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00:30My wife, I said, I'm coming home.
00:32And she said, okay, why?
00:34I said, something happened.
00:36I said, yeah, I said, everybody's dead.
00:40On July 4th, 1988, three professional wrestlers were killed in a tragic car accident on a remote highway in Newfoundland, Canada.
00:49The most famous name among the victims was World Wrestling Federation superstar, the adorable Adrian Adonis.
00:57The circumstances surrounding the crash have grown into an urban legend in the wrestling world, fueling decades of debate and speculation.
01:05From what I heard, they're drunk as hell.
01:10The driver saw a moose.
01:14And he dodged him and he went down over a ravine underneath a bridge.
01:20The ring truck went down after him, picked their pockets.
01:23One of them lived.
01:27I don't know how his vibe would have.
01:29A tragedy that took the lives of three wrestlers, with one man left standing, haunted by what he saw that night.
01:42I'll never forget it.
01:51You're lucky to be alive.
01:52Yes, I am.
01:54Thank God for that.
01:55I'm going to slap him around in front of all you scumbags, you Adonis and all you freeloaders and all you armchair quarterbacks and people you think that you know about the sport of wrestling, which you know nothing about.
02:19In the 1980s, Vince McMahon's World Wrestling Federation presented a larger-than-life world filled with heroes, villains, and a rotating cast of colorful tough guys.
02:30But few were more colorful than the adorable one himself, Adrian Adonis.
02:36Adrian Adonis was one of the best big man wrestlers in the game at the time.
02:42Adrian Adonis was very deceptive.
02:43Adrian Adonis was a really unique wrestler because physically he had this body that didn't look like it would be acrobatic.
02:52Look at that.
02:53And it was.
02:54Unbelievable performer.
02:56Unbelievable.
02:58His timing alone made him an exception.
03:01Oh, a dancing bear.
03:02Look out, upside down and out.
03:04Tweedletoes, man.
03:05The guy can move like nothing.
03:07And regardless of what these fans think, Adrian Adonis is a devastating individual in that ring.
03:13Adrian's provocative ability to push buttons and boundaries catapults him to the top of the card, earning him a coveted weekly segment known as the flower shop.
03:23I feel the power.
03:24You know, straight people hating gays was certainly the idea behind the gimmick.
03:28The business of pro wrestling was very, very stereotypical.
03:32And very often it would be, you know, kind of fat guys that would bleach their hair blonde.
03:38And that was kind of like your stereotype.
03:40And I'm going to say something right now and admit it right now.
03:42Everybody wants to hurt and I'm going to say it.
03:45Yes, I'm gay.
03:47Gay!
03:47Gay!
03:50He did it.
03:51Adrian knew the business well enough so he knew what he had to do to make people hate him.
03:56And he did that.
03:58There's not too much really that's adorable.
04:01However, the star's flamboyant in-ring persona could hardly be more different from the reality of the man behind the character.
04:09The black roots are showing in the hair.
04:11Is that the thing?
04:11I'm natural.
04:13What are you talking about?
04:14Was it a bullshit wrestler?
04:16He was a bonafide, legitimate tough guy that had had a fair number of street fights in his lifetime.
04:23I'm Bret the Hitman Hart, seven-time WWE World Champion, WCW Champion, and the WWE Hall of Famer.
04:30Letting him use the fist.
04:32Oh, look at that.
04:32The Hitman.
04:33Bret Hyde.
04:34And I'm a very close personal friend of the late Adrian Adonis.
04:38Born Keith Frankie, the future Adrian Adonis grew up in a working class neighborhood in Buffalo, New York.
04:45He's bread and butter Buffalo, man, born and raised.
04:49We grew up on the west side of Buffalo, rough neighborhood, 90% Italian.
04:53I'd never seen him lose a fight in my life.
04:55As soon as you put that smirk on his face, you knew you better get the hell out of there or you're in trouble.
05:00My name is Anthony Gugino, and I'm a close friend of Keith Frankie, the wrestler.
05:06Adrian Adonis, as you would know him.
05:09You couldn't help love the guy, man.
05:12He had a heart of gold.
05:13I mean, he'd do anything for you.
05:15But if you crossed him, he'd pick you up and body slam you like that, like nothing.
05:23Keith was my local brazi.
05:25I'm 5'5", 120 pounds.
05:28He's 6'2", 240.
05:31And when someone owed me money, I'd just walk with Keith by him.
05:34I'd say, you got my money?
05:36And they'd just look and say, yeah.
05:38He was what they call very connected.
05:41He said, I'm with Adrian.
05:43It's like, it meant you had a gold card to go wherever you wanted.
05:48We started out as a high school fraternity, Kappa Beta.
05:52From there, we went to street gang.
05:55From street gang, we went to fighting with everybody.
