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Chris Adams (wrestler)

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Christopher Adams
BornFebruary 10, 1955
Rugby, Warwickshire, England
DiedOctober 7, 2001
(Gunshot wound)
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)"Gentleman" Chris Adams
The Masked Avenger
Billed height6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Billed weight230 lb (104 kg)
Billed fromStratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England
Trained byTony St. Clair,
Big Daddy
DebutJune 1978
in Birmingham, England

Christopher Adams (February 10, 1955 – October 7, 2001) was a professional wrestler, wrestling promoter, trainer and judoka. Adams wrestled primarily in the Texas promotions, most notably for World Class Championship Wrestling, where he became one of the most popular wrestlers in the promotion's history.

Adams is best known for being one of the trainers of Scott Hall in 1984 and training Stone Cold Steve Austin on his own in 1989, and bringing the Superkick to American wrestlers. Adams was also among the first wrestlers to use the Sharpshooter, which he called the Superlock (around 1985). He was also famous for using backflips and somersaults to catch his opponent off-guard. Adams was also known for diving from the canvas through the ropes to his opponent on the floor, one of the few wrestlers to execute this dangerous maneuvre.

Career

Before entering professional wrestling, Chris was involved in judo exclusively for 12 years, beginning at the age of 11. Chris and younger brother Neil Adams went on to win national and world championships in judo, with Neil going on to win a silver medal at both the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, Russia and the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California. Chris himself was among the youngest Judo champions in the sport and was a member of the 1976 Summer Olympics Judo squad representing Great Britain, but never competed in the Olympics. Though not a participant, he was at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles as an advisor to the British Judo squad and also for moral support as brother Neil was competing.

In 1978, Chris first entered pro wrestling after being introduced to the sport by a friend, Jackie Turpin, whose father was pro boxer Randolph Turpin, and later watching matches involving The Dynamite Kid. Adams wrestled for two years in England, with no true formal training thanks in part to his judo background, before moving on to Los Angeles to compete at the famed Olympic Auditorium, operated at the time by famed Judo legends Mike and Gene LeBell, for a few years. Adams did have some championship success in England, winning the British Commonwealth tag team title with Marty Jones and the British light heavyweight championship from Mark "Rollerball" Rocco. Adams also competed alongside many British wrestling legends, including Shirley Crabtree, Dave Finlay, The Dynamite Kid and Davey Boy Smith.

In L.A., Adams almost immediately became a major force in the waning days of the historic NWA Los Angeles promotion, winning the NWA Americas title in 1982 and twice winning the NWA Americas tag team titles (once with Tom Prichard and again with Reno Rigsby). He also won the television championship twice, which was called the "Beat The Champion" title.

Adams also wrestled in Portland for Don Owen's Pacific Northwest promotion as well as being involved in several tours of Japan, Europe, Mexico and Canada. In Portland, he learned the ins and outs of the politics of wrestling, and struck close friendships with many fellow wrestlers such as Rick Martel, Matt Borne, Jesse Barr and King Parsons. While in Mexico, Adams won the then-WWWF Light heavyweight championship from veteran Perro Aguayo in 1981, a championship reign that was virtually ignored by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). Adams held the championship for two months.

World Class and Texas

By 1983, Adams was contacted by Fritz Von Erich to compete in World Class, which prevented him from possibly returning to England. He joined the Dallas-based promotion on April 15, 1983, wrestling twice that night (defeating Roberto Renesto on the card's opening match, and The Mongol by DQ later in the card) and quickly became a crowd favorite and an ally of the Von Erichs (Chris was billed as being the "pen pal" of Kevin Von Erich, and was also named by the Adkissons as an "honorary Von Erich"). Adams in fact won his first 11 matches in World Class before losing his first WCCW bout to Kamala on June 20th in Fort Worth. His first tag match with the Von Erichs took place on August 19, 1983 in Dallas with Kerry as his partner.

Heel wrestlers and managers would often taunt Chris, referring to him as slimy limey. Adams eventually would become as equally important to World Class as the Von Erichs, although he was not always a babyface in the federation.

