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Exactly who or what is Exotic
Adrian Street?
Well if you don't know, let me
introduce you.
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00:01:09,897 --> 00:01:14,281
I started learning about Adrian
Street
probably in the early 1980's.
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00:01:14,315 --> 00:01:18,354
I was a huge wrestling fan, at
that time
we recieved news about wrestlers
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00:01:18,388 --> 00:01:23,669
outside of our territories mine
being
the North East territory that
WWF covered.
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00:01:24,946 --> 00:01:27,397
We would learn about them
through
the wrestling magazines.
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00:01:27,432 --> 00:01:31,298
And there's this really
odd-looking, unique fellow.
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00:01:31,332 --> 00:01:33,369
And he's clearly...
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00:01:34,404 --> 00:01:36,268
Well it's not clear what he is,
you know.
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00:01:36,303 --> 00:01:38,719
He's androgynous. He
has a valet.
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00:01:40,169 --> 00:01:43,551
He, he's wrestling some of the
great
stars from around the world
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00:01:43,586 --> 00:01:48,246
there's some classic photos of
him with
Randy "Macho Man" Savage with
Dusty Rhodes.
12
00:01:49,109 --> 00:01:51,318
And as I get into
wrestling I learn
13
00:01:51,352 --> 00:01:57,496
that not only is he flamboyant
performer
but he's an amazing artist and
he's one
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00:01:57,531 --> 00:02:02,674
of those legendary figures in
our
business who can hurt you really
bad
15
00:02:02,708 --> 00:02:03,709
really quickly.
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00:02:04,365 --> 00:02:05,642
And that's fascinating.
17
00:02:05,677 --> 00:02:08,231
When you can paint and destroy
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00:02:08,266 --> 00:02:12,960
you create and destroy almost at
your will,
that that makes for a great
story.
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00:02:14,996 --> 00:02:16,653
Exotic
Adrian Street is me.
20
00:02:17,551 --> 00:02:20,243
In fact I am Exotic
Adrian Street.
21
00:02:20,726 --> 00:02:21,624
Never ever...
22
00:02:22,314 --> 00:02:24,730
met anybody exotic as I am.
23
00:02:25,524 --> 00:02:26,560
In fact...
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00:02:27,526 --> 00:02:29,425
I was gonna say I'm perfect but,
25
00:02:29,459 --> 00:02:33,014
the only thing that stopped me
from
being perfect is my modesty...
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00:02:33,774 --> 00:02:35,810
I'm too modest for my own good.
27
00:02:35,845 --> 00:02:38,365
The
Exotic Adrian Street.
28
00:02:38,399 --> 00:02:39,952
He's
such a big name
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00:02:39,987 --> 00:02:44,060
and he's achieved so many
amazing
things that he's a guy
synonymous with
30
00:02:44,094 --> 00:02:47,201
British wrestling certainly and
to a
wider extent global wrestling.
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00:02:48,029 --> 00:02:49,790
He was
cutting-edge,
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00:02:49,824 --> 00:02:53,276
and he was doing it at a time
where you really
shouldn't been doing what he was
doing.
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00:02:53,311 --> 00:02:57,004
He was pushing that boat,
and then kept pushing a little
bit more.
34
00:02:57,038 --> 00:02:59,075
And not many people
would do that.
35
00:03:01,181 --> 00:03:02,699
It was a very
close-knit community.
36
00:03:04,184 --> 00:03:08,567
There were a lot of families all
living
in the same kind of environment.
37
00:03:08,602 --> 00:03:09,913
Neighbours were very
neighbourly.
38
00:03:11,777 --> 00:03:18,853
I can remember my Dad coming
home from the pit,
quite dirty really, all covered
in coal.
39
00:03:18,888 --> 00:03:21,891
We'd have the tin bath put out
in front of the fire,
40
00:03:21,925 --> 00:03:27,068
it was that kind of a
environment you know,
it wasn't as sophisticated as
today.
41
00:03:28,242 --> 00:03:30,348
Everybody relied on everybody
else more or less.
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00:03:31,280 --> 00:03:34,869
This is one of the
first photographs,
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00:03:34,904 --> 00:03:39,771
obviously Adrian a baby, with
older brother Terrence.
44
00:03:41,359 --> 00:03:43,637
My Father at the time...
45
00:03:44,603 --> 00:03:46,536
was a prisoner war with
the Japanese.
46
00:03:46,571 --> 00:03:49,608
Every time I saw anybody in
uniform,
I'd go up to them and say...
47
00:03:51,058 --> 00:03:52,818
My Dad's a prisoner of war
with the Japanese...
48
00:03:54,095 --> 00:03:56,995
When you leave will you go and
get him and bring him back?
49
00:03:57,029 --> 00:03:59,066
I really wanted a Father.
50
00:03:59,100 --> 00:04:01,033
But when he did come home,
51
00:04:01,068 --> 00:04:06,073
the first time I ever met him
was just like
maybe a few weeks before my
fifth birthday.
52
00:04:07,177 --> 00:04:09,594
And for whatever reason my
Father didn't like me.
53
00:04:11,423 --> 00:04:16,221
And, it wasn't too long before,
before I
actually learned I didn't like
him either.
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00:04:17,878 --> 00:04:20,501
Adrian was as he
is now, quite unique.
55
00:04:20,536 --> 00:04:23,711
He would be the one that would
go off and do his own thing.
56
00:04:24,298 --> 00:04:24,816
Always in trouble...
57
00:04:26,058 --> 00:04:28,164
As far as I can recall, the
tales my Mum used to tell,
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00:04:29,476 --> 00:04:32,720
whatever neighbourhood
catastrophe
would be happening...
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00:04:33,480 --> 00:04:34,412
Adrian was in the midst of it.
60
00:04:35,378 --> 00:04:37,346
When I was a young kid
during the war,
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00:04:37,380 --> 00:04:39,693
there was only one thing I
wanted more
than to be than to be a Red
Indian.
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00:04:41,281 --> 00:04:45,561
I wanted to be the best, the
most
famous Red Indian chief in the
World.
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00:04:45,595 --> 00:04:46,976
They were colourful, they
wore the makeup.
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00:04:48,426 --> 00:04:51,636
They wore the feathers in their
hair
and all that kind of stuff,
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00:04:51,670 --> 00:04:52,775
the war bonnets.
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00:04:53,776 --> 00:04:55,640
I really wanted to be a
Red Indian chief.
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00:04:56,468 --> 00:04:59,851
I can remember my
Mother making...
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00:05:00,472 --> 00:05:02,094
Oh, I loved this suit.
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00:05:02,129 --> 00:05:06,927
It was grey with beaded work
and red fringes on it.
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00:05:06,961 --> 00:05:11,276
My Mum made that for Adrian
along
with the feather headdress
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00:05:12,139 --> 00:05:13,347
so Adrian was now...
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00:05:14,279 --> 00:05:15,660
the--the Indian chief
he wanted to be.
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00:05:16,971 --> 00:05:20,975
When I graduated from the infant
school which was way over there,
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00:05:21,907 --> 00:05:23,702
to the Junior School
which was here,
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00:05:24,669 --> 00:05:26,878
I wanted to make a great
first impression.
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00:05:28,638 --> 00:05:33,367
And I went to school stripped to
the waist,
with just a pair of short
trousers on.
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00:05:34,610 --> 00:05:38,476
I had my face painted with all
the most garish colours
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00:05:38,510 --> 00:05:40,270
I could find in my paint box
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00:05:41,444 --> 00:05:45,448
and I filled my hair with a lot
of chicken feathers
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00:05:45,483 --> 00:05:48,348
so--so that I would give
the impression
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00:05:49,556 --> 00:05:54,284
that I wanted to make whenever I
entered the school.
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00:05:55,631 --> 00:05:59,013
I want them to realise that I
was
a great Cherokee warrior.
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00:06:00,221 --> 00:06:03,777
Unfortunatly, the Headmistress
didn't sort of recognise
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00:06:04,605 --> 00:06:06,883
the effort I made, and she said
85
00:06:06,918 --> 00:06:14,650
"Go home you silly little bugger
and put on some
warm pale face clothes and wash
your silly face."
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00:06:16,306 --> 00:06:17,238
I had a friend named Peter Inge
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00:06:18,895 --> 00:06:22,382
who was really into wrestling
and he
was trying to interest me in
wrestling,
88
00:06:23,417 --> 00:06:26,109
I was trying to interest him
in bodybuilding.
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00:06:27,248 --> 00:06:29,458
Anyway, I was over in
Ebbw Vale one day
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00:06:29,492 --> 00:06:34,704
and I noticed an American
wrestling magazine
and I thought, oh I'll buy that
Peter.
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00:06:36,465 --> 00:06:40,400
And I bought it and on the way,
on the bus
back I flipped through it, I was
hooked.
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00:06:42,160 --> 00:06:44,196
Forget about the Red Indians I
wanted to
be a professional wrestler from
then on.
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00:06:46,233 --> 00:06:50,686
He didn't want to
do go down the mine pit
a, it was dirty, but it was the
silicosis.
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00:06:51,894 --> 00:06:55,276
Because every, all the miners
suffered from silicosis.
95
00:06:55,311 --> 00:06:56,899
And he didn't want that.
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00:06:58,072 --> 00:07:01,593
It was dead men's shoes in your
father's footsteps.
97
00:07:02,767 --> 00:07:04,596
If dad worked in the pits, you
went into the pits.
98
00:07:04,631 --> 00:07:07,185
If your dad worked in steel
works, you went into
steel works.
99
00:07:07,219 --> 00:07:08,358
If your dad worked in industry,
you went into industry.
100
00:07:10,015 --> 00:07:13,709
The kind of
people that he worked
with were quite opposite to him.
101
00:07:14,675 --> 00:07:16,884
For example, they liked
smoking and...
102
00:07:17,954 --> 00:07:20,647
and drinking sort of that
kind of background.
103
00:07:21,475 --> 00:07:23,097
Well he was very
health conscious,
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00:07:23,581 --> 00:07:24,098
always has been.
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00:07:25,652 --> 00:07:29,345
So, hence a lot of people
thought
that he never worked down the
pit
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00:07:29,379 --> 00:07:31,520
because he could never be
associated
with that kind of a lifestyle.
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00:07:32,762 --> 00:07:35,903
As regards to the hard work,
because it was hard work...
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00:07:37,698 --> 00:07:42,772
Adrian reviled in that because
it was
part of, of him being able to
show people
109
00:07:42,807 --> 00:07:47,570
what he could do strength-wise
seeing
that, remembering that he was
quite young.
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00:07:48,882 --> 00:07:52,368
He was one that would do what
he wanted to do in his own way
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00:07:54,266 --> 00:07:57,477
and that's the way he grew up,
and that's the
way he's developed and he's
still the same.
112
00:08:07,694 --> 00:08:10,386
I mean the last thing I wanted
was to work in a coal mine.
113
00:08:10,420 --> 00:08:12,768
It's dark down there and I
needed a spotlight.
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00:08:13,631 --> 00:08:15,667
I was made to be seen.
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00:08:21,639 --> 00:08:27,230
I do identify with that iconic
image of
Adrian at the mines with his
father.
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00:08:27,265 --> 00:08:28,818
I remember seeing it and just
thinking to myself,
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00:08:30,648 --> 00:08:35,515
what manner of human being is
this?
Because it was such a sharp
contrast you know,
118
00:08:35,549 --> 00:08:39,277
there's, you know the--the dad
and this, you know,
119
00:08:40,830 --> 00:08:43,626
dangerous, desolate, occupation
120
00:08:43,661 --> 00:08:46,387
and Adrian with the eight inch
platforms, you know
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00:08:46,422 --> 00:08:50,288
being glam rock before glam
rock even existed.
122
00:08:51,185 --> 00:08:54,706
And it's just, it's
just so cool.
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00:08:54,741 --> 00:08:59,124
It was almost
like a space man come out of
somewhere or another dimension
or something,
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00:08:59,159 --> 00:09:03,370
and sort of landed straight
back,
right in the middle of this kind
of...
125
00:09:04,544 --> 00:09:06,546
... in this pit in Wales.
126
00:09:06,580 --> 00:09:09,997
It's a great shot you know, I've
got I've got
it from a wall because it's
really weird,
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00:09:10,032 --> 00:09:12,137
when you tell people like, you
know,
when people say, "Who's that?"
128
00:09:12,172 --> 00:09:14,830
I say, well that's my Dad
and my Grandad,
129
00:09:14,864 --> 00:09:17,246
it's like you know. It certainly
takes
some explaining I think that
picture.
130
00:09:19,006 --> 00:09:23,632
The first title that, that, that
I held was the
European Middleweight
Championship,
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00:09:23,666 --> 00:09:26,255
Then I actually won the World
Middleweight Championship,
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00:09:26,289 --> 00:09:28,602
I know that you don't have
middleweights in the,
in the States,
133
00:09:28,637 --> 00:09:29,948
and that's one reason why I gave
up the title to come here.
134
00:09:31,087 --> 00:09:33,089
But as far as a heavyweight
titles are concerned,
135
00:09:33,124 --> 00:09:37,749
I've held the the European
Heavyweight
Championship on five different
occasions
136
00:09:38,681 --> 00:09:40,787
and I've never ever been
beaten for it.
137
00:09:40,821 --> 00:09:44,722
When he was asked where he would
like a photograph taken
138
00:09:44,756 --> 00:09:50,555
when his name became famous he
said
"I'd like to go back to where I
started off."
139
00:09:51,729 --> 00:09:55,146
And there he is showing what he
managed to achieve.
140
00:09:57,217 --> 00:10:04,224
Such an amazing shot of the
juxtaposition
between this, gritty, Welsh,
working-class, coal-miner,
141
00:10:04,258 --> 00:10:08,021
with his mates who'd kinda,
kind of had his life set out
before him
142
00:10:08,055 --> 00:10:10,920
before he even knew it, and
would
have said no this is your life
your life is
143
00:10:10,955 --> 00:10:12,508
to go down the mine and that was
probably planned for Adrian too
144
00:10:14,337 --> 00:10:19,032
but then when you look at what
Adrian did
and brought that crazy outfit
down the mine
145
00:10:19,066 --> 00:10:23,174
and stood with his dad and took
that picture,
I think it really symbolized how
insane
146
00:10:23,208 --> 00:10:27,005
Adrian's dream was in the first
place
to go out and try something like
that
147
00:10:27,040 --> 00:10:28,628
but also it shows the...