06:00We were the baddest in Buffalo, so everybody had a target on us.
06:05Most of our guys became gangsters.
06:08But Keith had a purpose.
06:10And why waste your life fighting with these idiots when you could go and become something?
06:17He knew he had to make a move.
06:18And what he wanted was wrestling.
06:21He said, you want something, Keith, you got to go for it.
06:25Dropping out of high school to focus on wrestling, Adrian brings his experience fighting in the streets to the squared circle.
06:33I watched Adrian when he first started in Amarillo, Texas.
06:36I was about 15 or 16 then.
06:38Adrian announced to the audience that he would take on anybody in the building.
06:42It was advertised as, if you could stay in the ring with Adrian Adonis for 10 minutes, you could win $10,000.
06:51And there'd be about four or five guys that would come down and they'd interview them and talk to them while they're outside the ring.
06:56And then they would get in the ring.
07:00Adrian would knock him out cold.
07:03He gives you an idea of what Adrian was like.
07:05He was a fearless kind of guy.
07:07So you have to be a pretty tough guy to take on all comers, you know, fight fans for real.
07:12You don't know who the guy is.
07:14My name is Dave Meltzer.
07:15I'm the editor of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
07:17And I've been covering pro wrestling since 1971.
07:20It wasn't enough to just out-wrestle the guy.
07:22You know, he'll go and tell his friends, hey, I hung with the guy.
07:24It's like, you have to leave marks.
07:27You have to pound his face in or break a bone or something.
07:30And when he goes around town, it's like, oh, God, those guys were killers, you know.
07:34And Adrian was one of those guys.
07:38In time, Adrian's size, look, and killer instinct lands him a spot in one of the most popular promotions in the business,
07:46Vern Gagne's American Wrestling Association.
07:49We all knew what he was.
07:50He was great.
07:52Greg!
07:52I'm Greg Gagne.
07:53I wrestled for 18 years in the AWA.
07:56There's a Gagne sleeper!
07:58My father was Vern Gagne, a legend in the sport of professional wrestling.
08:05And Adrian came in, and Vern liked him right away, liked his presence in the ring.
08:10And eventually, they teamed him up with Jesse Ventura.
08:15Well, somebody's going to pay for this.
08:18Somebody's going to pay dearly for this.
08:20Ain't that right, Adrian?
08:20Definitely so.
08:21Let me tell you something, Stanley Blackburn.
08:23Jesse was the better talker of the two.
08:25But Adrian was not a bad talker.
08:26He was a good talker, and they played off each other really well.
08:29He wore the leather jacket.
08:30The New York Yankees insignia, which, you know, in the Midwest, that's good for being a heel.
08:35You know, the New York biker-type guy going against your Midwest local heroes.
08:40The golden boy, Adrian Adonis.
08:43I've seen him live in the AWA with Greg Gagne and Jim Brunzel, and get punched and do these pirouettes, and being whipped into the corner and do that flip that Ric Flair would do, and just making little Greg Gagne, you know, thin guy, look like, you know, badass of all badass.
08:58Oh!
09:00Taking the drop kicks from Jim Brunzel.
09:02And it was really there where he went from being what I would call a really good wrestler to being a real star.
09:09His bumps and his reaction and, you know, his facial expression, and he was sort of that bully on the microphone.
09:16And a couple weeks ago, I heard Ray Stephens and Pat Patterson out here giving us a so-called challenge.
09:22And he could back it up, so he was an exceptional talent.
09:26Jumping Jim Brunzel.
09:28I'm Jim Brunzel, otherwise known as Jumpin' Jim Brunzel.
09:33And I wrestled for 28 years.
09:36Adrian knew when to get heat, and then he knew when to give the baby face a comeback.
09:41We were so proud of him.
09:43One of our guys was actually making it be a star.
09:46On TV, we're watching one of our friends.
09:49Grew up on the west side of Buffalo.
09:51None of us had nothing.
09:53You have no idea the parties we were throwing.
09:57After years of building a name for himself in the AWA and across the country,
10:02Adrian eventually signs with Vince McMahon's WWF.
10:06I got scars on my face.
10:08I've had baseball bats across my shoulder.
10:10By the time I got to the WWE in 84, I was nobody.
10:15I was a little fish in a big pond.
10:18And Adrian was a pretty big fish.
10:21And look at confidence just oozing.
10:23He knew everything about everything in the business.
10:26I tried to bond with him and become friends with him.
10:28I can remember going up to Adrian Adonis' room.
10:33Jim Nider told me to come up.
10:34And I can remember feeling kind of funny because I could tell like I wasn't welcome.
10:40He doesn't trust being around me.
10:42I'm a promoter's kid.
10:43Probably going to tell on him.
10:44And I can remember Jim peeping through the peak hole.