In the early going, Chris often teamed with the Von Erichs in several six and sometimes eight-man tag team matches against The Fabulous Freebirds and Jimmy Garvin. Soon thereafter, Adams and Garvin began battling each other, with valets Sunshine and Precious getting involved, which resulted in among the first mixed tag-team matches in modern day wrestling history. At one point, in a Friday, October 21, 1983 match at the Sportatorium, Adams disguised himself as "The Masked Avenger" to earn an NWA American Heavyweight title shot, which he would eventually win at Reunion Arena on Thanksgiving night in 1983; the first of five World Class American/World Class World Heavyweight title reigns for Adams.

Following a loser-leaves-town match victory over Garvin on Wednesday, July 4, 1984 in Fort Worth, Adams split his time between Dallas and Los Angeles, during the 1984 Summer Olympics, as his brother Neil was competing in Judo and he was serving as one of the advisors to the British Judo squad.

In August, after the L.A. Olympics, Chris hired manager Gary Hart, and eventually turned heel following a Friday, September 28, 1984 tag team match at the Dallas Sportatorium. In that match, Adams was paired with Kevin Von Erich against Jake "The Snake" Roberts and Gino Hernandez. As the match wound down, Stella Mae French's interference backfired, causing Hernandez to pin Adams and win the match. Afterwards, Adams began arguing with French, with Gary Hart also getting involved. Kevin came in as a peacemaker, trying to calm Adams down. Hart then was about to hit French when Kevin attacked him in retaliation. Adams then superkicked Kevin, and walked back to the dressing room while Hernandez and Roberts engaged in a two-on-one gangup on Kevin, with French cold-cocked by Hart during the melee. Kerry Von Erich eventually ran in to chase Hernandez and Roberts away.

Two days later, Chris teamed with Kerry to defeat Killer Khan and The Missing Link in San Antonio. Chris and Kerry competed as if nothing happened two days before, in order to stay on kayfabe since WCCW's matches aired on television two to three weeks after the actual event.

Fans were mixed on their feelings towards Chris; many sided with him as opposed to siding with Kevin, which prompted Fritz Von Erich to go hardcore in an upcoming match at the Cotton Bowl on October 27, 1984. After being defeated by Kevin in that match (in controversial fashion, as Adams had his shoulder up at the count of one, but referee David Manning counted to three anyway), he was offered a deal to fire Hart and all would be forgiven. Adams then grabbed a wooden chair and smashed it on Kevin's head. What was not supposed to happen, according to Adams was the chair broke in half, which resulted in a concussion and bleeding from Von Erich's head. Kevin would eventually return the favor to Adams a month later at Reunion Arena, and again, the chair broke in half on impact, with part of the wood lodged in Adams' nose, very close to his eye (this resulted in an abrupt end to that particular angle).

Chris later competed in a six-man tag team match alongside Jake Roberts and Gino Hernandez, and defeated Kerry Von Erich, Mike Von Erich and Bobby Fulton (subbing for the injured Kevin Von Erich). During that match, the fans chanted Chris is a traitor!, while others held Benedict Adams signs. Some fans still continued to support Adams after this, but in time the Englishman became a full-fledged heel.

In early-1985, Adams "fired" manager Gary Hart, which drew some cheers, but Chris was not about to turn face at this point.

Adams' feud with the Von Erichs shot him to the top of the wrestling world, and after firing Hart in 1985, he began feuding with virtually every World Class wrestler, face or heel. The fans would side with Adams against whomever he was facing with the exception of the Von Erichs and close allys like King Parsons or Brian Adias, which would make Adams among the first heel wrestlers in modern wrestling to be cheered and jeered at the same time. In fact, Adams still signed autographs after the matches and greet the fans walking towards the ring, even more so after firing Gary Hart, and was always polite to ring announcers Bill Mercer and Marc Lowrance (both of whom were close friends with Adams) during his interview segments.

