Adrian Andrew Adonnis

Adrian Andrew Adonnis, well known for many wrestling companies and federations as "Adorable Adrian Adonis", "The Addonis" and "Andrew Adonis", was a professional wrestler who was mostly known for his "Adorable Adrian Adonis" character and being such a huge celebrity to the wrestling community.

## Birth and Death Details

born: August 25, 1967, bardstown, kentucky

died: August 27, 2017, santa barbara, california

cause of death: sudden heart attack

## Professional wrestling career

Born August 25, 1967, Adonis became a huge celebrity to wrestling fans around the world because of his personality and wrestling moves which many people in the audience adore. Adrian was trained under a former professional wrestler named Che Guevara, who was training at the military at the time, and was also known for his tough conditioning regimen. Adrian first debuted in 1985, and worked under his real name initially, without his middle name. By the early 80s, however, he was a leather-clad biker, working under the moniker Adrian Adonis. Adonis improved his wrestling skills afterwards, eventually landing in Verne Gagne’s American Wrestling Association, which is one of the reasons how Adonis reached his fame. Adonis and Ventura also worked in the World Wrestling Federation as a team and in singles competition. Adonis was a fantastic worker, with WWF champion Bob Backlund praising his ring skills in his memoir. In 1986, the WWF had Adonis undergo a radical transformation, ditching his leather outfits and transforming into a flamboyant wrestler known as “Adorable” Adrian Adonis, which is his most recognizable name. The character was played off stereotypes of gay men as much as the WWF could get away with during the kid-friendly days of Hulkamania (rumor has it Vince McMahon liked “Exotic” Adrian Street’s character, but felt Street was too old to work in the WWF). Wearing pink clothing and made up in garish make-up, Adonis also puffed up to a reported 350 pounds. Adonis played the effeminate character well, quickly becoming a top heel. Despite his extra weight, Adonis was still agile in the ring, and at the top of his mat game. With Rowdy Roddy Piper gone, Adonis took over “Piper’s Pit" which was a store Piper opened for kidney donations for his dad since his dad was suffering from kidney failure, with Adonis renaming it the “Flower Shop”—that is, until Piper returned to reclaim it. This launched a heated feud culminating in a Hair vs. Hair Match at *WrestleMania III* that saw Piper triumphant.

## Personal life

Outside of the wrestling fedaration, Adonis used to hang out with many fellow well known wrestlers by visiting their houses, most of them known as Ultimate Warrior, Hulk Hogan, Macho Man Randy Savage, Earthquake, Chris Benoit, Andrew Test Martin, and pretty much any of his brothers, sisters, family, and cousins. Adonis would absolutely adore everyone he likes and is friends with, and would train with them, play video games, watch TV shows and movies with them, and pretty much anything else that his family/cousins and wrestler friends likes. Adrian was actually a semi-professional football player in Canada, did odd and end jobs, and then started to focus more on training for wrestling by looking for the perfect manager for him.

## Death

On the morning of August 27, 2017, Adrian was asked to cook a steak by his mother for a small backyard party with his family relatives. Two minutes after he was going to cook the steak, Adrian unexpectedly and suddenly suffered a heart attack and collapsed to the floor while the side of his head was burnt due to falling to the front of the grill. He died two days after his 50th birthday. His family held a private memorial service for Adrian and his ashes were given to his own family.

## Induction

Adrian Adonis was inducted to the WWE Hall of Fame 2019, with his family appearing in the stadium where the hall of fame was held.