148
00:10:29,836 --> 00:10:33,046
what was so significant about
him with wrestling fans,
149
00:10:33,080 --> 00:10:36,670
because that, that insane
character
versus the the working-class
man,
150
00:10:36,705 --> 00:10:40,709
which was the majority of
wrestling fans in
that era, was kind of what made
him
151
00:10:40,743 --> 00:10:45,058
stand out and so different and
so beloved
or so hated whatever the case
may be.
152
00:10:45,092 --> 00:10:47,923
It just shows how much Adrian
made
an impact on popular culture,
153
00:10:47,957 --> 00:10:49,856
to a stratospheric degree.
Particularly for his time.
154
00:10:50,753 --> 00:10:53,100
There's a scene in "Zoolander"
where,
155
00:10:53,135 --> 00:10:56,172
Ben Stiller's character does
exactly the
same. He has a career as a male
model
156
00:10:56,207 --> 00:11:01,143
in that film and his father
completely
disapproves, so he decides to
take it to him
157
00:11:01,177 --> 00:11:05,941
as a what, almost that
rebellious nature
kept coming out on him to show
him,
158
00:11:05,975 --> 00:11:07,839
look at me I've done this,
you said I couldn't
159
00:11:08,875 --> 00:11:11,463
and that's pretty much
inspired by Adrian.
160
00:11:11,498 --> 00:11:13,224
Adrian did exactly that.
161
00:11:13,258 --> 00:11:16,952
Anyway, I ran away from home
when I was 16 years of age.
162
00:11:18,125 --> 00:11:20,749
I went to live in London, I
almost starved to death.
163
00:11:20,783 --> 00:11:22,820
I've slept on park benches and
everything like that.
164
00:11:24,373 --> 00:11:28,584
But if I'm determined to do
something,
I'm gonna do it or die trying.
165
00:11:29,136 --> 00:11:29,171
No matter what you do,
166
00:11:30,655 --> 00:11:33,623
reach for the stars. If you land
on
the moon, then you've gone far.
167
00:11:34,279 --> 00:11:35,556
And that's what he's done.
168
00:11:35,591 --> 00:11:37,800
He's basically, he reached for
the stars and he's got there.
169
00:11:39,457 --> 00:11:42,805
What he would have become if he
hadn't
moved away from that mining
village,
170
00:11:42,840 --> 00:11:44,186
who knows.
171
00:11:44,220 --> 00:11:47,223
I think he would have been
destined
to be in show business anyway,
172
00:11:47,258 --> 00:11:48,777
That was his character.
173
00:11:48,811 --> 00:11:50,537
That was what he was
determined to do,
174
00:11:50,571 --> 00:11:52,090
you have to take your
hat off too him.
175
00:11:54,230 --> 00:11:58,200
I was really
working out hard like two
and a half three hour
sessions...
176
00:11:59,339 --> 00:12:02,100
on the mat wrestling, as well
as lifting weights.
177
00:12:04,758 --> 00:12:08,935
With the result I was hoping to
gain weight
because when I went to live in
London
178
00:12:08,969 --> 00:12:11,178
I weighed a hundred and
seventy six pounds...
179
00:12:12,559 --> 00:12:14,561
But I ended up going down 144.
180
00:12:14,595 --> 00:12:15,665
I'm mean ten stone four pounds.
181
00:12:16,805 --> 00:12:20,256
But I was in such good shape
that a friend of mine
182
00:12:20,291 --> 00:12:22,742
suggested I should try the
bodybuilding magazines,
183
00:12:24,191 --> 00:12:28,057
and quite honestly I was earning
more
money posing for Man's World,
184
00:12:29,334 --> 00:12:32,924
Modern Man, some of the American
magazines and what have you,
185
00:12:33,960 --> 00:12:35,582
than I was when I first
started wrestling.
186
00:12:36,756 --> 00:12:39,275
He was clearly determined, he
clearly wanted it and
187
00:12:39,310 --> 00:12:43,486
I think most wrestlers today
think the
business is a little bit too
easy to get into.
188
00:12:44,764 --> 00:12:46,973
He was a tough guy and he went
through a part of wrestling
189
00:12:47,007 --> 00:12:47,870
where you had to be a tough
guy to survive.
190
00:12:49,423 --> 00:12:52,910
You people might regard this
moron as an idol.
191
00:12:52,944 --> 00:12:53,462
But where I come from
192
00:12:55,188 --> 00:13:01,297
the likes of Austin Idol they
wouldn't even
make a good toilet cleaner. No
way.
193
00:13:04,887 --> 00:13:06,751
Are you a man or a coward?
194
00:13:06,786 --> 00:13:10,237
You're already here. I've come
over
3,000 miles to relieve you of
that.
195
00:13:11,549 --> 00:13:15,725
You're a coward Austin unless
you
put that challenge up.
196
00:13:15,760 --> 00:13:16,761
You're a coward.
197
00:13:18,487 --> 00:13:19,937
Well he's
taken the challenge.
198
00:13:20,696 --> 00:13:22,836
He's taking the challenge and...
199
00:13:22,871 --> 00:13:24,769
- before the bell could even
ring,
200
00:13:24,804 --> 00:13:27,254
the Exotic Adrian Street
brought in from behind.
201
00:13:28,324 --> 00:13:30,775
Some of those
in wrestling now,
202
00:13:32,052 --> 00:13:34,261
wouldn't have even got a job
putting the ring up in our days.
203
00:13:35,573 --> 00:13:38,783
Adrian stood out because he was
a very accomplished athlete.
204
00:13:38,818 --> 00:13:41,061
As Idol answered
the challenge.
205
00:13:42,649 --> 00:13:44,306
Brings him up again.
206
00:13:44,340 --> 00:13:46,377
Those are three slams in a row.
207
00:13:46,411 --> 00:13:48,344
You know when he was on,
well, you know, World of Sport,
208
00:13:49,829 --> 00:13:52,417
on Saturday afternoons, and
you'd go
back into school on Monday, and
209
00:13:52,452 --> 00:13:54,592
you know, everyone would like,
210
00:13:54,626 --> 00:13:56,836
see your Dad on TV and sort of
take the piss and stuff.
211
00:13:57,940 --> 00:13:58,907
It's kind of weird, I always,
you know, I just,
212
00:13:59,286 --> 00:13:59,321
I thought...
213
00:14:01,012 --> 00:14:04,498
I thought people were what they
wanted
to be because they chose to do
it.
214
00:14:04,533 --> 00:14:07,087
Like Dad wanted to be a
wrestler,
so that's what he was.
215
00:14:08,192 --> 00:14:10,125
And other kids, you know,
if their kids, you know,
216
00:14:10,159 --> 00:14:13,749
if their dads drove buses or
whatever, it's
because their dads wanted to be
bus drivers.
217
00:14:13,783 --> 00:14:16,994
I didn't realise until years
later that people
basically got whatever they
could.
218
00:14:17,960 --> 00:14:20,652
So I was quite proud of
the fact that
219
00:14:20,687 --> 00:14:23,276
he's one of the few people I
knew that
actually sort of did what they
wanted to do.
220
00:14:24,967 --> 00:14:27,936
A lot of people ask me, you
know, why
don't you follow your Dad's
footsteps.
221
00:14:30,386 --> 00:14:33,907
I mean last time I had a fight I
got awarded
the Nobel Peace Prize for
violence.
222
00:14:34,874 --> 00:14:36,220
So...
223
00:14:37,946 --> 00:14:39,637
So I think thats, you know,
224
00:14:39,671 --> 00:14:42,536
I don't think that was the path
for me
plus you get cold in pants man.
225
00:14:44,884 --> 00:14:52,581
I had my first
professional contest in 1950,
August 1957, when I was 16 still
16 years of age.
226
00:14:54,238 --> 00:14:56,792
I thought it in those days I was
the best
thing that ever happened to
wrestling,
227
00:14:58,725 --> 00:15:04,627
I just didn't realise how I had
to learn because,
you can't just be a professional
wrestler,
228
00:15:04,662 --> 00:15:06,871
you've got to want it
as bad as I did,
229
00:15:06,906 --> 00:15:12,704
especially considering, that I
never, I was never
blessed with the size a lot of
these guys have got.
230
00:15:12,739 --> 00:15:13,360
The business was protected...
231
00:15:14,706 --> 00:15:18,503
You couldn't just go to it a
school
as easy as you can today.
232
00:15:18,538 --> 00:15:20,022
You can just Google it and
find somewhere.
233
00:15:20,057 --> 00:15:21,299
The business is open right now.
It's totally, totally different.
234
00:15:22,266 --> 00:15:23,957
So Adrian must of had a
tough time and,
235
00:15:23,992 --> 00:15:25,925
you went to these schools they
weren't nice to you.
236
00:15:25,959 --> 00:15:26,926
Their job was to break you and
to
see if you would come back
again.
237
00:15:28,444 --> 00:15:31,413
You hear stories of people
having their
legs broken, their arms broken,
238
00:15:31,447 --> 00:15:32,207
to see if they'd come back.
239
00:15:33,380 --> 00:15:35,313
So Adrian was doing it in a
very, very, tough time.
240
00:15:36,349 --> 00:15:38,213
And then to do the
character which he did...
241
00:15:39,041 --> 00:15:40,111
He really pushed the boat out.
242
00:15:40,146 --> 00:15:41,216
I mean...
243
00:15:41,250 --> 00:15:43,218
No one was doing what he was
doing back then.
244
00:15:43,252 --> 00:15:45,289
I was so excited,
245
00:15:45,323 --> 00:15:49,051
people cheering me when I walked
out,
wasn't for me because I hated my
opponent,
246
00:15:49,086 --> 00:15:50,087
they didn't even know who I was.
247
00:15:51,536 --> 00:15:54,677
But, I was so excited I couldn't
feel
my feet touching the ground.
248
00:15:55,575 --> 00:15:56,748
I got into the ring...
249
00:15:58,958 --> 00:16:00,649
We were both introduced and
everything like that.
250
00:16:00,683 --> 00:16:04,791
I was Kid Tarzan Jonathan and
the
other corner with Gentleman Joff
Moran.
251
00:16:04,825 --> 00:16:07,690
I'll tell you now in a nutshell
exactly how the contest went.
252
00:16:09,485 --> 00:16:13,179
The bell went. He dove out of
his corner
and start rolling running around
the ring.
253
00:16:15,146 --> 00:16:17,977
So I lay back in my corner and
just watched
him and thought well he's gonna
stop sometime.
254
00:16:19,737 --> 00:16:23,292
You know even if it's the end of
the round,
I really wanted to come to grips
you know.
255
00:16:24,569 --> 00:16:26,537
Anyway, he looked puzzled at me
and everything like that,
256
00:16:26,571 --> 00:16:28,953
because I wasn't reacting to
what he was doing at all.
257
00:16:29,643 --> 00:16:31,197
So he stood up, we came up,
258
00:16:31,231 --> 00:16:32,129
linked up with each other,
259
00:16:33,337 --> 00:16:35,304
I ripped his arm across, through
my feet up in the air,
260
00:16:35,339 --> 00:16:37,893
and drove his face into the
into the canvas.
261
00:16:38,963 --> 00:16:40,240
He screamed out and submitted,
262
00:16:40,275 --> 00:16:43,036
that was the end of the contest
I dislocated his shoulder.
263
00:16:44,555 --> 00:16:46,384
I marched into the
dressing room.
264
00:16:46,419 --> 00:16:51,079
When are you gonna give me a
championship contest?
-- You know I want a
championship belt.
265
00:16:52,804 --> 00:16:56,670
Promoter said, "You stupid
bastard, what
the hell were you doing out
there?!"
266
00:16:59,225 --> 00:17:01,365
He said, "Do you think people
are going
to pay good money", he said,
267
00:17:01,399 --> 00:17:04,057
"to watch a main event", he
said,
"that only last two minutes?"
268
00:17:06,025 --> 00:17:08,372
The interesting
thing about
Adrian was the fact that
269
00:17:08,406 --> 00:17:12,376
when he was younger and he was
doing these
crazy outfits and crazy
characters,
270
00:17:12,410 --> 00:17:14,240
British wrestling in particular,
271
00:17:14,274 --> 00:17:18,520
was very dry and there weren't
really the
insane characters that we're
used these days,
272
00:17:18,554 --> 00:17:20,867
that you'll see in American
wrestling and so,
273
00:17:20,901 --> 00:17:24,457
he was really the first Brit to
kind of take that
on board and make a success of
it.
274
00:17:24,491 --> 00:17:29,669
You see the insane characters
that you get in British
wrestling on World of Sport, on
WOS, these days,
275
00:17:29,703 --> 00:17:30,946
are definitely in part
inspired by him.
276
00:17:32,154 --> 00:17:34,053
He was
competing with the bare bones...
277
00:17:34,950 --> 00:17:35,054
I'm a wrestler,
you're a wrestler.
278
00:17:36,607 --> 00:17:37,815
Let's have a wrestling match and
let's leave all the character
out of it.
279
00:17:38,988 --> 00:17:41,232
I think he started
with a leather jacket,
280
00:17:41,267 --> 00:17:43,441
and then he progressed to the
281
00:17:44,097 --> 00:17:45,788
blonde, long blonde hair,
282
00:17:45,823 --> 00:17:49,240
and, the pretty colours and the
glitter on his face,
283
00:17:49,275 --> 00:17:50,759
and the paint on his face,
284
00:17:51,415 --> 00:17:55,039
and that's what made him.
285
00:17:55,074 --> 00:17:55,315
You could take
Adrian right now,
286
00:17:56,937 --> 00:17:59,078
from when he was in the Golden
Age
and plonk him now, and he'd fit
in.
287
00:18:00,562 --> 00:18:03,875
He might have to change a little
bit of style, but that
flamboyancy and
288
00:18:03,910 --> 00:18:05,774
that persona he had would work
really
really well, especially on WWE.
289
00:18:07,396 --> 00:18:11,711
But he could still do what he
did then
today and would still get a
reaction.
290
00:18:11,745 --> 00:18:12,608
He would still get a
crowd going.
291
00:18:13,747 --> 00:18:15,680
He would, whether he was heal,
whether he was face,
292
00:18:16,302 --> 00:18:17,820
he could do what he wants,
293
00:18:17,855 --> 00:18:20,409
and, not many guys could do
that,
can transfer from a golden
era...