10:48And I can hear Adrian.
10:49It's Brett.
10:50Don't let him in.
10:51And then I can hear Jim go, no, no, he's cool.
10:53He's cool.
10:54He's totally cool.
10:54Let him in.
10:56I hear the chain come off and Jim was like, come on in.
11:00Adrian, he's chopping up a bunch of cocaine on a mirror.
11:03You know, he's chopping it all up.
11:06A very telling kind of moment for me because that opened the door for me to sit in a room
11:12with Roddy Piper, Mr. Fuji, Iron Sheik.
11:17Like for me, it was like sitting under the learning tree.
11:20I know I was doing lines of cocaine with all these guys till four or five in the morning.
11:26They were all the most creative minds in wrestling at that time.
11:30This is so critical and important for me to be in this room with these guys listening
11:35and learning all these little secrets about the business, wrestling psychology.
11:40And I never, ever looked back on those days as being wasted time.
11:47Cocaine was about as prevalent as marijuana was in the 60s.
11:51And I mean, everybody had it.
11:53You meet somebody in the bar, you shake his hand, and as soon as you shake his hand,
11:56he'd squeeze an eight ball of cocaine into your hand.
12:00And basically, it was like a starter kit.
12:02Don't worry, it's on us.
12:03They give it to you and tell you to, you know, get you down the road sometime.
12:07You know, pay me back.
12:09Adrian went hard every night.
12:11Every night.
12:12If you looked up party animal in the dictionary, there'd be a picture of Adrian Adonis.
12:16The problem with cocaine was how he could turn around and become a monster in a short time.
12:24And then you're sitting at home watching soap operas in the middle of the afternoon,
12:28and you're going, it's all, it's all over.
12:30252 pounds, Adrian Adonis!
12:43Joining the WWF roster during its 1980s golden age, Adrian Adonis seems destined for greatness.
12:51But behind the curtain, the trappings of success begin to take a toll.
12:55There was a lot of wrestlers that were strung out on cocaine.
13:02And we started to realize it wasn't the friendly drug that we all thought.
13:06We first started snorting it.
13:08It's a bad drug that you've got to wean yourself off of and stay away from.
13:14Me and Jim Neidhart, we had the white flag up.
13:16You have nothing left in the tank.
13:18Like, you can't do any more drugs and late nights.
13:21I kind of stopped kind of partying with everyone because it was just too, too much.
13:26They were all cokeheads.
13:27Don't let nothing fool you.
13:29They were all partiers.
13:31There wasn't nobody in that business.
13:34Maybe a few.
13:35You could probably get one out of a hundred who wasn't a partier.
13:39I mean, it was nothing but a party.
13:42They entertained, had a good time, but they partied.
13:46I remember one night, I just had the rest of my beer, and I was going to bed,
13:51and I heard this knock on the door.
13:52Let's open the door.
13:53Here's Adrian.
13:54And he says, God damn it, Jimmy.
13:57I'm going to kill myself.
13:58Take this bag of cocaine and keep it for me.
14:01I said, okay.
14:03You know, about four and a half hours later, I hear, bam, bam, bam at the door.
14:07And I thought, what the heck?
14:08You know, it was like five in the morning.
14:10He's opened the door, and Adrian's fit to be tied.
14:12He says, Brunzi, where's the god damn coke?
14:15He said, you better not have taken any.
14:17And I gave it to him, and out he went.
14:18I just remember thinking, his wife has no idea.
14:23I doubt he ever does stuff like that at home.
14:27When he was with his wife, he was a completely different guy.
14:31Talk about Jekyll and Hyde.
14:32I don't know if there's anybody that I know of that was more of a devoted, loving family
14:36man that loved his wife, loved his kids.
14:39The way he talked to his wife was like she was like an angel.
14:42And I remember he pulls her chair out and slide it back in when she sat down.
14:48It's like he was such a gentleman.
14:49I almost thought it was a put-on at first.
14:52I was 19 when we met.
14:53I knew what I was getting into with him.
14:55I think to have that strong bond with the rest, you have to really love each other.
15:01This was his dream, and I wanted it for him.
15:03My name was Bea Frankie Hall, and I was married to Adrian Adonis.
15:10Home life, that was different.
15:12He was definitely not the same as you would see in the ring.
15:16Now, he was a very gentle, fine, loving, flowers, jewelry, sweet, sweet man.
15:23I would wake up, and he'd have breakfast made for me and bring it to me in bed.
15:27They had such a close relationship.
15:29Even though he was gone a lot of the time, he would call several times a day.
15:33She's, you know, always, I remember her talking about the collect phone calls, the bills would be outrageous.
15:38They just had a really good relationship.
15:40I mean, their personalities meshed well.
15:44I'm Gina Vanta, and Adrian Adonis was my father.
