? Yes, was that you against Jerry Lawler.

Speaker 2 (16:55):
Phil Dundee Jerry Lawler had Apocalypses team partner sometimes sometimes
Jesse Barr. But basically it was while Linda and I
were there, That's That's the way it was the whole
time we were there, that particular that particular arena would

(17:18):
do between ten and twelve thousand, and like I say,
twelve thousand was maximum. The week after we left, Bill
Dundee told me it went right back to where it
was before, between two and a half and four thousand.
Again they had to do like a really hot angle
to get four thousand dollars in there. All they had
to do was put me on the card. And who
was between ten and twelve? So I said, So I

(17:41):
said to him, who's right? Who's wrong? I said, listen,
while I'm here, While i'm here, while I'm in this territory,
I'm going to wrestle away. I want to wrestle. I've
been wrestling for a long time, so please don't tell
me how to do it. But all they made me,
all they made there with me was money. So I
say I was right and they were wrong.

Speaker 1 (18:01):
How long did you stay in Memphis with him?

Speaker 2 (18:04):
I only stayed there for four months. Jerry Lawla did
a power play there. I think him and Lance Russell
got the TV away from I think they actually signed
a contract for the TV and they were going to

(18:24):
split the split the territory there. I didn't get on.
I didn't go on well with with with Jerry Lawla anyway,
because he's a bigger He's a much bigger person than
I am. But I could tie h knots and he
does well. I mean, if you know him, you know
what his egos like. He can't he can't stand that,

(18:45):
and I didn't like him too much anyway.

Speaker 1 (18:47):
Adrian, how did you get along with the guys in
the dressing room back there? What they think of your
gimmick and Memphis, Tennessee, Adrian Street, it's crazy.

Speaker 2 (18:55):
Well, some of them liked it, some of them didn't.
But the thing is, I couldn't care less because I
didn't become a professional wrestler for any of them. I
didn't become a professional wrestler for any promoter. I became
a professional wrestler for me. I'm a very selfish person.
You know. The thing is, you play when you're in

(19:16):
the ring with me. You played my way, And the
thing is you can do the easy way or you
can do it the hard way. A lot of wrestlers
out here said, oh, they didn't like being touched on
the backside, they didn't like being cased. Don't do that
like winning a ring with me? I said, okay, we won't.
I'd go in there and tell them, tear them from
ushold to breakfast time when we go back into dressing room. Much.

(19:38):
Did you lie that, No, I didn't, because I'd give
them nothing. I said, Okay, well, you know, maybe maybe
next time we'll we'll we'll sort of do it a
little bit differently. And like I said, I'm not a
big guy. I'm five to seven out a forced feed
myself to weigh over two hundred pounds. But the thing is,

(19:59):
there is nobody. There's nobody since I've been in the
States as messed with me at all.

Speaker 1 (20:06):
Did you work with Randy Savage in Memphis?

Speaker 2 (20:08):
Yes, I did. I wrestled him almost every night for
Ralph for about seven months. At one period he had come.

Speaker 1 (20:15):
Over from his own promotion with his father. What was
he like at the time.

Speaker 2 (20:20):
I got on well with him. Most of the wrestlers
didn't like him. When when when I was built with
him first, I remember hot stuff Eddie Gilbert said to me,
thank God for that. I said, what he said, They're
gonna He said, they're gonna start building you a Randy Savage.
He said. I've been working with him almost every night.
He said, I hate it, he said, because he said
he's wild. He does this, he does that. He said,

(20:44):
he threw coke all over me and all that kind
of stuff. Well, I had a word with Randy before
we started. I said, no spitting. I said, don't you
spit it me? I said, because I'd take up personally.
I said, you throw anything over my clothes. I said,
I've spent a lot of money on I mean, not
only does that so to kind of it's like somebody.
I mean, it's like a woman smacking the interface in public.

(21:05):
Do you know what I mean? Sure, I said, we
don't do that way. I said, you know, if if,
if you feel compelled to do that, I said, do it.
But I said, and I'm going to feel compelled to
do a few things. Do And after I had talked
with him, things were great. I enjoyed. I enjoyed wrestling
with Randy. It's like when I would say I would
say I probably enjoyed wrestling with him as much or

(21:26):
more than anybody since I've been in the States.

Speaker 1 (21:30):
Could you see in him the potential for a big
star on a national basis at the time.

Speaker 2 (21:35):
Yeah, because he told me when he got when he
when he got the when he got the overtures from
from the w w F, which it was at the time,
he said, Vince wants me to work for work for him,
he said, And he's told me he wants me to
do your stuff. I said, match, I said, you go
from a match amountum to to quit. Oh no, no,

(21:56):
he said. Look, he's not the effeminate stuff. He said.
I'm still going to be the match man, he said,
But he said, they want me to wear fancy robes.
He said, I'm gonna have like a lady valet and
everything like that like this, he said, my girlfriend Elizabeth
is going to be the valet. He said, I'm going
to be like the macho version of Adrian Street. I said, okay,
what the best of lock.

Speaker 1 (22:17):
How was Jerry Jarrett for payoffs?

Speaker 2 (22:23):
Not marvelous?

Speaker 1 (22:26):
Did you complain?

Speaker 2 (22:29):
Well, I wasn't there. Sort of, to be honest, I
didn't really know what the what the game was in
the States. The first time I worked for him whenever
I worked for him, since, you know, I learned more
and I made sure I've got to guarantee, So he
was fine after that. Initially he wasn't. But you know,

(22:51):
like I said, I was kind of green to the
ways of the States when I worked for them the
first time. So yeah, like I said, I was too.
I was too green to complain in the first place,
as I wasn't very I wasn't over the moon about
the money. Did you hear then, after working for Mike

(23:12):
Leabell anything was better than that?

Speaker 1 (23:16):
Did you hear a lot of complaints from the other boys.

Speaker 2 (23:20):
Wage White? Yeah? Yeah, but I was doing better than
most of them, even though the money wasn't marvelous even
in those days.

Speaker 1 (23:28):
So, Adrian, after you left Memphis, where next I went?

Speaker 2 (23:33):
From there? I worked for Jerry Graham down in Kampa
Eddie Graham, Yeah, Eddie Graham.

Speaker 1 (23:40):
Yeah, And that was before his untimely death. What was
it like, That was probably around eighty four, right, nineteen
eighty four?

Speaker 2 (23:50):
Yeah, it was no in nineteen eighty three.

Speaker 1 (23:53):
Eighty three, Okay, Yeah, what was Florida like at the time,
Because I've spoken with I was talking to Bill the
other day, and he told me that by eighty three
eighty four, Florida was starting to struggle. Did you see
it when you were there?

Speaker 2 (24:06):
No, just fine.

Speaker 1 (24:07):
When I was down there, it was fine. Okay, so
must have been after you up. What was their reaction
to you in Florida?