294
00:18:20,996 --> 00:18:22,066
to the present day.
295
00:18:38,979 --> 00:18:40,947
I like to
think at the time,
296
00:18:42,742 --> 00:18:45,503
that I got my break because I
was such a
good wrestler they couldn't do
without me.
297
00:18:46,573 --> 00:18:48,989
But the only reason I got my
break really was,
298
00:18:49,887 --> 00:18:51,060
the fact that they
needed the bodies.
299
00:18:52,200 --> 00:18:54,788
Now when I first first start
wrestling for them...
300
00:18:56,894 --> 00:19:00,104
I was wrestling on an average 40
times in one month.
301
00:19:01,657 --> 00:19:03,211
I was wrestling in the morning
here,
in the afternoon there.
302
00:19:04,936 --> 00:19:08,975
I'd go to a show sometimes in
wrestle
three or four times in the same
arena.
303
00:19:10,183 --> 00:19:11,805
I used to always, sort of,
loved going and stuff,
304
00:19:11,840 --> 00:19:14,118
going to all these matches,
becuase you got to see these
like
305
00:19:14,153 --> 00:19:15,982
really wild exotic
places like...
306
00:19:16,776 --> 00:19:18,364
Weston-super-Mare.
307
00:19:20,814 --> 00:19:23,645
Adrian is
fascinating because,
308
00:19:23,679 --> 00:19:24,956
he is a paradox.
309
00:19:26,130 --> 00:19:32,792
He is an androgynous figure, who
is every bit a man.
310
00:19:34,034 --> 00:19:38,729
And he is a creator who can also
destroy people in a hurry.
311
00:19:40,040 --> 00:19:45,080
So he had enough confidence
to pull off a character that...
312
00:19:46,944 --> 00:19:48,808
other wrestlers couldn't
dream of doing,
313
00:19:48,842 --> 00:19:51,811
and would not have physically
been
capable of pulling off,
314
00:19:51,845 --> 00:19:54,227
because in order to act that...
315
00:19:58,576 --> 00:19:59,612
feminine,
316
00:19:59,646 --> 00:20:02,062
you had to be really, really,
manly.
317
00:20:03,685 --> 00:20:06,964
Adrian's character
in
the early days was very
controversial.
318
00:20:06,998 --> 00:20:07,965
I mean,
319
00:20:07,999 --> 00:20:08,690
Adrian was Adrian,
320
00:20:09,311 --> 00:20:10,726
he knew what he wanted,
321
00:20:11,693 --> 00:20:13,419
and much to the surprise
of the promoters,
322
00:20:15,075 --> 00:20:19,908
he went out there, and because
of
his style of dress and he's
flamboyant,
323
00:20:19,942 --> 00:20:21,116
the way he'd dress.
324
00:20:22,013 --> 00:20:23,118
He made a star of himself, and
325
00:20:23,808 --> 00:20:24,602
Dale Martin's wasn't silly.
326
00:20:26,121 --> 00:20:30,505
They knew that someone like
Adrian,
if they promoted him correctly,
327
00:20:31,368 --> 00:20:32,265
they could earn
money out of him.
328
00:20:33,473 --> 00:20:36,027
Fans would love
to hate him for a start.
329
00:20:37,857 --> 00:20:40,480
Back then with obviously, the --
the
secret about wrestling
330
00:20:41,481 --> 00:20:43,311
not being as out in the
open as it is now,
331
00:20:44,519 --> 00:20:47,867
people would really viscerally
react to characters who,
332
00:20:47,901 --> 00:20:50,732
particularly in a conservative
British and American
environment,
333
00:20:52,665 --> 00:20:56,151
they wouldn't like this
flamboyant, long hair,
prancing around the ring, sort
of character.
334
00:20:57,048 --> 00:20:57,911
Look at those those
pale blue eyes.
335
00:20:59,119 --> 00:21:01,225
Look at those long eyelashes
and that golden moustache.
336
00:21:02,813 --> 00:21:05,919
I bet you're really cute
underneath.
You're rather cute yourself
dear.
337
00:21:08,474 --> 00:21:11,304
When I wanted to be a wrestler,
it was his kind of character
that I wanted
338
00:21:11,339 --> 00:21:12,132
because he was so different
to everybody else.
339
00:21:13,513 --> 00:21:15,791
It's probably the reason why
he's
been so successful in America,
340
00:21:15,826 --> 00:21:18,967
because back home in Britain he
was
ahead of his time,
341
00:21:19,761 --> 00:21:21,314
in just his character work,
342
00:21:21,349 --> 00:21:23,523
on top of that he was a great
wrestler with great physique.
343
00:21:24,213 --> 00:21:26,319
Adrian was one on his own,
344
00:21:27,286 --> 00:21:30,012
with the feathers and the
flamboyancy and,
345
00:21:30,737 --> 00:21:33,119
the blowing kisses, you know,
346
00:21:33,809 --> 00:21:35,570
it just wound people up.
347
00:21:36,674 --> 00:21:38,331
How
conservative and...
348
00:21:39,159 --> 00:21:40,885
closed off it was
about that time,
349
00:21:41,403 --> 00:21:42,404
he must been...
350
00:21:43,543 --> 00:21:45,649
He must of had
audiences in shock.
351
00:21:46,926 --> 00:21:47,823
To walk out the way he
walked out and,
352
00:21:49,342 --> 00:21:52,241
we're talking way before
anything
like this was, you know, lets be
honest,
353
00:21:53,450 --> 00:21:54,830
gay rights and all that kind of
stuff hadn't come around
354
00:21:54,865 --> 00:21:55,383
and it was almost all
closed doors,
355
00:21:56,694 --> 00:21:59,214
or laughed at, and then you have
someone like Adrian walking out
356
00:22:00,491 --> 00:22:03,080
in, sequences and the gowns
with makeup and his hair done,
357
00:22:04,668 --> 00:22:06,083
telling everybody that he's the
best
thing that they've ever seen
and,
358
00:22:07,533 --> 00:22:09,362
basically prancing around, but
the
same time clearly a tough guy.
359
00:22:10,846 --> 00:22:14,816
If you watch Adrian walk to the
ring, and in the ring, he owns
it.
360
00:22:15,989 --> 00:22:17,715
End of story. And everybody in
that room knows it,
361
00:22:17,750 --> 00:22:20,097
regardless of how they looked at
Adrian and what they thought of
him...
362
00:22:20,684 --> 00:22:21,409
he owned it.
363
00:22:21,443 --> 00:22:22,927
It was quite, you know,
364
00:22:22,962 --> 00:22:25,413
very unique and very
brave really,
365
00:22:26,345 --> 00:22:26,724
you know, because it was a risk,
because,
366
00:22:27,932 --> 00:22:28,830
back in that era he could have
done something like that,
367
00:22:30,107 --> 00:22:31,522
and something like that could
have got him black bottled,
368
00:22:31,557 --> 00:22:32,005
because back then we were less
politically correct
369
00:22:33,869 --> 00:22:35,077
and people could have been like,
do you know
what, we don't want nothing to
do with that.
370
00:22:36,700 --> 00:22:38,391
If you wanted to
be main event
371
00:22:38,426 --> 00:22:39,358
virtually you had to be
a heavyweight,
372
00:22:41,221 --> 00:22:45,191
or you had to be somebody like
George kid
who was the lightweight champion
of the world,
373
00:22:45,225 --> 00:22:50,817
and even he wouldn't be main
event sometimes
if it was like south of the
border from Scotland.
374
00:22:52,923 --> 00:22:59,136
But, I realised then that I was
a good
wrestler, I got to be a very
good wrestler,
375
00:23:00,275 --> 00:23:02,311
but I was good wrestler in a
land of great wrestlers.
376
00:23:03,899 --> 00:23:07,282
If I wanted to make a mark for
myself
I needed to do something
different.
377
00:23:08,179 --> 00:23:09,871
And that's when I decided...
378
00:23:10,768 --> 00:23:12,598
who do I admire in
the business...
379
00:23:14,047 --> 00:23:17,085
but Don Leo Jonathan, they
wouldn't
let me use that name anymore,
380
00:23:17,119 --> 00:23:19,812
Kid Tarzan Jonathan they
wouldn't
let me use that name anymore...
381
00:23:22,746 --> 00:23:27,267
and they start calling me the
Nature Boy,
Adrian Street the Nature Boy,
382
00:23:27,302 --> 00:23:29,338
and that was by a
Canadian writer...
383
00:23:31,168 --> 00:23:34,136
that actually knew who Nature
Boy Buddy Rogers
was most people in Britain
didn't know.
384
00:23:35,828 --> 00:23:40,695
So I wanted to live up to Buddy
Rogers
who I thought was absolutely
fantastic,
385
00:23:41,937 --> 00:23:44,906
with the fancy robes, the fancy
jackets, the blonde hair.
386
00:23:45,976 --> 00:23:48,150
So I did that because I -- I
wanted to make --
387
00:23:49,151 --> 00:23:50,187
I wanted to stand out as
something different.
388
00:23:51,257 --> 00:23:55,606
I met Adrian in 1969, I
think it was in June,
389
00:23:55,641 --> 00:24:00,369
and I was working in an aquarium
store in Croydon in London,
390
00:24:01,301 --> 00:24:03,994
and I thought he looked
a bit strange.
391
00:24:04,684 --> 00:24:06,686
Thing is back then people,
392
00:24:07,307 --> 00:24:09,448
people didn't sort of...
393
00:24:10,587 --> 00:24:13,003
sort of have -- sort of,
394
00:24:13,037 --> 00:24:14,798
were outlandish and stuff
like that like him.
395
00:24:16,351 --> 00:24:20,700
It was something that he saw
early
on as quite a good selling
point.
396
00:24:20,735 --> 00:24:21,667
A niche market.
397
00:24:22,530 --> 00:24:23,703
A lot of promoters
said to me like,
398
00:24:25,187 --> 00:24:29,329
in the beginning when I first
start
doing like the glamour stuff
399
00:24:29,364 --> 00:24:32,022
and what have you with
the blond hair,
400
00:24:32,505 --> 00:24:33,644
and fancy robes.
401
00:24:33,679 --> 00:24:35,301
"Ah you don't need to do that,
402
00:24:35,335 --> 00:24:37,510
you know you're a good
wrestler,"
and all the rest of it. I was
like,
403
00:24:37,545 --> 00:24:38,891
yeah well I'm gonna do
what I want to do.
404
00:24:40,030 --> 00:24:42,066
They thought it was enough just
for me to wrestle,
405
00:24:42,101 --> 00:24:46,588
but you know obviously I
wouldn't --
go with that because
406
00:24:46,623 --> 00:24:49,798
I really realised I was getting
so much
attention and I'm a sucker for
attention.
407
00:24:51,420 --> 00:24:54,976
Instead of like sort of pulling
back
a little bit like they
suggested...
408
00:24:56,287 --> 00:24:58,980
I went -- sort of more
forward I'd start
409
00:24:59,014 --> 00:25:00,119
putting like a little
bit of makeup on.
410
00:25:01,189 --> 00:25:02,984
Sometimes I'd walk to the
ring people would go,
411
00:25:03,018 --> 00:25:04,054
is he wearing makeup?
412
00:25:05,987 --> 00:25:12,200
And then, I start getting a
little bit more
daring with a makeup and all the
rest of it,
413
00:25:12,234 --> 00:25:15,583
and a lot of wrestlers said
like, well why don't you go
the whole hog, why don't you
wear lipstick?
414
00:25:17,377 --> 00:25:19,069
World of Sport back then...
415
00:25:20,001 --> 00:25:22,175
in the days of Kent
-- Kent Walton,
416
00:25:23,763 --> 00:25:28,837
it was massive. It was as big as
the
football on Saturday afternoon
TV.
417
00:25:29,769 --> 00:25:31,806
He did have a big
impact on the fans,
418
00:25:32,772 --> 00:25:34,015
the way he was, the way
he dressed and,
419
00:25:35,395 --> 00:25:40,124
you know, the showmanship,
it was fantastic the way he done
it.
420
00:25:41,056 --> 00:25:42,989
I've wrestled Adrian many,
many times.
421
00:25:44,784 --> 00:25:49,789
Sometimes he'd beat me,
sometimes I'd
beat him. But no, definitely
many many times.
422
00:25:51,101 --> 00:25:53,724
First of all what I couldn't get
to
grips with it because,
423
00:25:53,759 --> 00:25:55,657
I've got in the ring
as a wrestler
424
00:25:56,624 --> 00:25:58,591
and I found somebody
dancing towards me
425
00:25:59,350 --> 00:26:01,387
blowing kisses with his hands.
426
00:26:01,421 --> 00:26:02,388
And I'm...
427
00:26:02,422 --> 00:26:03,147
It just...
428
00:26:04,286 --> 00:26:08,670
Just amazed. I just couldn't
make -- what to think.
429
00:26:08,705 --> 00:26:12,812
I'm wrestling a wrestler and
he's acting feminine.
430
00:26:13,468 --> 00:26:14,573
which he was far from.
431
00:26:15,815 --> 00:26:18,266
I don't think
that anybody at the time,
432
00:26:18,300 --> 00:26:18,749
if they'd went out there and,
433
00:26:20,682 --> 00:26:24,375
the names he was getting called
and everything,
I'm sure a lot of guys would
have changed
434
00:26:24,410 --> 00:26:26,861
the way they looked and
changed how they acted.
435
00:26:28,276 --> 00:26:31,935
But, he had the guts to say,
well
no, sod this I'm gonna use it.
436
00:26:33,384 --> 00:26:35,939
He wants to get reaction, okay
I'm
gonna prance around this ring.
437
00:26:37,078 --> 00:26:40,357
Crowd would go crazy, okay
a bit more, do it again.
438
00:26:41,945 --> 00:26:44,292
Then he'll blow a kiss to them,
and just
keep going and going and going,
439
00:26:44,326 --> 00:26:45,431
and he's got that
crowd like that.
440
00:26:46,052 --> 00:26:46,087
Don't care where they are,
441
00:26:47,744 --> 00:26:51,023
whether it's in Britain, whether
it's
in America, he's got them like
that.
442
00:26:52,576 --> 00:26:56,891
And the thing is, I was used to
ridicule from the from the coal
miners
443
00:26:58,133 --> 00:27:00,170
and later on the bodybuilders
and everything like that,
444
00:27:00,204 --> 00:27:01,516
when I was bodybuilder, ah like
they're all puffs.
