Crush

**Brian Adams** (April 14, 1964 - August 13, 2007) was an American professional wrestler that wrestled in World Wrestling Entertainment/Federation and World Championship Wrestling. He had several gimmicks, most notably **Crush**. He usually played a heel. He at one time was a face when he had a feud with Doink the Clown during his heel days. They fought at a Wrestlemania event and Adams lost thanks to an interference by another Doink the Clown (Steve Keirn). Later Adams became a heel once more by turning on the fans.

## Professional wrestling career

Brian Adams started his professional wrestling career in 1986 in Portland, Oregon's Pacific Northwest Wrestling. He was in a tag team called The Wrecking Crew with The Grappler, better known as Len Denton. They feuded with Steve Doll and Rex King (eventually Well Dunn) among others.

The popular tag team Demolition (Bill Eadie and Barry Darsow) needed a third member to substitute for Ax, who was suffering from health problems (which at the time was rumored to be caused by a shellfish allergy).

In 1990, Brian Adams was introduced as **Crush**, the third member of Demolition, turning the tag team into a stable. However, the debut of the Road Warriors in the WWF later that year greatly diminished the popularity of Demolition, who were widely regarded as an imitation of the Warriors, and the stable was soon disbanded.

Adams then had numerous gimmicks as Crush, including **Kona Crush**, ex-convict Crush, Biker Crush (the leader of the Disciples of Apocalypse which was somewhat of a great fit during the WWF's Attitude Era) and also a member of the Nation of Domination.

He also wrestled with Michael "Road Warrior Hawk" Hegstrand as the Legion of Doom while Joe "Road Warrior Animal" Laurinaitis was injured in 1992.

When Adams was injured and his onscreen friend Randy Savage failed to contact him, he attacked Savage upon his return, dropping him on the guardrail and crushing his throat. This led to a Last Man Standing Match at WrestleMania X. Unfortunately, he lost the match to the Savage (the Macho Man)

Adams jumped ship to WCW in 1997, where he was part of the nWo and nWo Hollywood. Later he was used as the original KISS Demon, a gimmick which did not work for him, and was then given to Dale Torborg instead. He also formed a team with Bryan Clark called Kronik, who won the WCW World Tag Team Championship.

He spent some time in prison due to gun smuggling in Hawaii, and that fact was even brought up on TV while he was in the WWE. Adams was mad when the fans started chanting "jailbird", and in a few occasions Crush even attacked fans, which earned him infamy.

After briefly trying a career as a boxer in 2002, Adams returned to wrestling in his home state of Hawaii on the independent circuit.

## Death

On August 13, 2007, Adams was found unconscious in his bed by his youngest son (age 7 at the time) at their Tampa, Florida home.

He called 911, but he was pronounced dead by paramedics when they arrived. The medical examiner concluded that he died as a result of mixing the painkiller buprenorphine with the muscle relaxant carisoprodol and the sedatives chlordiazepoxide and alprazolam.

The coroner determined the drugs in his system were individually at therapeutic levels, but their combination impeded his respiratory system enough to kill him. He was 43 years old.