Speaker 2 (24:15):
Fantastic? And what's his name? Dusty Rhodes was a booker
down there at the time.

Speaker 1 (24:23):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (24:24):
It was him that wanted me to come down there,
and he says, you're gonna have to beat this best
fucking gimmick I've ever scene.

Speaker 1 (24:35):
So he puts you on TV and the reaction the
same in Memphis. The people start coming out.

Speaker 2 (24:42):
Oh yeah, yeah, it's terrific.

Speaker 1 (24:46):
Who can you give me some of the names you
wrestled in Florida.

Speaker 2 (24:49):
Well, Dusty Rhodes was the was the main one. I
took the title of Scott McGee, who actually is is
I didn't know at the time, but he was British.
He's actually the son of a very good I didn't
even know this guy and any kids, a very good
son of a very good friend of mine, Jeff Boughts.

(25:11):
But there was Bobby Duncan, Angelo Mosca, Barry Windham had
some great matches with Barry Wyndham and Linda, and I
wrestled in mixed tag team matches against Barry Wyndham and
the fabulous Muller, Terry Allen, Brad Armstrong. Oh, any any number,

(25:38):
There was some there, there was there, There was some.
There was some really good guys down there at the toime.

Speaker 1 (25:42):
Did you enjoy Florida more or less than Memphis?

Speaker 2 (25:46):
Oh? I enjoyed it more more.

Speaker 1 (25:47):
Okay. How did the guys treat in the dressing room?

Speaker 2 (25:53):
Very respectful?

Speaker 1 (25:56):
So Florida was better, payoffs pay so much better, much better.
And Florida at the time, well, if Dusty was still there,
things didn't start to go down until after Dusty left.
Now were you there the entire time that Dusty was there?

Speaker 2 (26:10):
No?

Speaker 1 (26:11):
Okay, you left or he left? I left and your
next stop.

Speaker 2 (26:19):
I worked a little bit with Bill Dundee and Ole Anderson.
They had broken away from the from the various promotions,
and they they kind of opened opposition in Georgia and
part of Alabama.

Speaker 1 (26:40):
And was that the morning show on WTBS.

Speaker 2 (26:45):
Yeah, the the TV show was in the morning, Okay,
but yeah, but when I went in there, there was
like a personality clash and where you. Bill Dundee asked
me to come in because he knew how well I
did for a minute in Tennessee, sort of him that
actually asked me to go up there. But it was

(27:05):
a bad move actually leaving uh, leaving Tampa. I kind
of regretted doing it because there was like a big
personality clash between Orleie Anderson and Bill Dundee. So when
I went in there, the time I actually went in there,
they were virtually they were virtually already closing it down.

(27:29):
So I got in there too late to help him.

Speaker 1 (27:30):
Actually, did you did you actually wrestle on w TBS, Yes,
a couple of times.

Speaker 2 (27:36):
Mm hmm.

Speaker 1 (27:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (27:38):
But I went from there then to work for.

Speaker 1 (27:45):
Mid Atlantic.

Speaker 2 (27:48):
Cracket No, no, uh, Joe Blanchard in in San Antonio.

Speaker 1 (27:57):
Texas, San Antonio.

Speaker 2 (27:59):
Yeah, because the Sheepherders, the sheepherders were were just leaving
the territory from Memphis when I was in there, you know,
from Nashville. They and they went into that they had
already gone to work for for Blanchard, and Luke became

(28:22):
their booker and he knew what I was doing for
him in in in Nashville, and and I figured I
could probably do the same in Texas, which I did.

Speaker 1 (28:33):
Now, when you went into work for Blanchard, he had
already gone national on USA Network. He had lost that slot.

Speaker 2 (28:40):
You came in after, right, I don't know. I don't
know what sort they had before I was in there
or what have you. And I can't remember what it
was after. How How was the I actually went I
actually went in and started working for from towards the

(29:03):
end of eighty three and singers running about August eighty three.
I think I went into work for him, and I
I was ever about eight months?

Speaker 1 (29:17):
You work were Blanchard for eight months?

Speaker 2 (29:19):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (29:20):
And that was Did you work at all with Buck Robley?

Speaker 2 (29:24):
No? I met him, didn't like him and let him know.

Speaker 1 (29:32):
Okay, fair enough, a reason why.

Speaker 2 (29:38):
I'm never been into drugs for it that way, okay,
fair enough?

Speaker 1 (29:45):
You go into San Antonio. How's business?

Speaker 2 (29:49):
I'm excellent? It was great?

Speaker 1 (29:51):
It was great. Did you work with Joe? Joe eventually
sold the promotion to Fred Barns. Did you did you
did you do the switchover or did you leave before
the No?

Speaker 2 (30:01):
I got I got a call from from Dory Funk,
who was booking for for Crockett, and he wanted me
to come in and offered me good money, and and uh,
that's where I went.

Speaker 1 (30:22):
Now, Crockett would have been a big opportunity because at
the time he was about to launch a national promotion.
It was very popular. What what happened when you went
into his area?

Speaker 2 (30:34):
What do you mean what happened?

Speaker 1 (30:35):
Well? How do how they utilize you? What they think
of you?

Speaker 2 (30:39):
You're You're different terrific? Actually, well, an actual fact he
made he made a music he made a music video
for me and used somebody who was who was used
used a guy that made videos and things like that.
The same guy was making them for Michael Jackson at

(31:03):
the time. M hm. And the funny thing is it
was to my own music too, you know, because I
write and produced my own music. I've got to I've
got two albums, two rock albums out at the moment.
But he use one of those songs on that thing.
It costed me eleven thousand dollars to make like a

(31:25):
two and a half three minute video, which was a
lot of money back in those days. And I had
to wait for my copy because apparently, apparently Michael Jackson
was just about to launch his Victory tour. He was
showing my video and he stole my copy because he

(31:46):
said that's going to be part of his part of
part of his own personal entertainment on when he was
when he was doing his Victory tour. That's when he
when he launches Diamond Glover. I think so.

Speaker 1 (32:00):
Crackett pays for video. Mm hmmm, you're supposed to get
a copy for you what your own use, promotional use. Yeah,
you never got it.

Speaker 2 (32:12):
I did, but I didn't get the original when I
was supposed to get Michael Jackson ended up with it.

Speaker 1 (32:17):
And what did Michael Jackson have to do with what
was his interest in wrestling a video that was related
to wrestling?

Speaker 2 (32:23):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (32:24):
Hu wow, So you never got it.