15:48Thought I was the coolest kid ever.
15:49I had a Pee Wee Herman signed poster that he got for me.
15:52I'm Angela Preetis, and I'm the oldest daughter of Adrian Adonis.
15:58Watching Three Stooges, that was something that he loved to watch.
16:02It was always on when he was home.
16:04In his big bag that he would take on the road, there was always just presents, gifts.
16:09We were going to have fun.
16:12Dad was home.
16:12I think I was a good wife.
16:16He trusted me totally.
16:17I never screwed around.
16:19I never asked questions.
16:21I think we had an awesome relationship.
16:24I cannot get mad at that man.
16:26I cannot.
16:29Despite his stable home life, Adrian's cocaine addiction causes his in-ring style to become even more vicious,
16:36ultimately damaging his reputation backstage.
16:38He was edgy.
16:42I mean, he was edgy.
16:44He had a temper.
16:44Now you'll see the sadistic amount of Adrian now.
16:48If I know Adrian, he's going to get real nasty right now.
16:51Coked-up Adrian Adonis would be very, very rough on guys, and if they complain, it's like,
16:55well, you're not tough enough for this business.
16:57Get out.
16:58Wow, a lot behind those days.
17:00The thing about all those kind of things is every dog has his day.
17:02There's always going to be somebody that can whip your butt sooner or later.
17:06Uh-oh.
17:07Uh-oh.
17:07My goodness.
17:08In 1985, Vince McMahon decides that Adrian's character needs a dramatic makeover.
17:14From New York City tough guy to something completely different.
17:20You look a whole lot different.
17:22When Vince took over in 84, it was more and more about colorful characters.
17:27It was not as much about tough guys.
17:29You know, everybody had to have a gimmick.
17:31And that Adrian Adonis gimmick he didn't see as a main event gimmick.
17:35A New York tough guy thing.
17:36The leather jacket is going to be retired.
17:40Laying 281 pounds, the adorable Adrian Adonis.
17:50Well, uh, there are certain things that defy description.
17:55The idea of the gay character, that was not super common, but it was absolutely there.
18:03You know, starting with Gorgeous George.
18:04So, of course, you know, when something is successful in wrestling, everybody copies it.
18:09So, he went from, yeah, the Adrian Adonis, the black leather New York tough guy thing.
18:13And then, uh, they started doing vignettes where he was, you know, embracing his other side.
18:19May the Rockettes eat your heart out.
18:22I'll tell you, when he, they made him dress up with the perfume thing and as a homosexual,
18:29none of us liked it, but we understood it.
18:32He was too good to be doing what McMahon wanted him to do.
18:38But up there, that's the way he had to survive.
18:41They, they, they do not approve, apparently.
18:43If he had to do that, he had to have a gimmick.
18:46He had to be this big, like, Gorgeous George for Vince to give him any credit.
18:52Did they say when he's out on the town that he's a gay blade?
18:55I don't know.
18:55What are we saying there?
18:56I don't know that Adrian liked the idea at first, but I think he did a quick turnaround.
19:00You know what?
19:01I'm going to just prove to you that I can do it, that I'm not talented, that I can take
19:06something as stupid as that and make it work.
19:09And, uh, I'm going to prove that to you.
19:11In May of 1986, Adrian is set to wrestle a relative newcomer to the business.
19:17I was scheduled to work with Adrian because Adrian is getting ready for a run with Hogan.
19:22Chicken champion Hulk Hogan.
19:24Let me tell you something, Madonis.
19:26So they're getting Adrian people to beat up and be impressive with.
19:30I was kind of looking forward to it because Adrian, you know, was one of the main guys.
19:38Hi everyone, my name is Dan Spivey, formerly known as Dangerous Dan Spivey.
19:42Spivey looking absolutely fantastic.
19:46I was new into the wrestling business.
19:47I've probably only been in there a little over a year.
19:50I guess Adrian thought I was just some young guy, easy, big guy.
19:54I was always quiet, didn't have much to say.
19:57And so I guess he took that as weakness and he was wrong.
20:01Pitted against Spivey, Adrian will learn just how wrong he was in a match that will change
20:07his life forever.
20:09He just exploded.
20:10All of a sudden he let off and he hit him in the head with a left hook.
20:16He said, I'm going to kill that son of a bitch.
20:18In the lead up to his showdown against world champion Hulk Hogan, Adrian Adonis is set to
20:32wrestle and defeat Dan Spivey, solidifying his position as one of the top villains in
20:37the company.
20:38Of course, I had in the back of my mind that he was also a tough guy.
20:42And, you know, I heard that he would take advantage of guys.
20:45So I had mixed feelings about wrestling.
20:48And sure enough, got in the ring.
20:50He started kicking me really hard.
20:53Calling me a stupid son of a bitch, you know.