445
00:27:03,345 --> 00:27:07,453
Instead of getting upset about
it, I'd say,
well not all of us dear, just
some of us.
446
00:27:07,487 --> 00:27:09,386
I think there's some of them
that are quite butch.
447
00:27:10,421 --> 00:27:10,490
And I turned it back on them.
448
00:27:11,699 --> 00:27:12,700
I'd even walk into the showers
and everything like that,
449
00:27:14,667 --> 00:27:18,429
and instead of walking in like
sort of manly like,
I'd put the towel right up
around my chest,
450
00:27:19,948 --> 00:27:22,917
as if I was like hiding my bust
but
everything else would be
showing,
451
00:27:24,228 --> 00:27:25,574
which I was very proud of.
452
00:27:27,266 --> 00:27:31,857
But I walk in the -- into the
shower
room look at the rest of the
wrestlers,
453
00:27:32,512 --> 00:27:33,997
I'd go, oh smokers board!
454
00:27:34,756 --> 00:27:36,793
I'd have the showers for myself.
455
00:27:39,934 --> 00:27:43,351
I would clear that damn shower
like nobody's business.
456
00:28:03,095 --> 00:28:04,717
You know, he was basically
setting off a firework,
457
00:28:05,718 --> 00:28:06,926
in a time when it was
all darkness.
458
00:28:07,927 --> 00:28:08,134
I think
what he did do,
459
00:28:09,826 --> 00:28:12,863
was make it acceptable or for a
man to
dress like that in the wrestling
ring.
460
00:28:14,106 --> 00:28:15,866
Becuase the thing about Adrian
Street was everybody knew,
461
00:28:16,798 --> 00:28:16,971
legitimately he was
tough as nails.
462
00:28:18,800 --> 00:28:22,424
So if he could get away with --
if he --
was willing to put himself in
that position,
463
00:28:23,356 --> 00:28:24,599
dressed like that and
playing that act,
464
00:28:25,186 --> 00:28:25,980
then anyone could do it.
465
00:28:26,843 --> 00:28:29,846
Aren't I simply gorgeous!
466
00:28:29,880 --> 00:28:31,917
We used to go
to the matches with him
sometimes, usually on school
holidays and stuff.
467
00:28:33,919 --> 00:28:37,750
And they used to stick us up in
the bleechers
somewhere with an ice cream and
Keira Orange.
468
00:28:38,095 --> 00:28:38,993
And...
469
00:28:39,027 --> 00:28:40,477
You'd sit there and
watch the matches,
470
00:28:40,822 --> 00:28:41,720
and...
471
00:28:43,652 --> 00:28:44,653
he'd end up getting the
crowd so riled up,
472
00:28:46,414 --> 00:28:49,935
you know, when people talk
about, you know,
the violence in the ring and
everything,
473
00:28:49,969 --> 00:28:53,732
the real violence was kind of
outside of the ring.
And you just sit there watching
and you think
474
00:28:53,766 --> 00:28:56,804
how the hell is he gonna get
out of that ring.
475
00:28:56,838 --> 00:28:58,460
And everyone in the place
was going mental.
476
00:28:58,495 --> 00:29:00,221
It's like, there's no way you're
gonna
get out of there, you know what
I mean.
477
00:29:01,670 --> 00:29:05,882
So that was always strange. Kind
of got used to that kind of
tenson,
478
00:29:07,987 --> 00:29:11,404
you know what I mean going to
those matches.
But that was one of the things
that sticks in my mind,
479
00:29:11,439 --> 00:29:14,062
how kind of, how insane a lot
of the crowd were.
480
00:29:15,374 --> 00:29:18,377
Back then you would have had the
grandmothers in the front row,
481
00:29:18,411 --> 00:29:22,208
waving their handbags around and
clonking
the wrestlers in the head if
they came too close.
482
00:29:23,658 --> 00:29:28,663
I didn't care at
all, you know, if
people sort of...
483
00:29:30,907 --> 00:29:32,322
people attacked me vocally.
484
00:29:32,356 --> 00:29:35,187
It's was when they start
sticking hat pins and
485
00:29:36,671 --> 00:29:39,674
try to stub cigarettes
out on you and,
486
00:29:40,502 --> 00:29:41,262
hit you with walking sticks.
487
00:29:43,126 --> 00:29:47,647
I had this ear split right in
half when I was
wrestling but it wasn't from
wrestling.
488
00:29:48,959 --> 00:29:51,548
There was this guy who jumped
up on the -- up on the apron,
489
00:29:53,067 --> 00:29:55,310
and hit me with a heavy walking
stick and cut my ear right in
half.
490
00:29:57,071 --> 00:30:02,628
In actual fact, I put my hand up
to my
ear there was pieces of it stuck
to my face.
491
00:30:04,423 --> 00:30:04,457
Blood everywhere.
492
00:30:06,528 --> 00:30:10,809
As far as I was, concerned
they're entitled to say
what they like I had their money
in my pocket.
493
00:30:12,569 --> 00:30:15,814
But when they started getting
physical,
then I started getting physical
back,
494
00:30:16,780 --> 00:30:18,678
and there's one thing I
was very good at,
495
00:30:20,025 --> 00:30:21,060
was
496
00:30:21,095 --> 00:30:22,061
don't be cheeky.
497
00:30:24,270 --> 00:30:26,169
They didn't realise
that I'd practice
498
00:30:27,032 --> 00:30:28,965
drawing little
circles on a wall,
499
00:30:30,173 --> 00:30:31,450
and hitting it with my finger.
500
00:30:34,867 --> 00:30:36,731
And I've heard people saying, he
never touched you,
501
00:30:37,905 --> 00:30:40,631
when somebody's screaming and
holding their -- face,
502
00:30:41,840 --> 00:30:44,497
but I would get my fingers out
far into their eyeball.
503
00:30:45,050 --> 00:30:45,947
Don't be cheeky.
504
00:30:46,430 --> 00:30:47,466
I was...
505
00:30:49,468 --> 00:30:50,745
a little bit scared
506
00:30:51,366 --> 00:30:51,988
of Adrian Street
507
00:30:53,092 --> 00:30:55,784
and his flamboyancy, but I was
fascinated by it,
508
00:30:57,752 --> 00:31:04,448
because he was so committed to
what he was
doing he did not come across to
me as an actor.
509
00:31:05,449 --> 00:31:10,696
He came across as a
legitimately weird dude,
510
00:31:11,800 --> 00:31:12,594
and...
511
00:31:13,699 --> 00:31:17,185
and you combine that with the
legendary stories,
512
00:31:17,220 --> 00:31:18,531
you know of,
513
00:31:18,566 --> 00:31:22,397
what we in -- the wrestling
business
referred to as badassery,
514
00:31:23,571 --> 00:31:26,091
and it really made for this
compelling character.
515
00:31:31,579 --> 00:31:33,961
He didn't wait for
the promoter
to put him at the head of the
card.
516
00:31:34,651 --> 00:31:35,031
He was doing that himself.
517
00:31:35,790 --> 00:31:37,274
He was making himself noticed,
518
00:31:38,413 --> 00:31:40,174
before people knew how to do
this kind of stuff.
519
00:31:41,934 --> 00:31:44,385
Haystacks, they had their
gimmick,
they walked in, they were big
guys.
520
00:31:44,419 --> 00:31:44,937
They didn't need the PR.
521
00:31:45,904 --> 00:31:46,870
So they never thought about it,
where,
522
00:31:47,491 --> 00:31:48,596
he was thinking about it.
523
00:31:48,630 --> 00:31:49,355
I want to be noticed what can
I do to be noticed.
524
00:31:51,185 --> 00:31:54,567
If wrestlers could do what he
was doing,
today we are different, we've
got backing,
525
00:31:54,602 --> 00:31:57,674
we've got people we know we can
look
back and see how other things
worked.
526
00:31:58,399 --> 00:31:58,502
He didn't. He invented all that.
527
00:32:00,332 --> 00:32:04,853
He was the one that created a
way of doing that.
He created PR for wrestlers on
himself.
528
00:32:05,854 --> 00:32:07,615
So guys now like me will
look at him and go,
529
00:32:08,823 --> 00:32:11,481
right how can I -- stand out.
How can I be different.
530
00:32:11,515 --> 00:32:12,931
He was able to do it,
how can I do it?
531
00:32:14,691 --> 00:32:17,521
He could teach so much to people
in this business about that, you
know,
532
00:32:17,556 --> 00:32:19,903
you could literally, I'd love to
sit there
and pick his brain all day about
it.
533
00:32:21,629 --> 00:32:23,976
How -- how did you realise to do
this
kind of stuff, before it was
even a thing.
534
00:32:25,874 --> 00:32:31,328
What stands out from
me with Adrian Street
was the kind of flamboyancy
really.
535
00:32:31,363 --> 00:32:36,747
It was that homoerotic vision.
You
weren't sure what his sexuality
was.
536
00:32:37,748 --> 00:32:40,268
And this just,
amazing character.
537
00:32:41,649 --> 00:32:44,963
Blond, long haired, flowing
locks,
he's coming into the ring,
538
00:32:45,791 --> 00:32:47,551
and -- and that edge
of violence.
539
00:32:47,586 --> 00:32:49,726
You know as a child you didn't
know
quite what to make of it, you
know.
540
00:32:50,830 --> 00:32:52,832
Was he a nice man, was he --
was he a nasty man,
541
00:32:52,867 --> 00:32:52,901
And...
542
00:32:54,696 --> 00:32:57,699
doing those impressions of
Adrian to my
Grandmother and my Mother in the
living room
543
00:32:58,873 --> 00:33:01,013
tweaking the titties with the
arms moving, you know,
544
00:33:01,048 --> 00:33:02,981
that was what made people laugh,
you know,
545
00:33:03,015 --> 00:33:06,087
and as a child emulating that
and
to wanting to be like Adrian
Street.
546
00:33:07,847 --> 00:33:13,163
Adrian Street
find himself
once again in an unnatural
position.
547
00:33:13,198 --> 00:33:14,682
I was disgusted.
548
00:33:15,614 --> 00:33:18,410
I warn you her Majesty
was not amused.
549
00:33:20,274 --> 00:33:22,931
The crowd would go like, ooo
Mary, like, you
know, oh isn't she cute, oh give
us a kiss.
550
00:33:24,623 --> 00:33:28,006
Who'd want to kiss you. I like
my men
more manly, you're too
effeminate for me.
551
00:33:29,076 --> 00:33:29,455
And the same thing to
my opponent.
552
00:33:30,905 --> 00:33:33,287
When I walked into ring the
first
time my opponent give it this,
553
00:33:34,288 --> 00:33:35,806
like to get like a cheers
from the crowd.
554
00:33:37,222 --> 00:33:39,534
He was sorry he did that because
I
rushed over and give him a kiss.
555
00:33:41,191 --> 00:33:46,610
Everything he did was just fun
you
know, because the people didn't
like it,
556
00:33:47,335 --> 00:33:48,233
and it was just fun to watch.
557
00:33:49,958 --> 00:33:53,134
It wasn't just the other
wrestlers that he
played up, he played the
referees as well.
558
00:33:54,239 --> 00:33:58,036
And, be honest it was all
extremely good banter,
559
00:33:59,002 --> 00:34:00,452
And it was very
entertaining even for us.
560
00:34:01,039 --> 00:34:02,247
The reaction he got,
561
00:34:02,281 --> 00:34:03,489
you could hear the crowd
shouting out, you know,
562
00:34:04,214 --> 00:34:05,353
"Get your hair cut you puff!"
563
00:34:06,320 --> 00:34:07,390
You know, all of these
kind of things.
564
00:34:07,976 --> 00:34:08,839
Totally non PC now,
565
00:34:09,495 --> 00:34:10,600
nobody would dare do that.
566
00:34:11,083 --> 00:34:11,187
But he,
567
00:34:12,395 --> 00:34:17,676
he just oozed this persona that
he created for himself
568
00:34:18,159 --> 00:34:18,711
and he drew that
569
00:34:19,850 --> 00:34:22,715
reaction from everyone that
ever saw him I think.
570
00:34:23,854 --> 00:34:24,890
He knew how to
wind the crowd up.
571
00:34:25,822 --> 00:34:27,168
You know, from the second
he walked out,
572
00:34:27,789 --> 00:34:28,721
to the second he left.
573
00:34:29,619 --> 00:34:31,069
You know, he just wind
the crowd up.
574
00:34:31,103 --> 00:34:32,311
He did his job
575
00:34:32,346 --> 00:34:36,281
and he used what he had and how
the crowd were against him
576
00:34:37,316 --> 00:34:37,730
to play the character well.
577
00:34:38,628 --> 00:34:39,111
What used to really
annoy me I think,
578
00:34:40,768 --> 00:34:43,357
later on, is because your dad
was
on telly everyone thought we
were rich.
579
00:34:43,943 --> 00:34:45,531
And we weren't, you know.
580
00:34:45,566 --> 00:34:48,189
We just live around the corner
just
like everybody else, that was
it.
581
00:34:48,224 --> 00:34:51,572
You know, I don't -- I think
people definitely
overestimated how much money
these guys used to make.
582
00:34:53,021 --> 00:34:56,611
You know, they didn't realise
that
they wrestled everyday you know,
583
00:34:56,646 --> 00:34:59,649
just because they saw him on TV
they thought they
probably, you know, made a
million a fight,
584
00:34:59,683 --> 00:35:02,376
you know, like boxers, yeah --
boxers,
they kind of like make millions
for a fight.
585
00:35:04,032 --> 00:35:07,312
I think they kind of had that
idea
that wrestlers were sort of the
same,
586
00:35:07,346 --> 00:35:07,381
and it was like,
587
00:35:08,416 --> 00:35:09,900
you know, what are you going
to our school for?
588
00:35:09,935 --> 00:35:10,867
It's like, well I live around
the corner.
What do you mean you mean?
589
00:35:12,144 --> 00:35:13,904
You know, you didn't really, you
know, didn't really get it.
590
00:35:14,250 --> 00:35:15,078
But...