Chris would later tag team with Gino Hernandez to form the second version of The Dynamic Duo. In addition, Adams would wrestle NWA World champion Ric Flair several times, nearly winning the championship on two separate occasions (in one match, interference by the One Man Gang cost Adams, who had Flair pinned for at least 10 seconds while the referee was distracted). Another angle Chris was involved in was a battle of superkicks with The Great Kabuki, who was brought in by Sunshine in her feud against Adams.

While paired with Hernandez, Adams developed a gimmick that would later be used by Brutus Beefcake in the WWF--by using a pair of large scissors and cut the hair off opponents after each match. This led to a famous October 1985 showdown at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, where Adams and Hernandez faced Kevin and Kerry Von Erich in a lumberjack loser-loses-hair match. The Von Erichs won when Kerry pinned Chris; thus Adams and Hernandez were shaven bald.

The pair wore masks for a couple of months while their hair was growing back, and eventually wrestled without the masks by the end of the year.

Afterwards, Adams and Hernandez would split and begin what was to be a long-term angle in which the pair would feud against each other.

On Christmas Night in 1985, Adams and Hernandez faced The Cosmic Cowboys in a title-defense, which turned out to be Kevin and Kerry Von Erich, whom they refused to defend the title against earlier. As that match wound down, Hernandez refused to tag Adams, who took a brutal beating at the hands of Kevin and Kerry, claiming that he hurt his knee. With no other alternative, Chris threw Kevin over the rope to end the match, but Adams was furious at Gino for not making the tag. Chris slapped Gino then superkicked him for good measure and left the ring.

Shortly thereafter, in an interview at Fort Worth, Hernandez duped announcer Marc Lowrance into believing everything was OK, claiming that he knocked Adams out, and Chris later apologized to him. This brought Adams into the ring, causing Gino to back-track his story, but Lowrance told Adams what Gino said, and that prompted another fight.

This led to a Monday, January 27, 1986 encounter at the Convention Center in Fort Worth, where Adams and Hernandez faced each other, with the stipulation that the loser would lose his hair again, this time by having Freebird Hair Cream rubbed into the scalp. With the fans completely siding with Adams, Hernandez was in trouble from the opening bell, but did manage to gain some offense with a sleeperhold, which somehow Chris managed to escape. Adams then took control, and had the match won when twice he refused to pin Hernandez (on one occurrence after piledriving Hernandez). While Chris was arguing with referee Rick Hazzard, Hernandez managed to grab the hair cream and throw a dark liquid substance into Adams' eyes, thus "blinding" him. Adams won the match by disqualification, and afterwards, Hazzard and David Manning helped Adams to the shower to flush out the content from his eyes.

In an interview Adams did in 2000, Chris said that several wrestling fans followed him home to see if he was actually blinded, and security was needed to protect him.

Adams was to sell his injury to take time off and visit relatives in England, then return to Texas and feud with Hernandez, beginning with the Texas Stadium card. Unfortunately, Hernandez was found dead on February 4, 1986 from a cocaine overdose, having died approximately three days after his match with Adams. After the match, according to newspaper accounts from Houston, Gino visited a few friends and family in Houston, then returned to Dallas the day before he apparently died.

Chris worked an angle in which he was being helped into his Corvette by his wife Toni Adams after a brief interview with announcer Bill Mercer. The angle, in fact, had to be reshot because on the first take, Chris (whose eyes were bandaged shut) entered the Corvette the wrong way. Four days after returning to England, Scotland Yard questioned Adams regarding Hernandez's death (which was originally considered a homicide case), but eventually Adams was not considered a suspect, and Gino's death was ruled a suicide by OD.

Adams did return in May 1986 by wearing an eyepatch on his left eye for several matches, then worked an angle with Rick Rude, in which Adams won the World Class heavyweight title on Wednesday, July 4, 1986 at Reunion Arena. Adams held the WCCW title until leaving the promotion in September 1986 due to legal troubles (World Class explained the title change occurring in Los Angeles with Black Bart winning the World Class title; however, that match never took place).

In late 1986, Adams defected to the Universal Wrestling Federation, where he became a tag team champion with Terry Taylor in February 1987. Two months later, Taylor and Adams began a violent feud which eventually was carried over to World Class in 1988. Adams also wrestled in Missouri, competing in Mike George's World Wrestling Alliance promotion, and had brief stints in Georgia and Florida before going into promoting his own matches late in the year, under the brand L&A Promotions, with Tom Lance as his business partner.