Speaker 2 (32:29):
Maybe you got some ideas from it, because only the
I mean the rock and roll stars and everything now
that in Britain all good ideas for the designs of
their costumes and what have you from from me? In
actual fact, Mark Bolan, Elton, John adam An, Gary Glitter,

(32:56):
David Bowie, ol Woll sort of ol Woll sort of
either clothes or makeup and sort of stuff that I wore.
I designed I designed stuff that they old that they
all wore, and I mean I still do now, you know.
We designed That's That's the main thing that Linda and
I do is we make costumes for show based people,

(33:17):
mostly for professional wrestlers. But we just did all the
I don't know if you've seen the movie The Wrestler,
but we made all the costumes for that for Mickey
Rourke and all the other people in it. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (33:30):
Oh wow, tremendous. Yeah, great movie and the costume is fantastic.
I didn't know that, Adrian, Adrian, how long were you
in mid Atlantic?

Speaker 2 (33:42):
Crocket Over Crockett. Yeah, not that long, maybe about five months.
What happened was I was doing I was doing fantastic,
and I think I would I was making so much money.
I think I would have stayed there forever. But Dusty
Rhoades came in to replace Dory Funk as a booker,

(34:06):
and he says, the first thing he did when he
came in, they turned me from from from a bad
guy where I've been feuding against people like Jimmy Valley,
and they turned me into into a good guy. So
the first thing fast he did when he came in,
he has teamed himself up with with Jimmy Valley to myself.

(34:29):
So you know, straight away, all our sort of how
can I say, our glory was kind of reflected on him.
He got over straight away as being sort of associated
with us. And then as soon as he was kind
of over, he says, I didn't want to change you.

(34:52):
He said, I didn't want to change you into a
good guy. He said. He said, we could have done
a big feud and everything like that, like he said,
like we did down in Florida. He said, we're going
to on a big feud and everything like that. He said,
Bill Watts, he said, asked if he could, if you
could have you said, I'm going to let you go
to Bill. He said, Then when everybody's forgotten you a year,
he said, I'll bring you back as he said, I'll

(35:14):
bring you back a the heel. He said, we can
do the same kind of thing that we did down
in down in Tampa. So off I went to work
for Bill Watts.

Speaker 1 (35:24):
But did you get to appear on any of the
big shows like the Starcade that Crockett was doing.

Speaker 2 (35:32):
No, we let we were supposed to. We let Dusty.
Dusty transferred us to Bill Watts, just as he The
first one we were going to do was coming up.

Speaker 1 (35:47):
What was it like working with Bill Bill Watts?

Speaker 2 (35:50):
Yeah, bloody hard. We were driving between two and a
half and four thousand miles a week, boy, and it
was like being back in Europe. Back in Europe, I
was wrestling ten eleven times in one week. But it's
you know, it's it's exactly the same in in uh
in Bill Watch's territory. Accept that it was even more

(36:15):
driving than I did in Europe.

Speaker 1 (36:16):
You know, how did Bill react to your gimmick or
your persona.

Speaker 2 (36:22):
Well, he sure liked it. Because the thing is, I
don't think Bill mine's extreme gimmicks as long as somebody
can back it up with wrestling. He really likes Bill
really likes wrestlers, and that's what I am, even more
than a showman.

Speaker 1 (36:38):
Did the Louisiana fans really hate you?

Speaker 2 (36:42):
Oh yeah, they certainly did, especially especially especially occasions.

Speaker 1 (36:52):
I can imagine probably most of the people who saw
you back then, including myself, even though I didn't live
down south so I couldn't see you alive, they didn't
know what to make of you.

Speaker 2 (37:01):
Well that that was on purpose. I didn't want people
to to it's it's funny. You know. I was an
artist years ago, and if I had a good artist
criticize my work, which are often dead, their criticism was
I put too much detail into something. And when when

(37:26):
when a penny finally dropped? And I realized that by
blurring the edges, blurring the edges and sort of putting
shadows into a picture, that people could look at it
and make their own mind up what they were looking
at instead of making things too precise. I decided that

(37:48):
might be a good idea to you know, if you
suggest something with a shadow, people can see what they want.
So I decided to suggest things with a shadow with
my own persona, I'm blow the edges. The thing is,
there was a country commentator that's sort of kind of

(38:09):
sum things up for me and sort of put it
in a nutshell in a way. He said, he is street.
He says it looks like a big sum our wrestler.
He says. He said, he's tougher to assume our wrestler.
He says. He said it looks a cross between like
one of those really ferocious Japanese sort of things in
a French poodle. He said, when he comes in the ring,
he says. But he said he might look like a poodle,

(38:29):
he said, till a bell starts, he said. But when
that bell starts, he said, he he said, he ain't
a poodle normal, he said, he changes into a pitbull.
And that is the thing I don't I've never The
thing is, I'll tell you now something I never would
have said. This could be a scoop for you for

(38:52):
your show. I am not and never have been a
homosexual or a sissy or anything else. If people want
to call me that, like fair enough, But I mean,
can you think of anything more extreme than somebody that
looks like a schoolgirl but can tear your face off
and make you eat it. I've got so many I've

(39:14):
got so many ways that I've got so many ways
to hurt. People have to invent new ways to scream.
But like I say, there's a lot of people. There's
a lot of people like that in Europe. It is
my way of being different. But if I turned around
and said like, oh, yes, I'm a poof, I'm gay,
or sort of something like that, then even though I'm not,

(39:37):
people could have said, okay, well fair enough, that's it.
Then like we wondered, Now we know because he said so,
But I wouldn't say so. In fact, I try to
blur the edges as much as I could if somebody,
when somebody suggested something now that I can't let it
go over my head like I didn't understand what they
were talking about. But if they asked me so directly

(40:00):
that I could, instead of actually avoid the issue, I
wouldn't say yes. I wouldn't say no. I'd sort of
say that says, oh, really, when anybody tries to infer
in any way, shape or form that I'm effeminated, it
makes me want to scream. So that way, I blurred
the edges. So are your aren't you? You know what
I mean. I'm sort of denying the thing, but in

(40:22):
such a way that sort of makes it sort of
sound like the opposite.

Speaker 1 (40:24):
Well, you came to the ring with your wife, miss Linda,
so that.

Speaker 2 (40:30):
You're very astute. That's another. That was another. That was
another blur.

Speaker 1 (40:34):
The edges were blurred right there. I would look at you,
I remember back then, and think, well, this must be
a gay gimmick. But wait a minute, he's got his
wife at ringside. How does how do these two things tie? Together,
And do you think that helped get you over or
hurt you? In other words, let's say you had done
just a straight kind of like Adrian Adonis did later
in ww F. Do you think that helped you or

(41:00):
you were confused people?

Speaker 2 (41:02):
I think it helped a lot. Linda, I mean Linda,
Linda's Linda's presence was really very powerful. And as far
as Adrian the Donuts is concerned, I knew that that
gimmick wasn't going to get over anywhere like mine right
from the bat, because if you remember, if you remember,
at one time he was managed by Jimmy Hart, Jimmy Hart.