20:56And just abusing the shit out of me.
20:59Adrian Adonis wasting no time and taking advantage of the inexperience of the Golden Boy.
21:06I was pissed after the match.
21:08I was going to fight him right there.
21:10And Davey Boy and Dynamite and Scott McGee grabbed my stuff.
21:14They got us a cab, got me back to the place and got me out of the Coliseum.
21:21So next night we were in Flint, Michigan.
21:24It was sold out, 10,000 people.
21:26Vince says, you guys are working together.
21:28I'm going to say, okay.
21:31Bob Orton and I had heard there was some bad blood.
21:36And it had been building between Adrian and Danny Spivey.
21:40We were hoping that the match would get by.
21:43He was supposed to win.
21:45I beat me with something.
21:46I don't remember what it was.
21:47But he was going over, which was expected.
21:50But he started the same shit with me again.
21:53When I was on all fours, he knocked the air out of me.
21:56And then he got me in the sleeper hole.
21:58And he was really cinching down on it.
22:00And I just had enough of it.
22:04When I kind of snapped, I came up swinging.
22:07I knocked him out.
22:09The referee says, Dan, that's not the finish.
22:11I said, if I change the finish, he's not going over tonight.
22:17So Bob and I run into the ring.
22:19Because I didn't want, you know, Danny to kill him.
22:22Please, let's go back to the locker room.
22:27Everybody was going crazy running around the dressing room.
22:30I'm still pissed.
22:33And then all of a sudden, the door opens up.
22:39And Adrian is coming.
22:45He starts talking to Danny.
22:46You know, like he was going to apologize or something.
22:50And then he goes to leg dive Danny.
22:56Spivey, you know, he's a quiet guy.
22:58If you poke a dog a number of times, he's going to bite your ass.
23:02You can imagine a guy, six, seven, you know, 280 pounds,
23:09throwing a punch from down by his knee, an uppercut.
23:14Lifted Adrian up in the air.
23:16And Adrian came down like a walrus.
23:19Boom.
23:20And he just rolled his eyes back.
23:22And you could see his cheekbone.
23:25The white part of the bone was sticking through the skin.
23:29They called an ambulance.
23:30And they took him to the hospital.
23:32And nobody saw Adrian again for, it had to be, a couple weeks.
23:36I wish they would have been different.
23:38But I had to protect myself and protect my reputation.
23:43Anyway, I got fired about a month later.
23:46Let go.
23:48I kind of felt bad for him.
23:50Had a sting getting his ass whipped in front of everybody.
23:53All the wrestlers that watched him.
23:55When you're a guy that everybody fears and that happens to,
23:58you kind of lose a little bit of face and, I don't want to say respect,
24:01but you kind of lose something when that happens.
24:04Yeah.
24:06And it was horrible for Adrian because I don't think he ever really recovered from that.
24:15Humiliated after the confrontation with Spivey,
24:17Adrian spirals further into his cocaine addiction.
24:23Adrian was starting to show a lot of decline.
24:25And he was getting heavier.
24:27And he wasn't moving like he used to.
24:29And he wasn't the guy he used to be.
24:32And I think he knew that.
24:33The trouble with substance abuse is when you do find time to eat,
24:40you gorge yourself and then you fall asleep.
24:43So you're eating tons of calories.
24:45And it's got no place to go except as tissue on your body.
24:49He told me, damn, I'm reaching 300.
24:56I didn't see that.
24:58Maybe because I was his wife.
25:00I did not see that.
25:01I just saw him.
25:04He didn't know how to stop.
25:04I don't think he knew how to change it without changing his whole life.
25:08Adonis had the match won.
25:10In May of 1987, Adrian suddenly leaves the WWF.
25:15Leaving in shame and disgust.
25:17Though the reasons are unclear,
25:19rumors backstage suggest he was fired for substance abuse.
25:25I just know that Adrian suddenly disappeared
25:27where he wasn't on the cards anymore.
25:30I think guys like me just assume he'll be back in a few weeks.
25:35I thought for a second he may have had enough.
25:37The next time we saw Adrian, he's 400 pounds.
25:39Him and I wrestled in Las Vegas.
25:42We thought this would be a great match.
25:43And a twist.
25:45We were doing an international television champion.
25:48I think Adonis is just too big for the frame of Greg Gagne.
25:53And we got in the ring.
25:54He was breathing so hard, we barely made 10 minutes.
25:58Orton is trying to drag Adonis back to the ring.
26:03We sat down in the locker room and we just talked.
26:06And I told him, I said, Jesus, Adrian, what have you done?
26:09God almighty, why don't you get back to your regular weight?
26:13You're one of the great performers of all time.
26:15This isn't you.
26:16And you know from our philosophy, be yourself.
26:19Be who you are.