591
00:35:15,113 --> 00:35:15,354
that was kind of a bit
weird becuase
592
00:35:17,080 --> 00:35:19,876
kids thought you were sort of
different
and you just kind of weren't,
you know,
593
00:35:19,910 --> 00:35:20,428
it's just,
594
00:35:21,740 --> 00:35:24,398
your dad did, you know, earned a
living in his underpants and
595
00:35:25,571 --> 00:35:27,780
other kids dad's didn't, that I
know about anyway.
596
00:35:40,448 --> 00:35:45,488
He, he came to
be the glam rock star of
wrestling throughout the whole
of Europe.
597
00:35:47,524 --> 00:35:54,290
Adrian should
definitely be credited
more as a pop culture icon than
just a wrestler.
598
00:35:57,085 --> 00:35:58,294
Was he the start of glam rock.
599
00:35:59,364 --> 00:36:00,882
Look at that character,
look at time period,
600
00:36:01,780 --> 00:36:03,299
who come first, glam
rock or Adrian.
601
00:36:03,989 --> 00:36:04,231
He was doing something...
602
00:36:05,646 --> 00:36:08,407
like that well before your David
Bowie,
you know, Elton John and,
603
00:36:09,443 --> 00:36:10,892
many other things that are
still around now,
604
00:36:12,204 --> 00:36:13,274
could be credited to Adrian,
but...
605
00:36:14,482 --> 00:36:15,276
as far as most people see it,
Adrian was a wrestler.
606
00:36:17,036 --> 00:36:19,073
Maybe there's a huge ammount of
people
who don't even know who Adrian
Street is,
607
00:36:19,107 --> 00:36:20,074
Especially in Wales,
608
00:36:20,108 --> 00:36:20,833
which is quite a sad
thing really,
609
00:36:22,525 --> 00:36:26,184
seeing the impact he probably
had on
the entertainment industry as a
whole.
610
00:36:26,908 --> 00:36:28,703
He was wearing makeup before,
611
00:36:28,738 --> 00:36:31,465
he was sort of doing glam rock
before glam rock happened I
think.
612
00:36:32,949 --> 00:36:37,298
I'm not exactly sure what the
roots
of glam rock was musically,
613
00:36:37,333 --> 00:36:39,576
it was like, sort of, hyped up
fifties rock and roll really.
614
00:36:40,853 --> 00:36:43,580
But, it's funny because a lot of
people used to think that...
615
00:36:45,237 --> 00:36:46,583
my Dad was the lead
singer of The Sweet.
616
00:36:48,275 --> 00:36:50,553
So I should imagine that Brian
Connolly
probably got asked a lot if he
wrestled.
617
00:36:52,175 --> 00:36:55,178
I don't know, I don't know how
much
notice, you know, sort of rock
and roll
618
00:36:55,213 --> 00:37:00,390
was taking of wrestling in
particular. But,
apparently, yeah, think Marc
Bolan was in a
619
00:37:00,425 --> 00:37:03,290
radio interview and he said
something
along those lines about he got a
lot of his...
620
00:37:04,049 --> 00:37:06,983
make up tips from -- from Pater.
621
00:37:08,156 --> 00:37:10,020
You know we got
to be fans of each other.
622
00:37:10,055 --> 00:37:16,406
I liked T-Rex and and Marc Bolan
really liked
me and emulated a lot of the
stuff that I did.
623
00:37:17,752 --> 00:37:23,102
Where do you think David Bowie
got the idea for Ziggy Stardust?
624
00:37:24,690 --> 00:37:28,280
The lightning down his face was
exactly
the kind of makeup that I wore.
625
00:37:29,488 --> 00:37:31,870
You can look at old photographs
of him on the stage
626
00:37:31,904 --> 00:37:37,047
and you can even see a
photograph of him
wearing tights and red wrestling
boots.
627
00:37:37,945 --> 00:37:39,740
Come on you know, I
can't get any,
628
00:37:40,327 --> 00:37:42,881
any more than that.
629
00:37:43,985 --> 00:37:48,093
Now -- in "Granny Takes a Trip",
I designed myself
630
00:37:50,026 --> 00:37:51,821
a suit, a black velvet.
631
00:37:51,855 --> 00:38:00,450
And I had birds-of-paradise down
the sleeves
and down the outside legs of the
trousers,
632
00:38:02,418 --> 00:38:05,248
made out of sequins and
rhinestones and all that kind of
stuff.
633
00:38:07,043 --> 00:38:12,324
The guy in the store said, "My
god" he
said "we had Elton John in
here," he said,
634
00:38:12,359 --> 00:38:13,705
"when he saw that suit he
wanted to buy it."
635
00:38:15,189 --> 00:38:17,398
And he said, "I said to Elton
John,
do you know who's that is?"
636
00:38:18,951 --> 00:38:21,816
Elton John said, "Okay forget
it,
he said but make me one like
it."
637
00:38:22,679 --> 00:38:24,440
Now he had one made
very similar,
638
00:38:25,303 --> 00:38:26,925
but instead of
birds-of-paradise,
639
00:38:26,959 --> 00:38:30,204
he had like musical notes which
was more appropriate to,
640
00:38:30,860 --> 00:38:31,792
to what he actually did.
641
00:38:33,587 --> 00:38:39,869
And, that was the way, you know
a lot
of people say, a lot of people
have said,
642
00:38:39,903 --> 00:38:43,804
since I've been living in the
States,
did I invent British glam rock.
643
00:38:44,667 --> 00:38:45,737
And my response to that was,
644
00:38:46,358 --> 00:38:47,773
no I didn't invent it,
645
00:38:47,808 --> 00:38:48,878
but we sure borrowed a lot
from each other.
646
00:38:49,982 --> 00:38:51,950
I always remember him singing
his entrance music
647
00:38:52,606 --> 00:38:52,916
as he walked to the ring.
648
00:38:54,021 --> 00:38:55,816
That for me I always just
thought that was so cool,
649
00:38:55,850 --> 00:38:57,680
I thought how cocky is that,
that you walk into the ring
650
00:38:58,439 --> 00:38:58,991
and you're singing to the camera
651
00:39:00,234 --> 00:39:01,649
the own words of your lyrics
that you're singing anyway.
652
00:39:02,788 --> 00:39:03,651
I thought, you know, I thought
that was incredible.
653
00:39:04,825 --> 00:39:07,241
The first time I ever thought
I'd like to do any music
654
00:39:09,208 --> 00:39:12,729
they had all the big-name
wrestlers, myself included,
655
00:39:17,147 --> 00:39:24,016
sing a song, called, it was Tiny
Tim's
song like "Tiptoe Through the
Tulips",
656
00:39:24,983 --> 00:39:25,293
and on the other side
657
00:39:27,054 --> 00:39:31,990
when we all go in the ring to
the tune
of like "When The Saints Go
Marching In".
658
00:39:33,094 --> 00:39:34,372
And they had all the big-name
wrestlers doing it
659
00:39:35,234 --> 00:39:37,444
on a, I think it was
on a Pi label.
660
00:39:39,238 --> 00:39:39,653
And...
661
00:39:40,861 --> 00:39:42,276
I thought to myself then I'd
like to do this on my own.
662
00:39:43,519 --> 00:39:44,347
I think it just
shows Adrian's initiative.
663
00:39:45,969 --> 00:39:49,490
He would have realised that he
needed
those things to make him stand
out
664
00:39:50,767 --> 00:39:53,460
in an age where music and
wrestling weren't quite paired.
665
00:39:54,737 --> 00:39:56,911
I don't think they really were
paired until the mid-1980s
666
00:39:56,946 --> 00:40:00,674
when Wrestlemania came along and
it
became the rock and wrestling
movement
667
00:40:00,708 --> 00:40:05,644
with people like Cyndi Lauper,
Liberace and
so on, appearing in those
wrestling spheres.
668
00:40:06,714 --> 00:40:09,130
The records he made later on
in the 80's are...
669
00:40:09,924 --> 00:40:10,511
are pretty funny though.
670
00:40:11,443 --> 00:40:12,720
My particular favorite
I think is...
671
00:40:14,653 --> 00:40:21,591
There's something very strange
about a cowboy,
that makes me wonder how the
West was won.
672
00:40:23,455 --> 00:40:30,945
There's something very strange
about a cowboy,
something I can't put my finger
on.
673
00:40:33,051 --> 00:40:36,572
Although you've got to see the
video really for
that one really make sense. It's
kind of like...
674
00:40:37,745 --> 00:40:40,852
Benny Hill meets For A
Few Dollars More.
675
00:41:29,521 --> 00:41:34,353
In about 1980, I knew who he was
before
then from his films and stuff,
you know,
676
00:41:35,665 --> 00:41:38,185
and saw him on the television
with his wrestling attributes.
677
00:41:39,980 --> 00:41:44,294
And I wrote a song -- I used to
write songs
and send them out to various
studios
678
00:41:45,157 --> 00:41:45,192
to try and get them
off the ground
679
00:41:46,883 --> 00:41:49,714
because I had a recording studio
and a
publishing company company at
the time.
680
00:41:50,818 --> 00:41:54,719
And one of the songs went to a
place in Chester,
681
00:41:55,305 --> 00:41:56,617
a studio in Chester,
682
00:41:56,652 --> 00:41:56,859
and they rang me up,
683
00:41:57,273 --> 00:41:59,344
and they said,
684
00:41:59,378 --> 00:42:04,280
We've got Adrian Street the
wrestler in he wants
to make a record and he likes
one of your songs.
685
00:42:05,764 --> 00:42:08,629
Which was called a "Mighty Big
Girl",
that was the name of the song,
686
00:42:08,974 --> 00:42:10,735
which was,
687
00:42:10,769 --> 00:42:15,256
it was about a chap goes to a
discotheque
and meets this girl and dances
with him,
688
00:42:15,291 --> 00:42:18,259
she throws him all over the
place,
and he thought it suited his
style.
689
00:42:19,847 --> 00:42:23,817
So I'm listening to it and
changing
the words myself as I'm going
along,
690
00:42:24,714 --> 00:42:26,026
to sort of give it
more wrestling...
691
00:42:28,062 --> 00:42:29,547
lyrics more like...
692
00:42:30,858 --> 00:42:31,997
more wrestling content.
693
00:42:32,929 --> 00:42:34,310
And that's how we came
up with that.
694
00:42:35,967 --> 00:42:37,969
I said I'd like to meet a
guy that wrote this,
695
00:42:38,003 --> 00:42:38,314
like between us,
696
00:42:39,971 --> 00:42:42,214
you know, we can sort of kick
this
around maybe that can be like a
track.
697
00:42:43,388 --> 00:42:46,011
So I went round to the studio,
to see him, to meet him,
698
00:42:47,772 --> 00:42:52,362
and it was great we hit it off
straight away,
same sense of humor I met lovely
Linda,
699
00:42:52,811 --> 00:42:54,468
she was with him,
700
00:42:54,502 --> 00:42:58,748
and I just suggested that I had
another
song, we'd have a b-side to
this,
701
00:43:00,129 --> 00:43:01,993
and I'd written a song called,
I'm "Only Happy When I'm
Stoned",
702
00:43:03,891 --> 00:43:08,068
So he said, "Well I'm only happy
breaking bones."
I said exactly. I said that's
exactly it!
703
00:43:20,287 --> 00:43:21,599
The magic moment
704
00:43:22,427 --> 00:43:25,050
was when we did that
actual song,
705
00:43:25,499 --> 00:43:25,533
recorded it,
706
00:43:26,811 --> 00:43:28,778
because I used to play all the
instruments on the record,
707
00:43:29,676 --> 00:43:30,608
get it ready with me
singing on it,
708
00:43:31,954 --> 00:43:34,681
and then just replace my voice
with his, that's how we did it.
709
00:43:35,474 --> 00:43:37,822
And he was in tune which helps,
710
00:43:38,581 --> 00:43:40,963
and I think the magic moment,
711
00:43:41,757 --> 00:43:42,792
I think,
712
00:43:42,827 --> 00:43:45,036
I would say was when
that came out,
713
00:43:45,657 --> 00:43:46,416
got played on the radio,
714
00:43:47,383 --> 00:43:50,731
and the response was incredible,
both ways.
715
00:43:51,456 --> 00:43:51,801
People were deeply offended,
716
00:43:53,458 --> 00:43:57,773
and other people were delighted.
It was,
it was in the non PC days, you
know,
717
00:43:57,807 --> 00:43:59,637
a lot of his stuff certainly
wouldn't work these days.
718
00:44:00,327 --> 00:44:00,948
But it -- think that was it.
719
00:44:01,880 --> 00:44:04,814
I think when I heard the
finished job on
720
00:44:06,126 --> 00:44:10,578
"Breakin' Bones" the one I did
in my studio. It was great.
721
00:44:11,752 --> 00:44:12,408
It's still a good song, still
stands up now, you know.
722
00:44:13,961 --> 00:44:17,516
That I think, that was the magic
moment,
and I knew we were going
somewhere.
723
00:44:18,000 --> 00:44:19,691
I used to play,
724
00:44:20,347 --> 00:44:21,831
insist on them playing,
725
00:44:23,350 --> 00:44:24,938
"A Mighty Big Girl"
726
00:44:25,663 --> 00:44:26,422
when I went in the ring,
727
00:44:27,906 --> 00:44:31,599
because I'd sell the singles and
everything like that round the
arenas.
728
00:44:32,635 --> 00:44:34,326
But to me it just didn't
have enough oomph.
729
00:44:35,914 --> 00:44:39,090
It's okay like I'm only happy
breaking
bones and all that kind of
stuff,
730
00:44:39,124 --> 00:44:40,954
but I wanted something more...
731
00:44:43,439 --> 00:44:44,958
more volume.
732
00:44:45,303 --> 00:44:46,684
So...
733
00:44:48,375 --> 00:44:51,516
I suggested like, imagine what I
could
do to you, like you know what I
mean,
734
00:44:51,550 --> 00:44:52,620
something like that.
735
00:44:52,655 --> 00:44:53,207
It needs to be
something like that.
736
00:44:54,208 --> 00:44:56,210
So we wrote, "Imagine What I
Could Do To You"
737
00:44:57,936 --> 00:45:01,043
and on the back of that I wanted
a
complete contrast, "I'm In Love
With Me."
738
00:45:01,837 --> 00:45:02,700
Imagine what I could do to you,
739
00:45:03,148 --> 00:45:03,183
Bam! That's it.
740
00:45:04,874 --> 00:45:06,151
And when people listen to it
they're
waiting for the end, there isn't
one.