(41:25):
He used to sort of listened to all the funny
sort of catchphrases and things like that that I'd come
out with when I was doing my interviews or when
I was talking backstage as the boys, and I didn't
know at the time, but he was writing them all
down because he thought they were cute and he thought
they were funny. And he said to me, he said, oh,

(41:46):
he says Vince. He said Vince. He said, Vince is
gonna has got Adrian Adonis. He said, like to do
this sort of gazing and everything. He said, I've got
all your little catchphrases and stuff like that. He says,
he says, you know, we can, We're going to use
those like blah blah blah and all the rest of it.
So nasually, I'm always kind of interested. So he had
like a flower shop or some sort of thing that

(42:07):
he that he did. But when he first went blonde
and he was saying, I have an announcement to make next
next time, I'm on. You know this is this is
going to be like the big announcement. And I knew
beforehand by what, you know, what it was going to be,
but I didn't exactly know how how he was going
to sort of present it. So Nash I was interested

(42:29):
to sort of say how he was going to present
his image to the world. And I knew straight away
that he'd sort ofmit a blunder because he says, like, Okay,
so now I'm going to make my big announcement. I've
come out of the closet. I'm gay as always say,
if you've done it, that's it. That's the end of it.
There's no blurring, there's no sort of it isn't you

(42:51):
know he wasn't still in my gimmick a toll. Then
as far as I was concerned, because he'd all he
turned round and told the people that that but he
was that he was gay. So that's the end of
the story. Okay, see again, so what no no blurring

(43:13):
the edges or anything. And as far as the cashphrase
is concerned, he just didn't quite get the gist of what.
You know, there was like sort of things i'd say sometimes,
like a commentator said to me, well, you know you're
so vicious. You know why you're going to be so
vicious while you're in there. I said, oh, yes, I
can be vicious. I can be terribly vicious. I could

(43:35):
kill a man. Eventually he tried to do the same thing. Yea,
I'll tell you where. He made such a mess of it.
I mean it it you know, it just didn't come
off at all. I thought, quite honestly, I thought he

(43:55):
was about the most. I mean, there's a lot of
people have sort of done my gimmicks since I've been
in the state, so attempted to. I liked him, actually,
you know, I met him when I was working for
La bell I met him when it's sort of coming
from Japan sometimes and like a lot of the guys
coming from Japan would sort of stop off and do

(44:17):
a few shots for Michael Bell on their way back
to New York, and I met him then we got
on great. But even so I thought is version of
that kind of gimmick was quite pathetic.

Speaker 1 (44:32):
Sloppy, sloppy compared to the way you did. He didn't
put the year into it. Yeah, and his career went
down from there. Adrian, did you ever get the opportunity
yourself to go in and do your gimmick in w
w F.

Speaker 2 (44:48):
No. The only the only time I ever worked for
w w F was the only time I ever worked
for w WF was when I was still working for
Crockets and they actually took the Omni over and they
didn't want to take my name off the card because
I meant a lot there. So I actually actually got
a paycheck from Titan.

Speaker 1 (45:10):
But is there a reason you didn't work with them?

Speaker 2 (45:14):
They a number of years ago they wanted me to
go and work for them as a manager, and they said, like,
would you be happy working as a manager, like rather
than arrest? I said, yeah, great, And you know it
was the kind of money that the the wwww were paying,

(45:39):
Damn right, I don't mind. And then they told me
that they've got like two English guys coming over from
Britain that they want me to manage. I said, great, terrific.
You know, most of the British people are thoriously bad
talkers anyway, so they probably figured that I would sort
of help them out. As far as that was concerned.

(46:01):
I was all in favor of it, and and I'm
sort of quite happy to go up there as a
manager until they told me what their gimmick was going
to be. Now, bear in mind how outrageous my own gimmick is,
like a gimmick that I made up myself. You would
imagine that they would be very little that I'd actually balkut.

(46:22):
But they found about the one or only thing that
I wouldn't do. Never mind what the the two British
wrestlers were going to be called the British Skinheads. They
were going to be like a white supremacist group, and
I was going to be like I guess I would

(46:43):
have been like Adolf Hitler or some bloody thing, you
know what I mean? Well, oh that that that type
is what I'm saying. You know, I would have been.
I was supposed to be their manager and a white supremacist. Well,
you know, quite honestly, I've been restling for too long

(47:04):
and I think I've got too favorable a legacy to
go more in myself at this stage of my life,
you know what I mean. And there isn't much out
There isn't much out There isn't much that I won't
do if the price is right. But they found one
of them.

Speaker 1 (47:23):
So they didn't want exotic Adrian Street. They wanted the
skinhead version. Yes, boy, so you could have worked for it.

Speaker 2 (47:31):
I've never I've never been I've never been a racist.
But it's one thing that I do know. If I
put myself into anything, I know. I know this sort
of sounds very much like me blow my own trumpet,
like which I always do. But I am very good
at anything that I put myself into, and quite honestly,

(47:52):
I really don't see myself as that. I would convince
a lot of people. I would convince a lot of
black friends and and and Hispanic friends and Jewish friends
and things like that that I've got. I would be
too good at doing it. I convinced a lot of people.
I was very weird and very strange, and in fact
I'm not. Can you imagine doing something like that, Adrian, when.

Speaker 1 (48:20):
You were outside the ring, did people did you appear
to be strange with the hair or are we able
to walk around without getting too much attention?

Speaker 2 (48:34):
No? That that that was one of the main problems
with the with What what I often do is like,
so the tie my hair up. But I mean, now
I've got my hair shaved and people still recognize me,
and I don't have one single hair on my head
at the moment. I've shaved my hair off like a
billiard like like I look like a billiard bowl when

(48:55):
I go in the ring now, you know, especially place
I haven't been for a while. I wear a blonde
wig that looks exactly or very very much like my
hair used to look. But then I get an extra
pop from the audience because es, you know, like Linda
takes my gown off, sprays the perfume, does all that
kind of stuff, and the bell will go I'm just

(49:15):
about I'll sort of sort of stalk ground a ring
once or twice and Lindall jumps up on the April.
Adrien A, you've forgotten what Oh okay, yeah, I forgot
So I'd walk over to her and she pulls the
wig off, and we kind of get an extra pop.
It kind of serves a better purpose instead of people
going like, who the hell is that? If I walked
in without the way in the first place, like we

(49:37):
thought we could see Adrian Street, there's his ball at
it bugger. Yeah, So you know, we actually get an
extra pop from from We actually get an advantage out
of what would be a disadvantage Adrian.

Speaker 1 (49:55):
Did you ever get a chance to go in with
Turner when he World Championship Wrestling Dusty was booking there, Bill.

Speaker 2 (50:02):
Watts, No, I don't think so, I can't. I can't
remember when did you.

Speaker 1 (50:08):
Leave wrestling on a full time basis?

Speaker 2 (50:17):
Probably probably towards the end of last century.