26:22And maybe that night woke him up a little bit.
26:24Still only 34 years old, Adrian commits to getting back in shape, losing nearly 100 pounds over the next six months.
26:34Ditching the adorable one persona, he sets his sights on competing in Japan.
26:38Life was great.
26:43Everything was great.
26:45Just a happy family.
26:47It was over happy.
26:49I saw him in Tokyo.
26:52I ran across him at a popular place for the American guys, Gaijin's, the steakhouse.
26:58I saw him there.
26:59I had a beer with him, shook hands.
27:01And, you know, I was sorry things happened the way it did.
27:05You know, so we had a beer.
27:08He was wearing a beer to hatchet.
27:10Yeah, pretty much.
27:13I remember having dinner with him and Bea.
27:16He really did seem like he was getting his life together again.
27:19Getting ready for a big comeback.
27:22He was at that age where he could still turn things around, reinvent himself and come back.
27:28And I don't think anyone ever thought, oh, that's the last we'll hear of Adrian Adonis.
27:33The last time I saw Keith was in L.A. in a hotel room.
27:37He had flew in from Japan and met him that night.
27:42That morning he was to fly out to Canada.
27:48He came back to the room to tell me goodbye a second time.
27:51He had never done that.
27:56That was our last goodbye.
27:58The last time I saw him alive.
28:07Leaving his wife in Los Angeles, Adrian departs for Canada,
28:14where his fate will intersect with a pair of veteran wrestlers known as the Kelly Twins.
28:20I was the only survivor at that time.
28:25Quite a tragedy.
28:27Adrian Adonis, he was a tough boy and he loved being in the ring.
28:34He was a good boy.
28:35My name's Mike Kelly and I've been a professional wrestler for 23 and a half years
28:41with my twin brother, Pat.
28:43People have probably known me from the O'Henry commercial.
28:47When you consider how big it is.
28:49Back years ago, that big chunk of fudge.
28:52It's that big chunk of fudge.
28:55The Kelly Twins were veteran wrestlers that I remember from the 60s.
29:01They worked for my dad.
29:02Identical twins.
29:04You couldn't tell which one you were talking to.
29:05This is when we were in Japan.
29:08A bunch of us sitting around in a sushi bar, drinking and eating.
29:12I think this was in Tokyo.
29:15Hacksaw Higgins.
29:16I think my brother fell in love that night.
29:20We were inseparable.
29:24We enjoyed being together, doing things together.
29:27My mother always dresses the same.
29:31If Pat had a black coat on, I'd wear a black coat.
29:35If he had brown shoes, I would wear brown shoes.
29:39We had identical diamond rings.
29:41Identical watches.
29:43Identical hats.
29:45We lived our life as twins.
29:48He got hurt one time and I wasn't there.
29:51And I knew something was wrong.
29:52I says, my brother's hurt.
29:54I could feel it.
29:56We had that special bond, which was good for us.
30:02So how did you get the call to do the Newfoundland tour?
30:05We were working like around Toronto.
30:08Dave McKigney, the promoter, he had called and asked us if we wanted to come down to Newfoundland.
30:14And I said, well, yeah, we'll come down and wrestle for you.
30:18So we packed up our van and drove down with my brother and I.
30:25And Adrian Adonis come in from Japan.
30:29The main event was Adrian Adonis with the Bear Man against my brother and I.
30:36Dave McKigney was a journeyman wrestler who promoted shows.
30:42And his gimmick was that he had a bunch of bears living at his house that he trained to wrestle.
30:46So that's where he got the name of the Bear Man.
30:48Dave was a complete old school guy.
30:52He was a good person and a good promoter and one of the best payoff men ever.
30:58My name is Ricky Soulman Johnson.
31:02I borrowed the name from my brother, Rocky Johnson, actually, because we were partners for a long time.
31:07And he passed away.
31:08So I decided to honor him by using his nickname.
31:16Bear Man stores were almost like a traveling circus.
31:19We had gadgets, bears.
31:22It was something for everyone.
31:24Dave the Bear Man, he owned the wrestling bear, Terrible Ted.
31:28It's kind of a rib, but the promoter tells you, you're wrestling the wrestling bear tonight.
31:33It's like, like, really?
31:36Wait, are you kidding me?
31:37I wouldn't get near the bear.
31:40A bear has so much strength that, you know, it could tear you apart in less than half a minute.
31:47Actually, there was an incident with Bear Man's girlfriend.
31:52Apparently she was upstairs, taking a shower, and the bear had sensed it.
31:57And Bear Man was working in the garden.
31:59And the bear had actually came up into the bathroom, clawed her to death.
32:13The bear had tore her to pieces.
32:16It was a tragedy when I heard it.
32:19I just couldn't believe it.
32:23He was supposed to marry the show lady.