741
00:45:07,739 --> 00:45:12,123
You know, and it's, I think that
was
the one, because when you watch
it
742
00:45:12,157 --> 00:45:14,539
and you watch him coming into
the ring to it playing...
743
00:45:15,298 --> 00:45:16,886
it's great. And course
744
00:45:16,921 --> 00:45:19,268
it takes him two minutes to
get into the ring
745
00:45:20,718 --> 00:45:23,790
so it doesn't carry on, as he
gets
to the ring the song finishes.
746
00:45:23,824 --> 00:45:27,000
That was the idea, that's why it
was so short.
That's why I did it so short.
747
00:45:27,379 --> 00:45:27,794
And...
748
00:45:28,829 --> 00:45:31,004
I think that one, I think
that one really...
749
00:45:31,694 --> 00:45:32,695
will stand out with me.
750
00:45:33,661 --> 00:45:36,250
So here comes this
androgynous character,
751
00:45:37,458 --> 00:45:40,323
coming out to the music that he
is singing himself,
752
00:45:40,358 --> 00:45:42,567
he can tear a telephone
directory in two,
753
00:45:43,292 --> 00:45:45,466
so imagine what I can do to you.
754
00:45:45,501 --> 00:45:47,089
And he blows a kiss to the crowd
and they loose their mind.
755
00:45:48,642 --> 00:45:52,404
And I'm like, I get goose bumps
thinking
about it because I had no idea,
756
00:45:52,439 --> 00:45:55,028
I only knew that he was at times
one of the most hated villains
757
00:45:56,236 --> 00:45:59,066
in all of wrestling. I didn't
realise at that time,
758
00:46:00,723 --> 00:46:05,521
that the better you were at
being bad
the more loved you would
ultimately be.
759
00:46:05,555 --> 00:46:08,351
And they loved Adrian Street.
760
00:46:43,904 --> 00:46:47,770
He used to get people geed up, I
mean
they'd all get excited and stuff
like that.
761
00:46:48,840 --> 00:46:50,911
And especially when we were
good guys, I mean,
762
00:46:52,119 --> 00:46:55,019
People used to dance around the
ring with with Adrian.
763
00:46:55,916 --> 00:46:58,746
And you know it was
-- it was fun,
764
00:47:00,162 --> 00:47:00,852
you know, people that people,
people used to really enjoy
that.
765
00:47:20,734 --> 00:47:22,909
I'm in love with me it's
perfect for him you know,
766
00:47:22,943 --> 00:47:27,361
'cause, you know, because he is
in love with him in theory.
767
00:47:43,550 --> 00:47:45,000
He had a
video made of it.
768
00:47:46,415 --> 00:47:48,658
It must of cost a few bob.
769
00:47:49,556 --> 00:47:53,491
And it's him in the bath
blowing bubbles.
770
00:47:55,217 --> 00:47:57,046
And the video was spectacular.
771
00:47:57,805 --> 00:48:00,360
It -- was brilliant the video
772
00:48:00,394 --> 00:48:03,742
and he is in his bed with all
this finery, all these furs.
773
00:48:04,364 --> 00:48:04,916
I'm in love with me.
774
00:48:05,813 --> 00:48:07,988
And the records
playing over this.
775
00:48:08,747 --> 00:48:10,508
And when it went on to MTV...
776
00:48:11,647 --> 00:48:13,545
it was in that state, in
that said state.
777
00:48:14,408 --> 00:48:16,410
How he got it on MTV
I don't know.
778
00:48:17,342 --> 00:48:19,689
They must have seen it on
the TV perhaps
779
00:48:20,587 --> 00:48:22,589
becuase it was
spectacular the video,
780
00:48:22,623 --> 00:48:24,832
it was brilliant,
absolutely brilliant,
781
00:48:24,867 --> 00:48:28,664
and for the time as
well the actual...
782
00:48:30,045 --> 00:48:33,082
style of filming with everything
was moving around,
783
00:48:33,117 --> 00:48:33,358
it was brilliant.
784
00:48:34,773 --> 00:48:36,499
The thing
about...
785
00:48:36,534 --> 00:48:41,988
most people's recollection of
British Wrestling
is what they saw on World of
Sport.
786
00:48:43,161 --> 00:48:44,369
You got to remember this is,
this is like...
787
00:48:46,026 --> 00:48:50,651
primetime afternoon television.
Grannies and children used to
watch this show,
788
00:48:50,686 --> 00:48:56,036
So you couldn't afford to have
anybody get too hurt or
nosebleeds,
789
00:48:56,071 --> 00:48:57,969
you know, even a nose bleed
would get them taken off the
air.
790
00:48:58,625 --> 00:48:59,660
So they had to go easy,
791
00:48:59,695 --> 00:49:01,800
and that's why you've got a
lot of accusations,
792
00:49:01,835 --> 00:49:04,010
people saying, oh well it's
false and
it's fake or it's this and it's
that.
793
00:49:04,044 --> 00:49:06,357
And it's like, what they saw and
Saturday afternoon
794
00:49:06,391 --> 00:49:10,257
was a watered down version of
what,
you know, what you could see if
you
795
00:49:10,292 --> 00:49:12,156
actually saw a real live
wrestling match.
796
00:49:13,881 --> 00:49:18,196
A real life wrestling match was
a completely
different situation all
together.
797
00:49:18,231 --> 00:49:19,611
And like I say, a lot the
violence used
to take place outside of the
ring.
798
00:49:21,199 --> 00:49:23,546
If you look back the, the heyday
of
British wrestling was really in
the 70s.
799
00:49:25,376 --> 00:49:31,175
And after that I think the
public's interest
started to wane, investment was
declining,
800
00:49:31,209 --> 00:49:33,694
and ultimately got taken
off TV in the UK.
801
00:49:35,006 --> 00:49:36,870
But in contrast to that
802
00:49:36,904 --> 00:49:42,082
at the same time British
wrestling was declining,
the American scene was exploding
which ulimately,
803
00:49:42,117 --> 00:49:44,464
you know, the WWF as it was back
then nowadays WWE,
804
00:49:46,190 --> 00:49:51,091
came on the scene and these
amazing, huge,
muscular, long-haired, good
looking,
805
00:49:53,024 --> 00:49:57,442
bodybuilder types were were
coming on the
scene from America with their
crazy characters,
806
00:49:57,477 --> 00:50:00,445
and it really put British
wrestling at that time
in the shade.
807
00:50:00,480 --> 00:50:01,791
And went from looking at
some guys who,
808
00:50:02,654 --> 00:50:04,553
who didn't look like
stars anymore,
809
00:50:04,587 --> 00:50:06,313
and compared them to the
Americans like,
810
00:50:06,348 --> 00:50:08,729
Hulk Hogan and the Ultimate
Warrior
and Bret "The Hitman" Hart.
811
00:50:08,764 --> 00:50:11,629
These guys look like real-life
cartoon characters so...
812
00:50:12,768 --> 00:50:16,530
I think Adrian's decision to
move over to the U.S.,
813
00:50:16,565 --> 00:50:22,295
was a very, very smart because
that's where the
wrestling scene was happening in
the world.
814
00:50:23,020 --> 00:50:24,469
I was really really proud...
815
00:50:25,436 --> 00:50:27,541
to be a British
professional wrestler
816
00:50:28,163 --> 00:50:30,337
until they made a star
817
00:50:31,200 --> 00:50:31,959
out of Big Daddy...
818
00:50:33,271 --> 00:50:36,757
becuase he couldn't wrestle his
way out of a wet paper bag.
819
00:50:37,517 --> 00:50:39,691
Giant Haystacks and Big Daddy,
820
00:50:39,726 --> 00:50:41,659
it became such a
caricature of itself and,
821
00:50:42,315 --> 00:50:42,832
became so ridiculous...
822
00:50:44,489 --> 00:50:47,147
that it wasn't even -- he
couldn't even
really call it any kind of a
sport,
823
00:50:48,355 --> 00:50:50,219
you know, and the whole thing
started to, you know,
824
00:50:50,254 --> 00:50:51,979
the whole thing deteriorated
from then onwards,
825
00:50:52,014 --> 00:50:53,843
it became so, sort of,
cartoonish
826
00:50:55,017 --> 00:50:57,330
that the game was up anyway, it
was over, you know.
827
00:50:57,916 --> 00:50:59,056
So...
828
00:50:59,987 --> 00:51:02,438
Dad really I think was
the only one that
829
00:51:02,473 --> 00:51:04,026
had the sense to actually sort
of try and
take it somewhere else, you
know,
830
00:51:05,890 --> 00:51:08,410
where it was still a big deal
and it still on
the up and up really, in the
early 80s...
831
00:51:10,170 --> 00:51:13,173
and thats exactly what he did,
and he gave
himself another 20 odd years
doing it.
832
00:51:14,519 --> 00:51:16,521
You know, I mean it's no where
now,
I mean, its seems to be,
833
00:51:16,556 --> 00:51:19,490
wrestling seems to be having a
resurgence now in England,
834
00:51:19,524 --> 00:51:20,939
but this is like, you know,
40 years later.
835
00:51:21,837 --> 00:51:23,735
Big Daddy just used to
use his weight
836
00:51:24,633 --> 00:51:27,187
and it was the same
with Haystacks.
837
00:51:27,222 --> 00:51:31,605
But, Adrian he just stood out...
838
00:51:31,640 --> 00:51:32,744
from everybody else...
839
00:51:33,366 --> 00:51:34,643
as the...
840
00:51:36,369 --> 00:51:37,680
well...
841
00:51:37,715 --> 00:51:38,957
the showman really.
842
00:51:41,788 --> 00:51:45,688
He could jump up in the air he
could throw
people, he could land if he was
thrown.
843
00:51:46,724 --> 00:51:48,933
Far more classical, far
more entertaining.
844
00:51:50,141 --> 00:51:52,350
People talk
about the WWE Hall of Fame
845
00:51:52,385 --> 00:51:53,558
I always say he
should be in there.
846
00:51:53,593 --> 00:51:57,114
His character has been copied by
the WWE so many times
847
00:51:58,115 --> 00:51:59,254
that's a legacy in itself.
848
00:51:59,978 --> 00:52:01,048
So, you know, I think to me,
849
00:52:01,773 --> 00:52:02,291
when I think of World of Sport
850
00:52:03,568 --> 00:52:04,845
I always think Adrian Street
before I think of anyone else.
851
00:52:05,708 --> 00:52:06,882
I think
Adrian felt...
852
00:52:07,952 --> 00:52:10,748
very limited by the
potential for growth...
853
00:52:11,818 --> 00:52:14,096
as a wrestler in the U.K.
854
00:52:15,373 --> 00:52:18,997
That you were kind of limited to
what World of Sports saw as...
855
00:52:19,998 --> 00:52:21,655
the way that World of Sports
chose to present
856
00:52:23,278 --> 00:52:26,867
professional wrestling and I
think in
Adrian's mind if you weren't Big
Daddy...
857
00:52:28,697 --> 00:52:30,181
or Giant Haystacks,
858
00:52:30,561 --> 00:52:32,287
that...
859
00:52:32,321 --> 00:52:32,425
your potential was limited.
860
00:52:34,116 --> 00:52:38,327
And I think he saw that in the
United
States, you had I think at one
time 37
861
00:52:38,362 --> 00:52:44,022
thriving territories and the sky
was the limit,
because in the United States if
you were willing...
862
00:52:45,472 --> 00:52:49,027
to put in the work and if you
had
the commitment to the craft
863
00:52:49,062 --> 00:52:52,203
there was no such thing as too
much,
too big, too bold, too colorful.
864
00:52:53,929 --> 00:52:58,934
Bad guys measured their
performance by
how often they were attacked by
fans.
865
00:52:59,866 --> 00:53:02,179
Like being stabbed was a
badge of honor.
866
00:53:03,387 --> 00:53:06,044
You know, having your tyre
slashed was seen as growth.
867
00:53:08,081 --> 00:53:11,809
And if you were willing to take
the blows,
and you were willing to fight
your way out of arenas,
868
00:53:11,843 --> 00:53:14,087
which make no mistake about
it he needed to,
869
00:53:14,846 --> 00:53:16,365
especially with that character,
870
00:53:17,194 --> 00:53:18,540
if you could draw money,
871
00:53:19,230 --> 00:53:20,369
then you had places to go.
872
00:53:21,267 --> 00:53:23,786
And I don't think he
felt similarly
873
00:53:24,684 --> 00:53:26,203
about the United Kingdom
wrestling scene.
874
00:53:27,825 --> 00:53:30,103
When all of a sudden instead of
being
proud to be a British
wrestler...
875
00:53:31,346 --> 00:53:33,693
I was getting embarrassed to be
a professional wrestler
876
00:53:34,487 --> 00:53:36,143
when people actually thought...
877
00:53:36,903 --> 00:53:38,387
that Big Daddy was a wrestler.
878
00:53:38,422 --> 00:53:39,526
I mean he could push him
on his backside,
879
00:53:40,562 --> 00:53:42,115
he'd rock himself to sleep
trying to get up.
880
00:53:43,772 --> 00:53:46,464
So anyway I had enough of that,
so I decided I was going to go
to the States.
881
00:53:57,648 --> 00:54:00,685
Well when we
left England in 1981,
882
00:54:01,859 --> 00:54:04,241
we thought it would be a
really good idea
883
00:54:05,034 --> 00:54:07,278
for me to be his valet because,
884
00:54:07,313 --> 00:54:09,487
they didn't particularly want a
girl, another girl wrestler,
885
00:54:09,936 --> 00:54:10,523
and also...
886
00:54:11,869 --> 00:54:16,080
if I did wrestle they'd want me
to go to other different places,
887
00:54:16,114 --> 00:54:18,220
and we wanted to be together
rather than sort of...
888
00:54:19,117 --> 00:54:20,395
me go one place and
him go another.
889
00:54:21,603 --> 00:54:26,573
So we decided that I'd be his
valet and work with him,
890
00:54:26,608 --> 00:54:28,057
which turned out to
be really good
891
00:54:29,162 --> 00:54:32,683
because we've been all over
the place together,
892
00:54:32,717 --> 00:54:34,823
and that's how we wanted to,
wanted to be.
893
00:54:36,238 --> 00:54:38,482
Since I've been in the States
I've had lots and
lots of titles.
894
00:54:38,516 --> 00:54:40,932
The American Junior
Heavyweight title.