Speaker 1 (50:26):
Okay, like ninety five, ninety eight, ninety ninety eight, I
don't remember where.

Speaker 2 (50:31):
Yeah, we're wrestling very regularly through ninety eight into ninety nine.
It's probably run about that time, so he kind of
slackened off. And and I won't travel in less surprises,
I won't travel any distance and less surprises, very right.

Speaker 1 (50:47):
I don't remember you. In the nineties, of course, the
business had changed a lot. There was Turner on TV
and Vince on TV, and then a lot of the
other promotions Independence they didn't have TV, so unless you
were in that local area, you might not see you, right.

Speaker 2 (51:03):
Yeah, the last promotion that I worked full time for
was Continental. After that, I could have I could have.
I could have gone back into Texas and I got
quite a lot of office and everything like that at

(51:24):
the time. But the thing is, I put my roots
down in Gulf Breeze, and I wasn't going to leave
you for anything. I didn't mind going maybe for a
week or even or even a couple of weeks somewhere
if the money was good, but there was no way
I was going to go into a territory and live
there anymore like I had in the past.

Speaker 1 (51:44):
Did you ever work with Austin Idel Dennis McCord.

Speaker 2 (51:47):
Yeah, an actual fact, the first match I had on
TV for Continental was against him. He had a Continental
belt and I took it off him in six minutes.

Speaker 1 (52:00):
What was he like outside the ring? I've heard a
lot of interesting stories and comments.

Speaker 2 (52:10):
If I had a cup of strong coffee, which I like,
I wouldn't put it too close to him because if
I drunk it, I'd find a coffeine was gone.

Speaker 1 (52:22):
Wait, come back on it. I didn't pick that up.

Speaker 2 (52:24):
Hold on, he's a greedious, most grubbing. What I'm saying
is he'd probably steal a coffee under my coffee.

Speaker 1 (52:32):
Oh geez, Okay, I heard I've heard a lot of
guys say stuff like this about him. Was he just
universally disliked?

Speaker 2 (52:41):
I'd say so. I've I don't like him myself, and
I've never met anybody that did it.

Speaker 1 (52:47):
How is it for someone like that in the dressing
room when everyone when no one likes him? Who do they?
What's he do? Just pose in front of the mirror.

Speaker 2 (52:55):
I guess he's the same as me in that way.
He loves himself, and I've not to really worry.

Speaker 1 (53:02):
Yeah, he never he never made it as a big
star in the business on a national basis. Do you
think it was because of how he was or do
you think maybe his gimmicks seemed that he'd be perfect
for Vince?

Speaker 2 (53:21):
He certainly had plenty of you know, you know, although
I don't like the guy, he certainly had plenty of
presents and and and flair and sort of made himself,
you know, he was he was good at sort of
getting attention on himself and what have you. But I
think when he worked over for I think when he

(53:41):
worked over for one of the big promotions. I think
it was, oh, Jim, I think it was for Jim
Barnett in Georgia. Yeah, yeah, I think that there was
like some sort of thing where where there was some

(54:02):
kind of tournament or some kind of match where the
winner got like a check for thirty thousand dollars or
something like that, which was an awful money back in
those days. And of course it was like kind of bogus,
you know, I mean, like you know, the winner wasn't
going to get that kind of money, got regular wages.
It was just sort of something that was said to

(54:26):
to create more interest, you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (54:29):
And what did he do with that check?

Speaker 2 (54:32):
Run off and cash there? Oh?

Speaker 1 (54:34):
I think I've heard that story somewhere before, now that
you bring it up.

Speaker 2 (54:38):
Yeah, I think I think you're still about from somewhere
as well, that that that wasn't supposed to that wasn't
supposed to go there, you know, I mean, you don't
you don't leave a territory and take about with you,
you know what I mean. The belt belongs to whatever territory,
and even if you're a champion at the time, you know,
you don't say, like, okay, I'm leaving now, I'm taking

(54:59):
about with me because it's not your property. You might
have won it while you're in that territory, but you
don't take it with you, you know what I mean?

Speaker 1 (55:06):
Adrian, was it difficult for you if you were in
a territory that you didn't like and maybe they didn't
like you so much coming to the arena and going
into the dressing room, or didn't it bother you?

Speaker 2 (55:17):
Didn't bother me at all. If I was a bad guy,
all I cared about is the people not liking me.
If I was a good guy, then then the opposite.
But as far how can I say when I wanted
to become a professional wrestler in the first place, I

(55:40):
felt like I would have liked to have been a
Roman gladiator. But of course I'm two thousand and two late.
Two years I was two thousand and two years late
for that. So the closest I could come to it
was being with being a professional wrestler, And I always
imagine so I would be part of a world of

(56:03):
like heroes I've never met, so I've bleeding back by
the old bitches in all my flame in life, as
as a lot of a lot I wouldn't say, oh,
but a lot of professional wrestlers can be.

Speaker 1 (56:23):
A lot of backstabbing in the business.

Speaker 2 (56:25):
Yeah, So I learned that I learned at a very
tender age not to give one bloody damn you know,
whether whether there's so much jealousy in this business that
I've always found that you don't tell your best friend

(56:45):
in the business. You don't tell your best friend a
secret that you wouldn't want your worst enemy to do
to know because today's best friend is tomorrow's worst enemy
in this business very often, And I found in this business,
if you go friends, you don't need enemies. M Also,
I've also found if you've got if you've got enemies,

(57:07):
you don't need friends, because I've used my enemies as
a sounding board for just about everything I've done all
the way through. And I think I owe more to
people who hate my guts in this business than people
who love me.

Speaker 1 (57:22):
Adrian, did you have any regrets from your United States career?
Maybe that you didn't get picked up by a national
promotion that you didn't Is there something you would have
liked to have done that you didn't do.

Speaker 2 (57:35):
I never wrestled in Madison Square Garden. I mean I've
wrestled in prestigious arenas all over the world, the Royal
Albert Hall, Apaladi Sports in Paris, and the Superdome in
New Orleans, and you know various I mean various sort
of big arenas and what have you. I never ever

(57:57):
wrestled in Madison Square Garden, and the Madison Square Garden
has been sort of a magic building for me from
the times I followed boxing, boxing as well as wrestling,
you know Common Bazilo and Rocky Marciano and Rocky Graciano,

(58:18):
Tony Zail. I loved all those characters. I mean, sort
of going way way back to my favorite boxer, Jack Johnson.
I know, I know he never voughted in Madison Square Garden,
but anyway, getting back to that, you know nature Boy,
Buddy Rogers, Killer Kowalski, Yukon Eric, you know all those

(58:43):
sort of fantastic Bruno, San Martino, all those fantastic Anthonino Rocker,
all those sort of fantastic sort of heroes of mine
from sort of way back, I would have loved. That's
about the only regret I've got. I think I would
have loved to have walked more sort of many years ago,
maybe even than you know even then now, but to

(59:06):
sort of to walk where they walked this time.