32:25Despite this tragedy, McKigney continues to work with bears on his next tour.
32:32An eight-week trek across Newfoundland with a troop of wrestlers that includes the Kelly Twins, Ricky Johnson, and Adrian Adonis.
32:41It was great.
32:41Everybody was happy.
32:42Everybody was making money.
32:44And the people at Newfoundland were so very nice to us.
32:49We were in Gander, Newfoundland.
32:51The next night, we had to wrestle in Lewisport, Newfoundland.
32:55The mayor of Lewisport phoned the hotel in Gander, a holiday in.
33:01It was hard to talk about.
33:03And he asked, would any of the wrestlers come to Lewisport that night that we were off, because they'd like to throw a party for us?
33:15July 4th, 1988.
33:18He had called me three times.
33:21And the last phone call he had made to me, he said, I'm getting ready to get on a ferry.
33:24I just don't tell you I love you.
33:26And he just said, call me later, honey, call me later.
33:28Adrian got in past Van.
33:32The Canadian wild man, he got in the van with the Kellys.
33:36And I was just getting ready to climb in, and Phil blew his horn.
33:39He said, why don't you come with me?
33:40I said, sure, that's cool.
33:43Adrian, the wild man, and the Kelly Twins were 10, 15 minutes ahead of us, I guess.
33:49Me and Phil Whipper-Watson Jr. and Little T were just riding down the road, having a few laughs.
33:56Everything was all backed up and going like two miles an hour.
33:59So I said to Phil, must have been an accident.
34:03Traffic like this in Newfoundland, you know.
34:06Then I looked over into the water, and I seen a red van in the water.
34:11It's an image that will never leave my mind.
34:19We were traveling to Lewisport, Newfoundland, so we could advertise and talk about wrestling.
34:27And there was a guy there with a camera.
34:29He was going to take some pictures of us.
34:32My brother and I, Adrian, the bear man.
34:35It was about 8 o'clock at night.
34:37It was as broad daylight as it is at noon.
34:41Pure daylight, I couldn't believe it.
34:43It was amazing.
34:44It freaked me right out.
34:45It looks like a desert out there, actually.
34:47We had to go around these big rocks.
34:51We just barely got through with our van.
34:54We were going down the highway, and I saw a little bear cop.
34:57My brother, the reflection of the sun, caught the sight of his eye,
35:01and he had swerved to the left where the grass was.
35:06The van had gotten down in a little gully and hit this huge rock dead on.
35:11And I fainted.
35:21And I woke up, and I felt this water was ice cold.
35:25I just wondered what had happened.
35:27Like, why am I in this stream?
35:28And then finally, I saw my brother behind the wheel slouched on the steering wheel.
35:38He had passed away.
35:41I could tell right away.
35:44Yeah, it was horrifying.
35:45And, uh, give me a minute, please.
36:00I seen the van in the water, and I said, that looks like the Kelly's van.
36:07I knew it well.
36:08I went down there with him, and it's all.
36:10Adrian Adonis was, uh, in bad shape.
36:15He was in real bad shape.
36:18The bear man died instantly.
36:21Adrian, he was moaning, help me, help me, help me.
36:24I remember Adrian's elbow.
36:27All you could see was the bone sticking out of it.
36:30I remember thinking, like, we've got to save them.
36:33But there was no saving them.
36:38It was Fourth of July, so, you know, we were celebrating with all my cousins in Bakersfield.
36:46And I do remember we had just, like, a little get-together.
36:49I have a cousin that's scared to death of fireworks, so my other cousin went in to check, answered the phone.
36:54They asked for Miss Frankie.
36:55But I just remember she came out screaming out of the house.
36:57He was passed.
36:59He had, he was dead.
37:01They said, Keith has been killed.
37:04He was, he was killed in an auto accident.
37:08I said, put Dave on the phone, Dave McKinney.
37:10They said, he's dead.
37:12I said, put one of the Kelly twins on.
37:14I don't know, you put someone on.
37:15And then the RCMP called me that night.
37:21And he was, he was gone.
37:25The first few days after his passing, I was still in shock.
37:29I did not want to believe it.
37:31Dead is former WWF star, adorable Adrian Adonis.
37:36Also killed was Pat Kelly on the left.
37:38His twin brother, Mike, on the right, was the only survivor of the crash.
37:42His brother was your best friend.
37:43Oh, yes, yes.
37:45We were half an hour apart and he was, uh, he was very close to me.
37:50Where he went, I followed behind.
37:52Where I went, he followed behind.
37:55We were inseparable.
37:57The whole world changed, yeah.
37:59In more ways than one, because a couple of road guys that worked for Dave McKinney, the bear man,
38:05they jumped in the water also, and they robbed Adrian.
