Brian Adams was an American actor and professional wrestler. Adams gained fame in the 1990s while performing for the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) under the name Crush and for World Championship Wrestling (WCW) under his given name.
Trained in Japan by Antonio Inoki, Adams was a two time WCW World Tag Team Champion as well as a one time holder of both the WWF World Tag Team Championship and the All Japan Pro Wrestling World Tag Team Championship among other titles and accomplishments.
In 2002, Adams briefly tried a career in boxing until he was forced to retire due to a back and shoulder injury. His death was reported by WWE on 13 August 2007.
Bryan Adams was born on April 4, 1964 in Kona, Hawaii and was raised in Kealakekua, Hawai'i and attended Konawaena High School.After graduating from Konawaena High School Adams joined the military. It was during his time in the military, while stationed in Japan, that he was exposed to wrestling. Adams was then trained in wrestling by famed Japanese wrestler and mixed martial artist Antonio Inoki. In 1986, after training in Japan, Adams came to the United States and began working in Portland, Oregon's Pacific Northwest Wrestling (PNW).
Given the nickname The American Ninja, he was put together in a tag team called "The Wrecking Crew" with veteran performer Len Denton, billed as masked wrestler, "The Grappler.".Adams and Denton were given the Pacific Northwest Tag Team Champions for a time and worked a storyline feud with the Southern Rockers, Steve Doll and Rex King.In 1990, he was given the Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Championship after being scheduled to win a tournament final over Larry Oliver in Portland on April 21, 1990 for the vacant title.He lost the title to Scott Norton on May 12, 1990 in Portland.
In April 1990, while still working for the PNW, Adams was introduced to the World Wrestling Federation as Crush, the third member of the popular WWF World Tag Team Championship team Demolition.The introduction of Adams turned the tag team into a stable.With Adams joining Demolition, the stable exercised the Freebird Rule allowing any combination of the three to defend the titles and not just Ax and Smash that had originally won the titles. This meant that Adams as Crush became a WWF World Tag Team Champion without actually being involved in winning the title in the first place.At the 1990 SummerSlam pay-per-view, Demolition, with new member Adams, lost the Tag Team titles to the The Hart Foundation in a Two out of three falls match with Adams getting pinned for the final fall to lose the titles.After SummerSlam, Demolition continued a feud the WWF had previously placed them in with The Road Warriors.Adams continued to perform as part of the Demolition tag team up until WrestleMania VII where he and Demolition member Smash lost to Genichiro Tenryu and Koji Kitao in a very short, one-sided match. After WrestleMania the WWF decided to disband Demolition as a team.
Upon his departure from the WWF, Adams, who began using the Demolition Crush gimmick, returned to PNW.He was portrayed as a dominant wrestler, winning both the Pacific Northwest Tag Team Championship and the Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Championship. Adams received the first of these two championships during this stint in the PNW while teaming with previously scripted rival Steve Doll and defeating The Bruise Brothers for the Tag Team Championship on July 27, 1991 in Portland, Oregon. They remained the champions until September 1, 1991 when they lost the titles to The Grappler & Don Harris.A little more than a month later, Adams received his second Pacific Northwest Heavyweight title, on October 12, 1991, in Portland during a performance that had him defeating Rip Oliverby submission with the full Nelson. Adams was the champion for just over three months, until he lost the title to Ron Harris at a show in Portland, on January 18, 1992.
Adams went back to work for the WWF, in 1992, and was given the first of numerous gimmicks created for him while using the name Crush, the first being a surfing Hawaiian occasionally referred to as Kona Crush.The WWF put him in a feud with his former tag team partner Barry Darsow (Smash) who was now known as Repo Man.Two years after losing the tag team titles, the two clashed at the 1992 SummerSlam with Crush as the victorious one.Crush then engaged in a feud with Doink the Clown and was the target of many of Doink's pranks.This storyline rivalry culminated at WrestleMania IX where it was revealed that there were two Doinks.In 1993, it was scripted that Crush was injured in a WWF Title Match by Yokozuna and had to take several months off. When he returned in autumn, he attacked his on-screen friend Randy Savage, because Savage had failed to contact him during his convalescence. Crush dropped Savage on the guardrail, giving him a lacerated tongue, and allied himself with Yokozuna and Mr. Fuji. Turning heel (bad guy) Adams adopted a "Japanese Sympathizer" gimmick to go with his new attitude. This led to a falls count anywhere match at WrestleMania X.