Speaker 1 (59:12):
What I'm saying, oh, sure, did you did you see
the handwriting on the wall that that will probably wasn't
going to happen.

Speaker 2 (59:21):
Yeah, Like I said, I was pretty green when I
came to the States first. When I was working for
Michael Bell, I got a phone call from Vince mcman
and he asked me to go in there. But I
said to him, I can't. I can't come to the
time that you're talking about, because I said, I'm going
to go back to Germany. I said, I'll give you

(59:42):
a call. I said, whenever I come back to the States.
I said, I wouldn't mind you know, I wouldn't mind them.
But I guess, you know, I mean, I didn't know
how advented, how advantageous that would have been to me
if I taken it up, you know. So I'm I mean,
that's another regret I've got, I guess, is to have

(01:00:03):
not gone and work for Vincent Mancini when he asked
me to.

Speaker 1 (01:00:07):
So you did have that.

Speaker 2 (01:00:08):
I was I was green. I didn't really know who
was who in the states fuck in those days.

Speaker 1 (01:00:11):
So you did have the opportunity. It was just that
he had a previous commitment. You didn't want to renig
on it, and then the window closed and you never
had the opportunity to go back.

Speaker 2 (01:00:21):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:00:22):
Have you had a lot of injuries? I talked to
a lot of the stars from the sixties and seventies
in the eighties, and they all say pain, pain, pain,
That's that's the thing that they seem to feel most
about professional wrestling. Yet you still wrestle. How do how
does that work? How'd that work out for you? Injuries?

Speaker 2 (01:00:43):
Yeah, I've I've I've had I've had some pretty bad injuries,
but I think I've been sort of on a hole
being pretty lucky. The worst I ever had was back
in nineteen seventy three and I had my achilles attendant
on right in half. And I remember lying in the
hospital bed after the surgery and a surgeon came to

(01:01:03):
see me. I mean, he was a big wrestling fan,
knew exactly who I was, and one of you. Anyway,
he came sort of said a load to me. After
the thing. And he said to me, okay, and he says, like,
you know, what are you going to do now? I said,
what am I going to do now? I said, to
let you and be miserable. I guess, I saidntil I
get better? He says no, He said, you used to

(01:01:25):
be a professional wrestler. He said, you will never wrestle again.
He said without injury. He said, what are you going
to do now? And I tell you why. I thought.
I felt like I felt like I got some My
world just fell apart then. But I determined. I said
to myself, well, I don't care what happens. I'm going
to wrestle again. And I did. That actually took me

(01:01:46):
out of the ring for five months, but I was
back in the ring and it's never bothered me. Since
I've had my kneecap. I've had my kneecap torn off,
and that was fairly recent, you know, I mean that
was just a few years ago. I've had all my
rivers broken, my ear cauliflower. The other year, I've had
fifteen stitches in that I had my ear cut right
in half up in my hand up to my to

(01:02:10):
my year. My ear wasn't I respected side of my face.

Speaker 1 (01:02:17):
Have you had any hip replacement surgery, knee surgery, anything
like that.

Speaker 2 (01:02:21):
Well, I've had knee surgery because my knee cup. A wrestled,
jumped off a corner post missed me, hit my hit
my knee and took my kneecap off. I mean my
kneecap actually ended up in my up in my thigh.
So I've had that. But I was squatting earlier with
three hundred and fifty pounds. I worked up to three

(01:02:45):
hundred and fifty pounds squad today, So I'm tough.

Speaker 1 (01:02:53):
Still pretty tough.

Speaker 2 (01:02:55):
I was working in a coma when I was fifteen
with my father. I come from Stock, had a great
grandfather called Jim Arnold. He was what they call a
mountain fighter. It was like a bare knuckle fighter, it was.
It was the kind of fighting he did was like
cage fighting, only without a cage. They called him mountain

(01:03:15):
fighters because they'd go up on a mountain, they'd scratch
a line on the ground. Two of them that I
would go to each other and that was it. And
it was a fight he had with somebody called cowboys
something years ago. This was my great grandfather, mind Jew,
and they fought all day until it was too dark
to see each other. So they said, okay, we'll finish

(01:03:36):
it tomorrow. So they actually had a fight that lasted
two days. I still don't know who won, whether it
was like the Cowboy or it was my great grandfather,
Big Jim Arnold. But that is the kind of stock
that I come from.

Speaker 1 (01:03:50):
And to this day, you still wrestle, Adrian, Where where
do you I was?

Speaker 2 (01:03:55):
I was wrestling, not this weekend, just going over wrestling
last weekend. I did a big legend show in Dosin
and Alabama.

Speaker 1 (01:04:04):
And you got in the ring.

Speaker 2 (01:04:05):
I wrestled against Yeah, I wrestled against Musselpringle.

Speaker 1 (01:04:10):
Well, I should be surprised, Adrian. That's seven decades.

Speaker 2 (01:04:14):
Right on my first pro match in nineteen fifty seven,
I wrestled to the fifties, sixties, seven days, eighties nine,
I've wrestled in the tens. I intend wrestled a few
times next year because that would make it my seventh decade.

Speaker 1 (01:04:28):
The seven decades coming up. Okay, it's just amazing. It's
just amazing. And do you have another match schedule? Do
you do one match a month? Won every couple of months?

Speaker 2 (01:04:37):
H I I'll do whatever I do, whatever comes up.
If surprise is right, tremendous.

Speaker 1 (01:04:47):
Well, I want to congratulate, congratulate you on a wonderful career.
You've given a lot of people entertainment, and you certainly
had a unique character that you created that was copied
many times over, but probably never successfully copied by anyone else.

Speaker 2 (01:05:04):
I don't know, I don't, I don't, I don't think
so it's it's too good. The thing is, Vince sent
Record to me because he wanted he wanted Record to
do that kind of gimmick, and he sent him to me,
he said, because Vince said himself that Adrian Street is
the only one really does that, right, he said, go

(01:05:26):
to Adrian, he said, and learning secret. And he was
a really nice kid, were a really a really pleasant gentleman.
But at the same time, I know this sort of
sounds copy and cocky. I am, so however it sounds

(01:05:47):
it's just too bad. But I think the only way
that you can ever do exotic Adrian Street is to
be born during the war in nineteen forty, have your
dad be a prisoner war with the Japanese, and you
long for a hero, and your dad finally comes home

(01:06:09):
and this is the hero that you want. He turns
out to be a Bible bash and bully who I've
never had a conversation with in my life. A brother
who's six years older, who's even a bigger bully that
beat you up on a on a regular basis until
I got to be fifteen years of age and one
tough nut myself, and it'd come back on him that