In late 1988, Adams began operating his professional wrestling school at the Dallas Sportatorium, upon returning to World Class. Before that, beginning in 1984, he trained other wrestlers behind-the-scenes, and among the most famous pre-wrestling school students he helped out was Scott Hall, who began his career in the AWA and later went on to the WWF and WCW. In 1989, a young loading dock worker, Steve Williams, was among the many students Adams would teach pro wrestling, and within five months, the former North Texas State football standout wrestled his first pro match at the Sportatorium. Williams later changed his name to Steve Austin to avoid confusion with another pro wrestler, "Dr. Death" Steve Williams.

Chris also was responsible for starting the careers of Chad Hart (Gary Hart's son), Khris Germany, Ed Robinson, L.A. Steele, valet/manager/promoter Miss Lacy and Alex Porteau over the years, plus help other wrestlers improve their wrestling skills. Shawn Michaels and Paul Diamond were among the wrestlers Adams would help out, and both learned his trademark finisher, the superkick.

Chris was married to Jeannie Clark, better known in WCW as "Lady Blossom" from the late 1970s to around 1984. Jeannie was also married to Steve Austin in the 1990s. Chris was also married to Toni Adams from around 1985 to 1992. Chris, Jeannie, Toni and Steve were all good friends and all four promoted a feud pitting Chris and Toni against Jeannie and Steve in 1990, which eventually was one of the last great feuds in Dallas Sportatorium history. During one match in which the participants wore anything he wanted in the ring, Adams wore his Judogi and performed many Judo maneuvers he was famous for against Austin, who wore his North Texas State football gear.

Adams also wrestled in various other independent promotions, including the GWF in which he won that federation's heavyweight championship twice in 1994, and briefly with Jim Crockett's 1995 version of the NWA. Adams also promoted a tour to Nigeria in 1993 (co-sponsored with Pepsi), which was a huge success.

During his stint in the GWF, Adams was involved in a match against Rod Price, in which Adams by accident tore the hair weave off Price's head, which resulted in stitches on Price's head. He also engaged in a lengthy feud with Iceman Parsons, whose history with Adams dates back to the glory days of World Class. Adams also formed a tag team with Kerry Von Erich which ended following Kerry's suicide in February 1993.

After his stint in the GWF, Chris competed in the American Wrestling Federation, a Chicago-based organization which, unlike other organizations, promoted under European wrestling moves. Adams, who had experience in European wrestling, often mentioned in the broadcasts of how the European wrestling rules work, and the use of a round system, which is similar to boxing.

Chris was also a promoter and wrestler of a few Dallas-based organizations, including Big D Pro Wrestling and the Freestyle Wrestling Federation.

In 1998, after the AWF folded, Chris began competing in World Championship Wrestling as either a jobber or a mid-carder. He was involved in a few angles, involving one with Lord Steven Regal, another in a battle of superkicks against Glacier, and a feud with Chip Minton (a fellow Olympian who competed in Bobsledding during the Winter Olympics), who billed himself as "Mr. World Class", a nickname Adams felt was an insult to his past days in WCCW. Adams retaliated by entering the ring with his judogi and defeating Minton on many occasions, with a head-scissors submission, very similar to Kevin Von Erich's head-scissors. Adams also wrestled against David Taylor, another British compatriot, and for a time was teamed with Taylor and Regal as the Blue Bloods. However, Adams and Regal shared legitimate animosity toward each other, and the team was quickly disbanded.

While in WCW, Adams became friends with several figures outside of wrestling, including Chuck Norris.

While Adams was involved with the Blue Bloods, he became a heel wrestler for the first time since 1986. While being jeered for the most part by WCW fans, Adams' heel move was praised by many longtime fans, and during a 1999 WCW event in Dallas, Adams drew the largest cheers of any heel wrestler on the card. It has been said that his Blue Bloods partner, Lord Steven Regal, hated Adams, as Adams was very open about his drinking and drug habits, often indulging in front of Regal, who at the time, was trying very hard to kick the habit and Adams' "in your face" attitude regarding openly tempting the recovering Regal made him unpopular in the locker room.

