Brian “Crush” Adams Passes Away

Former WWE & WCW wrestler Brian “Crush” Adams was found unconscious in his home yesterday. He was 44. This is, of course, another tragedy for a profession that has gone through so much turmoil in so short a time. But the only thing that is more depressing about another wrestling star passing away is the manner in which the media is trying to link Crush’s death to Chris Benoit, the WWE, and steroids. It’s scandalous that these media outlets get away with such garbage reporting…

It’s tough to say what Crush was best known for in the wrestling world. If you’re an older fan like I am, then you remember when he debuted in the WWE as the third member of Demolition. This lasted for a little while before he was repackaged as Kona Crush, given his Hawaiian roots. If I’m not mistaken, the highest profile feud he was involved in as Kona Crush was with the Macho Man Randy Savage – Savage was the face in this one!

Adams was then arrested in real life for attempting to purchase steroids and subsequently jailed. When he got out of prison WWE paired him with Clarence Mason and he was given the ex-con gimmick. Eventually, he wound up as a member of Ron Simmons’ Nation of Domination before he was kicked out for the gang battles of the later 1990’s. In these battles he led the Disciples of Apocalypse against Los Boriquas and the Nation. Crush asked for and received his WWE release after he disagreed with Vince McMahon’s double-cross of Bret Hart at the 1997 Survivor Series.

Logically, this led Adams to jump to WCW where he had an uneventful career until he was paired with the former Adam Bomb (Bryan Clark) to form Kronik. The duo won the WCW tag team championship by defeating Shane Douglas and Buff Bagwell.

When WWE bought WCW, the two men were brought over and briefly had a feud with The Undertaker and Kane. The feud culminated in a pay per view match where Kronik had a terrible performance – which led to Bryan Clark getting fired and Adams being sent to WWE’s developmental territory for a short while before he was eventually let go, too.

Adams had the look to be a major player in the wrestling world, but his career never fell in that direction. Our prayers and condolences are with his family.