(01:06:33):
sort of made him leave his fist in his pocket.
I thought gypsies, pikes, Jippo's, coal miners and fairground thugs
and things like that up until the time I was sixteen,
when I became a professional wrestler, I thought I was

(01:06:54):
a great wrestler. I thought I was gonna take these
people apart. But I'll tell you something when you mix
with people. Is a town in Britain called Wigan, and
a guy that found it was a guy called Billy Riley.
They called it the snake Pit. There were miners there,

(01:07:15):
coal miners who were wrestlers who came into professional wrestling.
They could turn you inside out on every side. App
when wrestling really boomed in Britain, the main promoters there
went from running seven hundred shows in one year, which
sounds a lot to four thousand, five hundred shows in
one year. Just when I started with them, there were

(01:07:38):
wrestlers from all over the world going to Britain. That
was like the mecha of professional wrestling at that particular time,
just a main promoters running four thousand, five hundred shows
in one year. I was wrestling forty times a month regularly,
and they were an independent promote. It was like a
lot of independent promoters over there as well. But we

(01:08:00):
had Turkish oil wrestlers, we had Russian sambo wrestlers, we
had Hungarian Greco Roman wrestlers. We had all kinds of
orientals with a mirrored of exotic styles that it's just
about blow your mind. We had French aerial artists and
everything like that would make these Lucha libre wrestlers look

(01:08:26):
like third rate bloody circus acrobats, Hungarian Hungarian Greco Roman wrestlers.
It was absolutely full. But I tell you what, those
people came over with the idea of making a name

(01:08:46):
for themselves in Britain, and the only way that they
could make a name for themselves and become stars was
to win. The promoters kept this thing. You might sort
of tell somebody to win, but you know, you'd go
in the in the ring and you'd show the promoter
and anybody else that you were the guy who was
supposed to win. So it was more of a shoot

(01:09:09):
than than than than regular shoot wrestling over there. But like,
if you think that you had to be afraid of
all all those different exotic and and and sort of
rough styles that came to Britain, if you could hang
with any of those guys from the Snake Fit, from
the Wigan Snake Fit and everything like that, you could
hang with anything that the world could possibly throw you.

(01:09:32):
You you've heard of Frank of Carl Gotch. Okay, I
was saying that if you could hang with the Wigan wrestlers,
there wasn't anything that the rest of the world could
throw at you and everything like that they could face
you one a little bit.

Speaker 1 (01:09:48):
What what year was this.

Speaker 2 (01:09:50):
When I started When I started with him, it was
nineteen sixty one.

Speaker 1 (01:09:54):
And you said that Carl Gotch was kind of.

Speaker 2 (01:09:56):
Car Carl Gotch came over to Britain ran about that time.
Carl Gotch was actually from Belgium and he was fourteen
times national champion, seven times in catcher catch can wrestling
and seven times in Gregor Roman. He was good. But
not only that, he was also the Docklands all in fighter,

(01:10:20):
some in the eye, knee in the crotch, rip your
eyeut need it sort of type wrestling he was. He
was a Dockland champion as well of anything goes. I mean,
these these people who were some bloody pit bulls. But anyway,
when he came over to Britain, he'd heard of the
snake pit naturally, and everybody, just about everybody in the

(01:10:42):
world and knew anything about sort of straight shoot wrestling
knew about it. The first thing he said when he
came over to Britain is where does Billy Riley? That's
a snake bit. Where's Wigan? He couldn't wait to get
up there. So anyway, this fourteen times and Dockland champion,
fourteen times champion of Belgium went to the snake pit

(01:11:11):
and found that there wasn't anybody in the gym. He
could beat everybody that was there, from the best, from
a taste is to the tasteless, could kick his house.
Carl Carl Gotch Now I say nothing bad about him
at all. He said, I'm going to throw everything I

(01:11:35):
thought I knew. Bear in mind, fourteen times champion of
Belgium and one hell of a fighter as well as
a catcher catch can wrestler and Gregor Roman. He said,
I'm going to throw everything I thought I knew about
wrestling out the window. He said, I'm going to start
off and learn like a novice. And he trained under

(01:11:56):
personally under Billy Riley in the snake Pit for eight years.
His name was carol Istas, by the way, but anyway,
carol Istas then left Britain, went to Canada and the
States where he emigrated out here, changed his name to
Carl Gotch and he's the one. He's one of the

(01:12:19):
ones to blame besides a few other English guys. He's
one of the ones to blame for like a lot
of the Japanese being so tasty instead of taking you know,
being having a reputation. He went. He went out to
Japan and a shipload of money out there and was
known in Japan as the God of the god of

(01:12:39):
pro wrestling because he taught the Japanese the the old
British Wigan style of wrestling.

Speaker 1 (01:12:50):
So so was this snake pit arena wrestling. People would
pay to come see it or was it?

Speaker 2 (01:12:54):
No?

Speaker 1 (01:12:55):
No, No, it's like a gym.

Speaker 2 (01:12:56):
It's a private gym. Oh wow, in a horror in
a horrible, grimy depressed little mining town in Lancashire in England.
It is the same as as as as hundreds of
other horrible depressed little mining towns like the one I
come from, for instance, in South Wales.

Speaker 1 (01:13:19):
Did you wrestle on the snake pit?

Speaker 2 (01:13:21):
No? Never, never, never visited the place, but I show
wrestled our products of That makes an actual factor very
the The third match that I ever had for Joint
Promotions was against the British lightweight champion, Melvin Ress, and

(01:13:42):
he was from a snake pit. But I wrestled with
people like Cliff Beaumont, Jack Fallon, Ar could go on
and on and on with different people that I've wrestled
from there, and like John Foley for instance, and John
Foley's wrestled in the States. But if you could hang

(01:14:06):
with those boys, I'll tell you what. Like I said,
there was nothing. Nothing the world could strowed you. It
could face you told. We had we had jiu JITs,
jiu jitsu people from the Orient, We had jiu jitsu
people from from Brazil over in Britain in that time,
and I'll tell you what they were tasty. They were tasty.

(01:14:28):
I mean, you you knew you'd been wrestling time you
came out of the ring with those, but after anything
from from Wigan, they were like a breath of fresh air.

Speaker 1 (01:14:39):
Adrian. Could could those us, I guess wrestlers from the
early sixties, could they have transferred those skills over to
let's say, Ultimate Fighting today?

Speaker 2 (01:14:50):
Oh damn do you know? I'm uh I watched the
Ultimate Fighting more than I ever watched professional wrestling. The
only reason I watched professional wrestling now is to sort
of see who so and so looks like in a
paradise I just made for him or something. You know.
That's that's about as interested as I am in in
watching professional wrestling nowadays. But oh damn YEA yes, I

(01:15:17):
don't know about the I don't know about the actual
sort of boxing part of it. I'm not I'm not
sort of sure how they'd fare with that because what
they did we're just sort of pure wrestling. But I mean,
they could break your arms and legs in seconds.