In late-1999, Adams was granted his release from WCW, unsatisfied with how he was being used in the organization, and returned to Texas as a promoter and part-time wrestler, appearing for a time in the NWA Southwest organization.

Personal troubles and death

Adams battled drug and alcohol problems which plagued his entire career and eventually would lead to his death in 2001. In 1986, while returning from a wrestling event in Puerto Rico, Adams head-butted an airline pilot which resulted in a 90-day jail sentence and a $500 fine. In 1991, he spent another year in jail for assault and was put on probation for a pair of DUI's, including one while in Pittsburgh.

In April 2000, Adams and his girlfriend of four months, Linda Kaphengst, were both found unconscious in a friend's apartment, the victims of an overdose of GHB and alcohol. Adams recovered, but Kaphengst died at a local hospital 10 hours later.

Over a year later, he was indicted on a manslaughter charge, which would have resulted in a maximum 20-year prison term if convicted, but Adams did not live long enough for his trial.

On Sunday, October 7, 2001, Chris Adams was involved in a drunken brawl with a former roommate, which turned deadly. The roommate, William Brent Parnell, pulled a .38-calibre handgun and shot Adams in the chest during the fight. Adams was pronounced dead at the scene and Parnell was arrested and charged with first-degree murder.

However, during a hearing a few months later, the charges against Parnell were dismissed, on the basis of self-defense. This decision drew harsh criticism of the Texas legal system, due to the fact that Parnell was set free based on Adams' past legal woes rather than as a result of determining whether or not Parnell had intended to kill Adams, or why he had a gun on his nightstand in the first place.[citation needed]

Prior to his death, Adams, who was considered semi-retired, planned to move to Florida and compete in a wrestling organization promoted by Ted DiBiase featuring several former WCW and WWF stars, including Hulk Hogan.

Adams is survived by his wife of less than two months, Karen Adams, and three children; Jade, Chris Jr. and Julia, and his step-children with Karen - Shea and Tyler, as well as his brother Neil Adams and his parents, Cyril and Jean.

Prior to his death, Adams released a shoot interview in 2000, which became one of the best-selling shoot interviews in the industry today. Some of the footage from that interview was used on the most-recent release of the Heroes of World Class Championship Wrestling DVD.

A documentary about Chris Adams, The Gentleman's Choice, is currently in production by Mickey Grant's Creative Hat Productions in Dallas.

Trivia

  • As a wrestling trainer, Adams released a home video, The ABC of Professional Wrestling.
  • The night after Adams died, Steve Austin was reached for comment; he declined. Austin stated in his autobiography that he disliked Adams personally. Austin's opinion of Adams was not helped by an incident were Adams tricked him into believing that he could get Austin into WCW if he backed out of an agreement he had made with another promoter. After Austin did as he was told and called Adams to inquire about WCW, Adams simply said nothing and hung up. However, Austin did end up in WCW later on and had a very successful stint there before being let go in 1994.
  • In an interview he did in 2000, Chris said of his partner Gino Hernandez that he "lived the high life", and later stated that the duo during the glory days of World Class "made so much money that we didn't care".
  • Terry Taylor, Chris' former tag team partner and arch-rival from the late-1980s, wrote an article on his website, stating how he was unable to make it to Dallas for Adams' funeral due to the strict border crossing regulations in place after 9/11.

In wrestling

  • Finishing and signature moves
  • Nicknames
  • "Gentleman" Christopher Adams
  • "Judo" Christopher Adams
  • "Blackbelt" Christopher Adams

Championships and accomplishments

  • PWI ranked him # 160 of the 500 best singles wrestlers of the "PWI Years" in 2003.
  • He was also ranked # 65 of the best tag teams of the "PWI Years" with Gino Hernandez.
  • He won the 1986 PWI Most Inspirational Award for coming back from his "blinding" by Hernandez.

See also

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