38:11They took his money, watch, whatever he ate, whatever valuables he had.
38:16They were arrested.
38:18Yes, I did want to press charges.
38:22Just to the fact that what, why?
38:26Why rob a dead man?
38:27So, yeah, we went to a motel in Lewisport.
38:36We went to the bar.
38:38Some of the guys, just to relax, they wanted to shoot pool.
38:42They only had a couple of drinks.
38:44That somebody had said, they're all f***ing dead.
38:48Like, it just hit them.
38:49Next thing I know, I just didn't stop flying, and glasses were flying.
38:57Then all hell just broke loose.
39:02I remember seeing the manager of the motel.
39:05He was just standing off to the side against the wall with a pen and paper.
39:09He gave us a bill to the next board.
39:11I think it was $12,000 for the damage.
39:15The next day, we drove by the scene of the accident.
39:19Some guys were praying, some were crying, and the CBC came.
39:24And they wanted to know if booze was involved and stuff.
39:28We told them to f*** off.
39:30Get away from us.
39:31Don't you realize what happened here?
39:40Though it's never been proven,
39:42some have suggested that the accident that killed wrestlers Adrian Adonis,
39:46Dave McKigney, and Pat Kelly resulted from drinking and driving.
39:51I don't like to think I keep dying like that.
39:54They probably were coming from a wrestling match, partying, having a good time.
39:58No, no drugs, no alcohol.
40:01The doctors had checked all that on me, and that, there was no...
40:06And nobody was drinking in the bathroom?
40:09Definitely not.
40:10No, definitely not.
40:13I keep a photo of him in my wallet at all times.
40:18I have, uh, photos of him in my bedroom.
40:25Yeah, he was my life.
40:32But, things have to go on.
40:35By the grace of God, it could be you, you know, because you never know.
40:41We were on the road every night.
40:42Guys were drinking a 12-pack of beer, smoking, you know, joints, and snorting coke,
40:46and driving 100 miles an hour.
40:48And nobody got killed.
40:51Here's a guy doing the right thing,
40:53and he ends up dying in a tragic accident.
40:56When all of us guys are out here doing the wrong s***,
40:59and we're still alive.
41:01How does that balance out?
41:03I guess God was right, the good die young.
41:07And Keith was one of the best.
41:10He was one of my closest friends, even though we were miles apart.
41:16I was in a federal prison in Texas.
41:18When he died, I was in custody, so I wasn't able to go to the funeral.
41:26I remember B telling me that he was so big that nothing could ever hurt him.
41:31I remember thinking the same thing.
41:33Like, he was indestructible.
41:36The whole funeral was blurred.
41:39It really didn't hit me until later.
41:44I bought the home while he was in Japan.
41:46And this closet and this new home.
41:50I had his jacket with the New York emblem.
41:52Adrian, I'm not in.
41:55That was the only thing in that closet.
41:57I don't know who put it there.
41:59I could just smell him.
42:03Everything came flooding back,
42:05and that's when it really hit me.
42:09I took that damn jacket, and I went to bed.
42:17And that was the finality of it.
42:21You know?
42:22He was never coming home.
42:25Ever.
42:25I think your brother would be pretty proud of the man you turned out to be.
42:34Yes, he sure would.
42:35You've got to stay strong.
42:38And that's the way I've lived my life after my brother had passed.
42:43And I'll just keep going.
42:48We'll do the best we can.
42:51That's all we can do.
42:52Adrian Adonis was a very, very talented guy,
42:58and I don't think he ever got the due for his talent that he should have,
43:03just because it was not an era where people really recognized that.
43:08Like, if a guy with the talent of Adrian Adonis was around today,
43:12everybody would know how good he is,
43:13and he would be a big, big star.
43:15World Wrestling Federation's type team champion,
43:20Adrian Adonis!
43:22He should be honored.
43:23He should be in the Hall of Fame.
43:25He's a Hall of Famer, without a doubt.
43:30I think that if Adrian hadn't been in that accident,
43:34I don't think it's impossible to think that five years later,
43:38he's in WrestleMania,
43:41Bret Hart versus Adrian Adonis.
43:42Like, who knows?
43:44I would want him to know how much I appreciate all the little bits of advice
43:48and encouragement that he gave me all through my career,
43:51and just the friendship that I had.
43:55I learned so much from him,
43:57and I never take it for granted.
43:58I would have given anything to have an Adrian Adonis waiting for me in the ring.
44:03Adrian Adonis, victorious!
44:05He was the real deal.
44:07He Naomi pinned her for his wife.
44:08.
44:08He ran for his two men,
44:09Oh,
44:10I didn't go.
44:13He hasn't paid for it yet.
44:17He's not a true individual.
44:20He has three men's job 2013.
44:20But he didn't have anybody.
44:21He was the real deal of
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