Speaker 1 (01:15:36):
Did they did they do that to people or did
they just almost do it to people and then back off.
I mean.

Speaker 2 (01:15:44):
They would show you. They would show you every time
you went in a ring with one of those, they'd
show you what they were capable of. And I'll tell
you something. The reason I'm as good at wrestling as
I am is because if you wrestled with a Wigan guy,
if you couldn't take it, they wouldn't give it to you.

Speaker 1 (01:16:04):
Adrian, have you been in the ring where it was
just an all out shoot? Or is that extremely rare
or non existent?

Speaker 2 (01:16:10):
It's it's rare. It's not. No, it isn't non existent.
It's rare. But the funny thing is you'd be more
likely to see that in Europe than you would in
the States for the simple reason there's a lot more
of them over the over in in uh Britain than
there is over here. But the funny thing is, obviously

(01:16:33):
all the wrestlers would be really interested in that because
there was like a lot of there was always speculation
going on like who'd win out of Les Kalend and
George Gordienkoz. They really got into it, like blah blah blah.
But like I said, it was very rare that it
actually happened. But when it did. I mean all I
mean when it did, one of the guys that come

(01:16:54):
in is ah is a shoot, Like there's a shoot.
The dressing room and empty. All the wrestler would be
out there watching. But the thing is the rest is
will be the only ones enjoying it, because the people
would know that there was something different going on, but
they wouldn't know what. And obviously they wouldn't be the
kind of action that you would see in a regular

(01:17:16):
professional match, because all of a sudden they might be
on the floor and they're struggling like hell, and somebody
might be screaming or squeaking or sort of something like that.
But it's not the same, you know what I mean,
it just isn't the same.

Speaker 1 (01:17:28):
Yeah, for the guys backstage, it's more exciting. For the fans,
it's much less exciting.

Speaker 2 (01:17:33):
They don't know exciting and they just don't know what's
going on, you know. I mean, it's it's almost when
something like that starts, and you know, I've been involved
in it. I've been involved in a few of them myself.
When anything like that, when anything like that starts, you

(01:17:57):
can almost like you're a hash coming over the crowd,
almost as if you've got on death crowded, shouting, screaming, horroring,
going absolutely nuts, and all of a sudden you feel
like poking years and everything like that and going like
what happened? Did I go death or something? The people
just don't understand what's going on, and they, you know,
they don't appreciate it because you know, they don't really

(01:18:22):
know what to shoot is. They would, you know, they
they just wouldn't understand that.

Speaker 1 (01:18:27):
Well, a shoot would be like collegiate wrestling, and people
don't pay to see collegiate wrestling, right, yeah, so they're like,
wait a minute, this isn't what we're paying to see. Well,
I don't see. We wanted to see somebodies moving here
and yeah, yeah, Adrian, is there a reason you never
went back to Europe is to wrestle? You came over
to the United States? Did you like living here more?

Speaker 2 (01:18:48):
Oh? Yeah, better lifestyle together? And quite honestly, I've had
I've had numerous office to go back over there, but
Germany would be the only place I would have been
tempted to go because I really love those tournaments. I
like the idea of restling in the same arena every night,

(01:19:10):
seven nights. A week for two months without moving. They'd
give me a mobile home for outside the dressing room,
and that's where I'd be for two months, and there'd
be four and a half thousand people in the arena
every night.

Speaker 1 (01:19:25):
Now, you've lived overseas, You've seen different countries just in general.
Do you think the United States since you've been here
right now is it's obviously not an upswing? Do you
think that it's exaggerated? What type of a downswing we're
in compared to what you've seen overseas.

Speaker 2 (01:19:45):
I don't know. I don't remember any things that are
quite like, you know, quite like what's going on at
the moment. Like everybody else, I'm keeping my fingers crossed
and hoping that that the government will do something right
for a change.

Speaker 1 (01:20:00):
So you never saw something comparable to this in Europe.

Speaker 2 (01:20:05):
No, The thing is when things went on, I've never
really been aware of the outside world anyway. Yeah, I've
just been aware of when you're wrestling forty times a
week for years and years and years, you don't you
don't really know what's going on outside.

Speaker 1 (01:20:23):
You know, it's got to be tough traveling so much.
You you don't have any real roots arena to arena.
You've got to deal with all the different personalities. You're
your own agent.

Speaker 2 (01:20:37):
But that's the way. But you know, if that's the
way you are, that's the way you are. You know.
I mean, I'm it amazes me, you know, I'm I'm
writing my own I'm writing my autobiography at the moment.
It's called My Pink gas Mask. I've written about six
hundred pages so far, and I'm still in my mid twenties.

Speaker 1 (01:20:57):
Six hundred pages.

Speaker 2 (01:20:59):
Yeah, I'm still still still in my mid twenties. But
I'm doing it like a one finger at a time.
Boom boom, bum bum bump. You know. People say they're
absolutely amazed at what they see me doing in the ring.
I'm just amazed, just as amazed to see a typist
type in something bam bam bam bam bam bam bam,

(01:21:22):
like the fingers are going like machine guns and there's
actually something decipherable comes out the other end.

Speaker 1 (01:21:28):
Okay, so six hundred pages, you're in your mid twenties.
When would you like to finish the book.

Speaker 2 (01:21:35):
I've had an idea actually, which is going to help
me cut the book in half. What I'm going to
do is finish it when I leave Britain, and then
if that particular book creates enough interested then I'll write
a sequel to it, which will be My Exodus and.

Speaker 1 (01:21:58):
Odyssey, and that will be what the United States. Yep, okay, well,
I'm sure people be looking forward to it. You created
a lot of mystique in the United States, and from
what you say, you're still creating mystique. It's hard to
believe seven decades if you wrestle next year and you

(01:22:18):
say you're committed to it. Oh, I love it, Thank you, Adrian,
I love it.

Speaker 2 (01:22:26):
You know, I'm so good at hurting people, and it's
shamed to let it all out of time and go
to waste.

Speaker 1 (01:22:31):
Any chance you'll do the eighth decade twenty twenty, get
back into I don't know that's pushing it right.

Speaker 2 (01:22:40):
May maybe if if well I live in the right state. Actually,
if I can find out Pst. Leon's found a new you,
so i'd bloody well loved to Adrian.

Speaker 1 (01:22:50):
Thank you so much for spending the time with us.
Really appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (01:22:53):
Yeah, well I do find on living forever. So far,
so good.

Speaker 1 (01:22:58):
Adrian, will talk to you soon. Thank you so much much.

Speaker 2 (01:23:00):
Have a good one guy, nice talking

Speaker 1 (01:23:02):
You take care of Bye, Bye bye

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💃 "The Exotic One Exposed: Adrian Street’s Wrestling Revolution!"

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