895
00:54:40,967 --> 00:54:43,038
The American heavyweight title.
896
00:54:43,072 --> 00:54:48,181
I took the TV title off Terry
Taylor
on television with that big
kiss.
897
00:54:49,320 --> 00:54:50,735
And I took off...
898
00:54:52,116 --> 00:54:56,362
Austin Idol's title, I took from
from
him in Birmingham Alabama.
899
00:54:56,396 --> 00:54:59,468
And I've upset the wrestling
world apparently because
900
00:54:59,503 --> 00:55:05,509
when I took the Southeastern
title off Austin Idol
I painted it pink to match one
of my gowns,
901
00:55:06,268 --> 00:55:07,476
and it really caused a ruckus.
902
00:55:10,721 --> 00:55:12,447
All of a sudden it was the
same thing again.
903
00:55:12,481 --> 00:55:14,103
I started getting the same calls
I had from the coal miners,
904
00:55:16,071 --> 00:55:20,972
and from wrestlers when I first
started, your
too small you can't be a
professional wrestler.
905
00:55:21,007 --> 00:55:22,388
That's where I heard in
the beginning.
906
00:55:22,940 --> 00:55:23,872
Now it is...
907
00:55:23,906 --> 00:55:25,391
You cant wrestle in the States.
908
00:55:25,425 --> 00:55:25,460
thats the land of giants.
909
00:55:27,047 --> 00:55:29,291
They're Giants over there,
you're
too small to wrestle in the
States.
910
00:55:31,293 --> 00:55:36,298
But like I say I've never
listened to people I've
always, I've always gone on my
own judgment,
911
00:55:36,885 --> 00:55:38,058
Listened to my own self.
912
00:55:40,026 --> 00:55:41,786
So I came to the States and
they were right,
913
00:55:41,821 --> 00:55:43,512
they were great big
guys out here.
914
00:55:45,134 --> 00:55:47,792
So I'd be wrestling with a guy
one night and he come up to me,
915
00:55:47,827 --> 00:55:49,173
the guy be like...
916
00:55:49,967 --> 00:55:51,555
12 inches taller than me,
917
00:55:51,589 --> 00:55:53,039
and like doubled my body weight
918
00:55:53,971 --> 00:55:55,524
and he looked down at me
and say like...
919
00:55:56,111 --> 00:55:57,008
"Hey...
920
00:55:57,906 --> 00:55:59,045
We're wrestling each
other tonight."
921
00:55:59,528 --> 00:55:59,908
Yeah thats right.
922
00:56:01,392 --> 00:56:04,499
"Hey how can a big guy like me
you
lose to a little guy like you?"
923
00:56:05,810 --> 00:56:08,261
Don't worry about it when we
get in the ring I'll show you.
924
00:56:09,573 --> 00:56:10,159
And that was my answer to them.
925
00:56:28,281 --> 00:56:32,492
He was able to be around people
like Dusty Rhodes, Randy Savage.
926
00:56:33,597 --> 00:56:34,943
He got the business,
927
00:56:34,977 --> 00:56:36,323
got into the business
928
00:56:36,358 --> 00:56:38,015
at that point of a time where...
929
00:56:38,947 --> 00:56:40,224
just before this,
930
00:56:40,258 --> 00:56:41,467
this boom was about to happen,
931
00:56:42,191 --> 00:56:43,400
and he fitted right into it.
932
00:56:44,366 --> 00:56:45,919
He could have fitted
into the later on.
933
00:56:45,954 --> 00:56:46,920
He could of gone over there...
934
00:56:47,783 --> 00:56:47,818
now and still made an impact.
935
00:56:49,509 --> 00:56:50,959
Adrian was
someone
who dedicated himself to his
character.
936
00:56:52,650 --> 00:56:56,067
Obviously characters were quite
a
big basis of the wrestling in
the 1980's,
937
00:56:56,102 --> 00:56:56,896
But Adrian coming along...
938
00:56:57,517 --> 00:56:58,484
just sightly before that
939
00:56:59,208 --> 00:56:59,416
almost preceded them really.
940
00:57:00,693 --> 00:57:02,419
You could see there's quite a
lot of inspiration taken...
941
00:57:03,420 --> 00:57:04,075
in these big named wrestlers
of the eighties.
942
00:57:05,422 --> 00:57:08,321
I will never forget
the first time I saw Adrian...
943
00:57:09,046 --> 00:57:11,048
come to the ring when I was...
944
00:57:11,082 --> 00:57:13,188
brand new in
Continental Wrestling.
945
00:57:13,222 --> 00:57:15,155
I'd been in the wrestling
business about four years,
946
00:57:15,846 --> 00:57:18,158
I was a New York guy,
947
00:57:18,193 --> 00:57:22,508
who was not treated particularly
well when
I went to my first territory in
Tennessee.
948
00:57:22,542 --> 00:57:24,268
Partially because I was
from the north,
949
00:57:24,302 --> 00:57:24,993
and there was a
little bit of that,
950
00:57:25,752 --> 00:57:27,133
felt there was a
little bit of a,
951
00:57:27,513 --> 00:57:28,755
a bias...
952
00:57:28,790 --> 00:57:29,963
reigonally.
953
00:57:32,138 --> 00:57:35,210
But the deep southern part of
the United States has some,
954
00:57:37,108 --> 00:57:40,111
has reputations, not
altogether undeserved
955
00:57:41,112 --> 00:57:41,527
and it was like Adrian took
956
00:57:43,183 --> 00:57:46,601
what you would think the
southern part
of the United States would be
like,
957
00:57:46,635 --> 00:57:48,395
in terms of their...
958
00:57:49,604 --> 00:57:51,571
level of tolerance,
959
00:57:51,606 --> 00:57:52,469
and turned it upside down.
960
00:57:53,780 --> 00:57:55,851
In professional wrestling it's
great to be one of two things.
961
00:57:55,886 --> 00:58:00,131
You can either be really loved,
or really hated,
and anything in the middle is
not very good.
962
00:58:00,166 --> 00:58:02,927
So the fact that he had this
outragous character,
963
00:58:02,962 --> 00:58:06,897
which to a bunch of southern
Americans, in
that period, would have been
highly offensive,
964
00:58:06,931 --> 00:58:09,278
would absolutely have done
wonders
for his wrestling career out
there.
965
00:58:10,728 --> 00:58:13,386
I think we've
inspired an awful lot
of wrestlers,
966
00:58:14,560 --> 00:58:18,529
from the time we started wearing
fancy, fancy clothes,
967
00:58:18,909 --> 00:58:18,943
because...
968
00:58:20,842 --> 00:58:25,502
at one time, I mean, we were
about the only
ones that were wearing really
fancy gear,
969
00:58:26,813 --> 00:58:31,024
and everybody else was wearing
just more or less plain stuff.
970
00:58:31,059 --> 00:58:34,372
Nothing, nothing like what
we were wearing.
971
00:58:34,925 --> 00:58:35,822
They all wear the...
972
00:58:37,134 --> 00:58:41,172
pretty colors and the ones with
the rips in and tassels and
973
00:58:41,690 --> 00:58:42,691
whereas...
974
00:58:43,278 --> 00:58:44,451
in my time,
975
00:58:44,486 --> 00:58:45,176
there were only Adrian done it.
976
00:58:46,315 --> 00:58:46,764
We bought a
sewing machine for Linda,
977
00:58:48,628 --> 00:58:53,737
and whenever we go to a new town
we look
for fabric stores and we'd find
different fabrics
978
00:58:53,771 --> 00:58:54,979
and even if we could
only find remnants
979
00:58:56,153 --> 00:58:58,811
of any like bright color spandex
and things like that,
980
00:58:58,845 --> 00:58:59,846
I'd say like well I'm
having the cont--
981
00:59:01,296 --> 00:59:03,540
you know, I'm going to have a
like
a pair of tights made of this,
982
00:59:04,541 --> 00:59:05,990
and I was actually
cutting stuff out,
983
00:59:07,095 --> 00:59:07,889
and Linda was putting them
together and everything,
984
00:59:09,269 --> 00:59:11,548
while we were traveling on road
like from one town to the next.
985
00:59:12,479 --> 00:59:14,999
It looked a bit rough at
the time you know
986
00:59:15,034 --> 00:59:16,967
becuase it wasn't, it wasn't
professionally done
987
00:59:18,278 --> 00:59:24,043
and I wasn't exactly doing stuff
as professionally as I do now.
988
00:59:25,976 --> 00:59:26,597
But it looked good anyway
989
00:59:28,047 --> 00:59:33,431
and we, we'd have different
costumes
for different shows we go to,
990
00:59:34,432 --> 00:59:37,608
and as we, as we sort of
progressed with that
991
00:59:37,643 --> 00:59:40,577
we just get a bit more
odder and odder.
992
00:59:40,611 --> 00:59:45,789
We'd, really we'd -- make
costumes to match each other.
993
00:59:46,583 --> 00:59:47,722
So we're always wearing sort of
994
00:59:48,895 --> 00:59:50,414
new gear stuff that people have
never seen before,
995
00:59:52,140 --> 00:59:55,730
and doing the same thing with
the gowns
and costumes and all that kind
of stuff.
996
00:59:57,628 --> 00:59:58,042
But...
997
00:59:59,768 --> 01:00:03,151
eventually, I mean, other
wrestlers start
asking if we'd make stuff for
them,
998
01:00:03,185 --> 01:00:05,498
and initially I wouldn't because
they didn't want rivals...
999
01:00:07,224 --> 01:00:10,607
you know, I mean, I wouldn't
wear, I wouldn't
make shabby stuff for somebody
else
1000
01:00:10,641 --> 01:00:13,161
but we wouldn't make anything
for anybody else initially.
1001
01:00:13,920 --> 01:00:14,990
But anyway
1002
01:00:15,542 --> 01:00:16,060
like eventually...
1003
01:00:17,337 --> 01:00:19,719
Linda would make a plain pair of
trunks and things like that
1004
01:00:19,754 --> 01:00:21,583
for some of the other wrestlers
that we particularly,
1005
01:00:22,273 --> 01:00:23,481
that we particularly liked.
1006
01:00:24,206 --> 01:00:25,691
And...
1007
01:00:27,382 --> 01:00:31,455
eventually we found it was
becoming a lucrative business
1008
01:00:31,973 --> 01:00:32,836
and what have you.
1009
01:00:33,284 --> 01:00:34,596
We had a...
1010
01:00:34,631 --> 01:00:36,702
a stripy costume
actually that was
1011
01:00:37,357 --> 01:00:38,807
my absolute favorite one.
1012
01:00:38,842 --> 01:00:41,499
I don't know -- really, it was
it was just colorful,
1013
01:00:42,086 --> 01:00:44,054
and it just looked nice.
1014
01:00:44,088 --> 01:00:46,056
It was all different
set of stripes,
1015
01:00:46,988 --> 01:00:48,472
and I think that was one
of my favorites.
1016
01:00:50,094 --> 01:00:53,615
It always struck me
as strange
that Adrian could be so beloved
1017
01:00:54,720 --> 01:00:56,307
in the deep southern part of
the United States...
1018
01:00:59,794 --> 01:01:01,381
because...
1019
01:01:02,451 --> 01:01:04,661
on the surface the people
there might seem
1020
01:01:05,834 --> 01:01:09,562
less than accepting of that
androgynous character.
1021
01:01:09,596 --> 01:01:09,666
But Adrian...
1022
01:01:10,839 --> 01:01:13,911
he was like part of the fabric
people they loved him.
1023
01:01:13,946 --> 01:01:17,501
He'd been there so long, had
been so good
at being bad that he'd become
embraced.
1024
01:01:18,675 --> 01:01:21,091
But on one particular evening a
guy was in the ring,
1025
01:01:22,299 --> 01:01:25,302
he mentioned, he didn't even
seem to be out of hand,
1026
01:01:25,336 --> 01:01:26,855
mentioned something about
1027
01:01:27,718 --> 01:01:29,133
Alabama rednecks,
1028
01:01:29,168 --> 01:01:30,479
and the next thing I know
1029
01:01:30,514 --> 01:01:32,619
the ring filled up with fans.
1030
01:01:33,137 --> 01:01:34,380
Really angry fans.
1031
01:01:35,381 --> 01:01:38,142
Adrian was the second person
to hit the ring.
1032
01:01:38,902 --> 01:01:40,213
First person, was Miss Linda.
1033
01:01:40,835 --> 01:01:41,801
I'll never forget it.
1034
01:01:41,836 --> 01:01:43,941
It was like not even a
moment's hesitation,
1035
01:01:44,908 --> 01:01:46,219
they're good guys,
1036
01:01:46,806 --> 01:01:47,773
babyfaces...
1037
01:01:48,497 --> 01:01:50,223
actively helping the heals,
1038
01:01:50,258 --> 01:01:52,329
but you know what we
refer to as kayfabe
1039
01:01:52,363 --> 01:01:55,608
that flies out the window and
one
of our own is under attack.
1040
01:01:56,505 --> 01:01:58,853
Never seen, you know,
a guy his age,
1041
01:02:00,026 --> 01:02:02,995
move so quickly, or a woman of
Miss Linda's age...
1042
01:02:03,789 --> 01:02:04,928
move even quicker.
1043
01:02:04,962 --> 01:02:07,344
Like they were all about,
you know,
1044
01:02:08,138 --> 01:02:09,518
all about helping out the boys.
1045
01:02:10,209 --> 01:02:12,004
You know, the thing is,
1046
01:02:12,038 --> 01:02:15,214
all the decisions I've made in
my life
have been for myself.
1047
01:02:16,077 --> 01:02:17,734
I've always gone
against the grain,
1048
01:02:17,768 --> 01:02:19,597
not because I want to,
1049
01:02:19,632 --> 01:02:22,669
it's because everybody tells me
I
can't do what I say I'm gonna
do.
1050
01:02:25,258 --> 01:02:28,606
I'll be the first to admit I've
made
some awful mistakes in my life,
1051
01:02:28,641 --> 01:02:30,298
but you learn from mistakes,
1052
01:02:32,231 --> 01:02:34,164
and I console myself,
1053
01:02:35,959 --> 01:02:37,063
with the fact
1054
01:02:37,098 --> 01:02:38,409
that...
1055
01:02:38,444 --> 01:02:40,618
some of the worst mistakes I
ever made in my life
1056
01:02:40,653 --> 01:02:41,999
might have been the best choices
I had at the time.