In March 1995, Adams was arrested, and subsequently jailed, for purchasing steroids and owning an illegal stun gun, while home in Hawaii.After a brief stint in jail, Adams was brought back to the WWF at the beginning of the Monday Night Wars in 1996 with his incarceration being introduced as part of a storyline on Monday Night RAW. Upon his return, the WWF gave Adams Clarence Mason as a manager, Mason’s gimmick was that of a lawyer so tying it in with Adams’ time in jail. Shortly after his return to the WWF he was made a member of the Nation of Domination (NOD) along with Faarooq and Savio Vega.
Preparing for the coming "Gang Wars" storyline, the WWF had Adams and Vega kicked out the group in favor of Ahmed Johnson and Kama Mustafa. No longer a part of the NOD, the WWF had them each form their own gang with Adams leading a wrestling biker gang called the Disciples of Apocalypse (DOA). The DOA was pitted in a feud with Faarooq's NOD and the gang Vega lead called Los Boricuas.
In 1996, Adams had an uncredited roll in the Bollywood movie Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi. In the movie he played "Crush" and was killed by "The Undertaker" (played by Brian Lee) in a wrestling match.In 1997, Adams obtained his release from the WWF because of his objection to Vince McMahon's double-cross of Bret Hart that has become known as the Montreal Screwjob.
After his release from the WWF, Adams signed with World Championship Wrestling (WCW), in 1998 as part of the New World Order stable and later as part of it’s off-shoot nWo Hollywood.As a lower card performer, he often tag teamed with the likes of Scott Norton and Stevie Ray, occasionally being placed in squash matches against smaller and lesser known wrestlers. One of his most notable matches with the promotion was his involvement in a tag team tournament steel cage match on WCW Thunder, in February 1999, where he and Horace Hogan lost to Chris Benoit and Dean Malenko.
Later, he was scripted as the original Demon, a take off of Gene Simmons of the band KISS. This saw him emerging from an iron maiden with a rendition of "God of Thunder" as his entrance theme. The gimmick did not work for Adams as he made only one appearance as the Demon. Dale Torborg took over that gimmick, while Adams was placed back into tag wrestling again.He formed a team with Bryan Clark called KroniK, where he won the WCW World Tag Team Championship twice.
After the WWF's purchase of WCW, Adams, along with Clark, appeared as KroniK in WWF, in 2001, as part of the Alliance storyline. During their time in WWF, they were managed by Steven Richards and were placed in a short feud with the Undertaker and Kane. Adams and Clark faced the Brothers of Destruction at the 2001 Unforgiven pay-per-view and gave a very poor performance. Clark was released from his WWF contract and Adams was sent to Heartland Wrestling Association in Cincinnati, Ohio where he performed until he too was released from his WWF contract, in November 2001.
Adams, along with Clark, briefly worked for World Wrestling All-Stars, in early 2002. They then traveled to Japan to work for All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW). On July 17, 2002, at AJPW's Prefectural Gym pay-per-view, AJPW had Adams & Clark defeat Keiji Mutoh and Taiyō Kea for the AJPW Unified World Tag Team Championship. Adams and Clark remained champions until October 10, 2002 when AJPW declared the titles vacant, because Adams had left the promotion to pursue a boxing career.
Adams was scheduled to have his first boxing match, on November 16, 2002, at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, with professional wrestler Randy Savage in his corner. The match versus Rick Zufal was to air on the Never Surrender boxing pay-per-view, but during his training for the bout, Adams injured his shoulder leaving him unable to fight.
After recovering from his shoulder injury, Adams returned to wrestling in Japan. In January 2003, during his last in-ring performance he faced Rey Mysterio and lost. He suffered a spinal injury in his last-in-ring performance that forced him into retirement.Adams had surgery, in an attempt to correct his spinal injury, but it did not result in a return to professional wrestling as Adams said that, due to his spinal injury, he was unfit to wrestle. Following his retirement, Adams became a bodyguard for his longtime friend, wrestler-turned-rapper Randy Savage, who was touring to promote his CD, Be a Man. It was reported that he was living off of a Lloyd's of London insurance policy.