1057
01:02:43,173 --> 01:02:45,969
So I can live with it so why
can't everybody else.
1058
01:02:46,003 --> 01:02:50,042
For a guy to have
lasted as long as he had
and to keep an audience engaged
with him,
1059
01:02:50,076 --> 01:02:51,802
he had to keep
changing things up,
1060
01:02:51,837 --> 01:02:52,907
making things different,
1061
01:02:52,941 --> 01:02:55,323
and made people want to see
what he will do next.
1062
01:02:55,357 --> 01:02:56,151
And I think the fact
that he was...
1063
01:02:57,463 --> 01:03:01,260
not only willing but able to do
that to such a high degree,
1064
01:03:01,294 --> 01:03:03,331
has enabled him to have such
an amazing career.
1065
01:03:04,435 --> 01:03:06,368
There's a gentleman by the
name of Dalton Castle
1066
01:03:06,990 --> 01:03:07,404
who is wrestling
1067
01:03:08,370 --> 01:03:11,201
I believe, in Japan and
in Ring of Honor,
1068
01:03:11,235 --> 01:03:14,031
which is one of
America's biggest,
1069
01:03:15,619 --> 01:03:16,896
biggest wrestling companies
outside of the WWE.
1070
01:03:17,759 --> 01:03:20,141
And Dalton is -- a
man who wrestles
1071
01:03:21,245 --> 01:03:22,522
with pretty much that same
sort of flamboyance.
1072
01:03:23,558 --> 01:03:26,078
You can see the inspiration
has been taken,
1073
01:03:26,112 --> 01:03:29,460
whether it's -- from Adrian,
whether it's
from those who have been
inspired by Adrian.
1074
01:03:30,427 --> 01:03:31,497
The cape...
1075
01:03:31,531 --> 01:03:33,361
The spinning around,
the pirouetting.
1076
01:03:34,500 --> 01:03:36,571
Doing things which are likely
to rile up fans...
1077
01:03:37,952 --> 01:03:42,749
slightly hinting at that
homogeneous sort of feel which
1078
01:03:42,784 --> 01:03:45,166
obviously might rub quite a lot
of
fans in wrestling the wrong way.
1079
01:03:47,444 --> 01:03:50,102
Many people will
imitate him from now
and I think for many years to
come will try and imitate him.
1080
01:03:52,207 --> 01:03:55,659
Maybe you can take a bit of that
flamboyancy,
I'll borrow this, I'll take a
bit of that from this guy.
1081
01:03:55,693 --> 01:03:57,143
It's just how wrestling is.
1082
01:03:57,178 --> 01:04:00,733
Everything's evolves but you
will
always refer back to it's
original.
1083
01:04:01,734 --> 01:04:03,494
Adrian was that original. You,
you can't...
1084
01:04:04,668 --> 01:04:06,739
be that person and no one else
could be that person,
1085
01:04:06,773 --> 01:04:07,533
and it's just not
going to happen.
1086
01:04:08,706 --> 01:04:10,467
But he has so much respect in
the business anyway...
1087
01:04:12,055 --> 01:04:13,815
and he is kind of like...
1088
01:04:14,816 --> 01:04:16,266
in a way of benchmark so
people can look at.
1089
01:04:17,336 --> 01:04:18,371
Loads of people try to copy
what he's done,
1090
01:04:19,027 --> 01:04:19,062
and it's never been as good.
1091
01:04:20,857 --> 01:04:22,548
You know, and -- that's, that's
a character
that's lived on for 40 years
so...
1092
01:04:24,274 --> 01:04:26,655
Yeah, no totally, I think he's
one of the
greatest of all time to come out
of UK.
1093
01:04:27,691 --> 01:04:30,383
Dear Adrian, I recently saw
Austin Idol on TV
1094
01:04:31,453 --> 01:04:33,766
and he seemed to be trying
to impersonate you.
1095
01:04:33,800 --> 01:04:36,769
Well, Austin Idol may have
had a lot of fun
1096
01:04:36,803 --> 01:04:38,288
trying to impersonate
my mannerisms.
1097
01:04:39,427 --> 01:04:40,738
But if you ever step in the ring
with me Austin Idol,
1098
01:04:42,050 --> 01:04:44,121
you'd better try to impersonate
some of my wrestling skills.
1099
01:04:45,122 --> 01:04:47,193
Well, Adrian you've
wrestled Austin Idol,
1100
01:04:47,228 --> 01:04:47,262
how do I rate him.
1101
01:04:48,781 --> 01:04:50,921
How do I rate him. Well he's
certainly
capable of talking me to death.
1102
01:04:51,888 --> 01:04:52,543
But when he stepped in
the ring with me,
1103
01:04:53,613 --> 01:04:54,269
he found he was not the man
he thought he was.
1104
01:04:55,719 --> 01:05:00,379
Adrian's impact on
American
wrestling has been immense.
1105
01:05:02,450 --> 01:05:04,693
Had he been four or five
inches taller...
1106
01:05:05,625 --> 01:05:08,905
he would have been a
huge star in WWE.
1107
01:05:09,595 --> 01:05:11,424
An international superstar.
1108
01:05:12,667 --> 01:05:15,083
I think his size
worked against him.
1109
01:05:15,118 --> 01:05:19,674
And so we took things from him.
1110
01:05:20,502 --> 01:05:23,160
You know, we took
that flamboyancy.
1111
01:05:23,195 --> 01:05:27,199
We, we took the walk, you know,
we took some of the maneuvers.
1112
01:05:27,233 --> 01:05:31,479
We took the whole idea that
somebody could
sing their own entrance music,
you know,
1113
01:05:31,513 --> 01:05:33,377
or write a novel.
1114
01:05:33,412 --> 01:05:38,003
He's a pioneer and we
we kind of took
1115
01:05:38,037 --> 01:05:43,008
those things that worked for him
and you
can see it to this day and we
took the
1116
01:05:43,042 --> 01:05:52,327
idea I think that you could be
an
androgynous performer and be
embraced by
1117
01:05:52,362 --> 01:05:56,607
everywhere you went. You know I
remember saying out loud at a
certain
1118
01:05:56,642 --> 01:06:02,406
point when WWE had a couple of
androgynous performers and it
came time
1119
01:06:02,441 --> 01:06:09,241
to pull the trigger on it and we
didn't
do it, and the idea that I heard
was,
1120
01:06:09,275 --> 01:06:14,832
our fans would never accept gay
characters
and I was like they never saw a
Adrian Street
1121
01:06:14,867 --> 01:06:18,698
in the deep south this is the
deep
southern part of the United
States.
1122
01:06:18,733 --> 01:06:24,704
Still kind of backwards in
certain ways
and they loved him because he
was so
1123
01:06:24,739 --> 01:06:29,192
well respected and because the
commitment to the craft was
there
1124
01:06:29,226 --> 01:06:32,057
and people accept quality. It
may take
them a while to come around to
it.
1125
01:06:33,644 --> 01:06:39,547
But the same things that made
Adrian so
reprehensible to certain
audiences
1126
01:06:40,651 --> 01:06:41,514
made him so endearing once
they got to know him.
1127
01:06:43,861 --> 01:06:47,348
In my opinion we
were set apart from every
1128
01:06:47,382 --> 01:06:52,629
all the other wrestlers because
we were
doing something completely
different
1129
01:06:52,663 --> 01:06:57,082
than anybody else was doing.
I mean I was, I was his valet in
the ring.
1130
01:06:58,048 --> 01:07:06,539
He was, he was the macho,
you could say,
1131
01:07:06,574 --> 01:07:12,200
transvestite, macho type image,
sort of person.
1132
01:07:12,235 --> 01:07:19,725
And, there was nobody, nobody
else
that would do that -- sort of
stuff at the time.
1133
01:07:19,759 --> 01:07:21,623
Adrian's little pet who has so graciously
served this...
1134
01:07:23,280 --> 01:07:28,872
this, whatever, for six years is
usually
quiet and reserved, stays in her
place,
1135
01:07:28,906 --> 01:07:30,046
until she lets herself
go in the ring.
1136
01:07:31,564 --> 01:07:36,017
It really got over with the fans
and stuff.
I mean they used to hate us.
1137
01:07:37,467 --> 01:07:41,540
I mean they would hate him more
than
they hate me really because...
1138
01:07:42,920 --> 01:07:49,099
he's be the sort of person that
would put me down all the time.
1139
01:07:49,134 --> 01:07:55,105
He would even get me to go down
on all fours outside the ring
1140
01:07:55,140 --> 01:07:58,315
and he'd step on my back and
get up into the ring.
1141
01:07:58,350 --> 01:08:02,906
I mean that's absolutely blew
the
people's minds, they couldn't
believe
1142
01:08:02,940 --> 01:08:08,912
that I would actually do that
and he
would actually do that to get
into the ring
1143
01:08:08,946 --> 01:08:15,643
I mean it really got over like
anything, they
hated him, they absolutely hated
him like mad.
1144
01:08:15,677 --> 01:08:20,475
You know, I mean, I thought it
was
really funny because, you know,
1145
01:08:20,510 --> 01:08:26,447
the reaction from me from the
audience really, yeah really got
me
1146
01:08:26,481 --> 01:08:26,964
it made me laugh.
1147
01:08:28,449 --> 01:08:34,075
I just I had no idea
I would
connect with with him so quickly
1148
01:08:34,110 --> 01:08:39,149
and find you know in some ways
like a kindred
spirit like I don't think I ever
accepted that...
1149
01:08:40,978 --> 01:08:45,914
we could be artists, that
wrestling was a performing art.
1150
01:08:45,949 --> 01:08:49,194
It was always the argument is it
a sport is it not.
1151
01:08:49,228 --> 01:08:52,300
And it's like, you know what, it
can
be anything you want it to be.
1152
01:08:52,335 --> 01:08:56,477
And there are some alpha
male personalities,
1153
01:08:56,511 --> 01:08:59,894
and there are some dreamers and
there are artists.
1154
01:08:59,928 --> 01:09:05,417
And I think I bonded with Adrian
because he was an artist.
1155
01:09:05,451 --> 01:09:10,387
And he was so committed to what
he did
and he didn't -- have to live by
labels.
1156
01:09:11,354 --> 01:09:14,667
You didn't have to be
tough guy as...
1157
01:09:16,117 --> 01:09:19,534
we and the United States grew up
believing that tough guys should
be.
1158
01:09:19,569 --> 01:09:24,712
You know, the John Wayne
mystique, you know,
you find your toughness in
really strange places.
1159
01:09:25,747 --> 01:09:27,922
And, it showed me there's
room for everybody.
1160
01:09:29,786 --> 01:09:34,687
So I don't know if I would have
dared journey
out and tried so many different
things,
1161
01:09:34,722 --> 01:09:38,243
you know, whether it be writing
or whether it be...
1162
01:09:39,692 --> 01:09:42,108
or whether it just be
something just
1163
01:09:42,143 --> 01:09:46,043
completely off-center, you know,
as
far as something I wanted to
try.
1164
01:09:47,183 --> 01:09:50,738
And they didn't always work what
I was always trying
1165
01:09:50,772 --> 01:09:53,844
and I think being exposed to
Adrian and Miss Linda
1166
01:09:53,879 --> 01:09:57,089
and riding in the car and
listening to Adrian's psychology
1167
01:09:58,539 --> 01:10:02,094
about professional wrestling and
the
psychology the bad guy which was
1168
01:10:02,128 --> 01:10:08,411
completely at odds with what the
Southern perspective was, cheat
always cheat,
1169
01:10:08,445 --> 01:10:13,070
almost like the wrestlers credo,
win if I can
and lose if I must, but always
cheat.
1170
01:10:13,105 --> 01:10:17,316
Like, you had to cheat to be bad
and
Adrian would sit me down in the
car
1171
01:10:17,351 --> 01:10:23,080
over the course of 300, 400 mile
drives and
explain to me why that was not
necessarily so.
1172
01:10:23,115 --> 01:10:29,328
That there wasn't one way, you
know, that
it didn't matter how you got to
the finish line,
1173
01:10:29,363 --> 01:10:29,501
just as long as you got there.
1174
01:10:31,537 --> 01:10:37,267
Oh Adrian is a one-off.
Definitely. Adrian was
a one-off, and there will never
be another Adrian.
1175
01:10:37,302 --> 01:10:40,822
Don't matter how many people try
to
impersonate him, there's only
one Adrian.
1176
01:10:42,272 --> 01:10:47,277
I could maybe shed a tear and I
was just a thought of a lifetime
of
1177
01:10:47,312 --> 01:10:55,389
growing up with somebody that is
unique,
somebody that's been reluctantly
admired
1178
01:10:55,423 --> 01:11:01,809
to think that what he has
achieved, but
he is still my Brother he is my
Brother.
1179
01:11:01,843 --> 01:11:08,022
And that tender part of him is,
well he's
my heart, I love him so much.
1180
01:11:09,023 --> 01:11:11,405
I've got a colliflower ear here,
1181
01:11:12,198 --> 01:11:13,924
I didn't get on a beauty salon.
1182
01:11:14,822 --> 01:11:15,340
I can get my fingers
between my ribs.
1183
01:11:16,996 --> 01:11:21,553
I've had my knee cap, my knee,
at the
bottom of my knee cap ended up
there.
1184
01:11:23,486 --> 01:11:27,248
I've had my Achilles tendon
ripped in half,
I've been told by doctors and
surgeons...
1185
01:11:28,974 --> 01:11:33,599
more times than I care to
remember,
your career is over, you can't
wrestle again
1186
01:11:33,634 --> 01:11:35,394
that injury is too bad.
1187
01:11:36,775 --> 01:11:41,124
But the thing is nobody is going
to rain on my parade.
1188
01:11:41,849 --> 01:11:42,332
Nobody's gonna spoil my dream.
1189
01:11:44,023 --> 01:11:49,512
My dream was to be the best
professional
wrestler that I could possibly
be,
1190
01:11:49,546 --> 01:11:50,582
and believe me I was.
1191
01:11:52,100 --> 01:11:54,655
Imitation is
supposed to be the best
form of flattery.
1192
01:11:54,689 --> 01:11:57,347
They look like two little ducks
trying to imitate a swan.
1193
01:11:57,382 --> 01:12:01,075
They may be pretty but I am
beautiful, I mean beautiful.
103665
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