Wrestling / "Exotic" Adrian Street

Imagine what he could do to you.

"I can tear a telephone directory in two
Bending iron bars is something else that I can do
I always pick my teeth with the nearest billiard cue
So imagine what I could do to you"

— "Exotic" Adrian Street, "Imagine What I Could Do To You"

Adrian Street (5 December 1940 - 24 July 2023) was a retired Welsh Professional Wrestler who competed from the 1950s all the way into 2019 primarily as "Exotic" Adrian Street. He started his career as Kid Tarzan Jonathan and also wrestled as Hell's Angel #1. He developed his outrageous image, he claims, sort of by accident since he had been getting such a good reaction from the character. He wrestled for decades all over the world. In the U.S., he competed in Memphis, Florida, the Mid-Atlantic, Los Angeles, Mid-South, the Continental territory in Alabama and for the Global Wrestling Federation in Dallas as well as many independents. Among his in-ring achievements, he held the Mid-South Television Title, the NWA Florida Heavyweight Title and the NWA Americas (Los Angeles) Heavyweight Title. In 1986, he won The Wrestling Observer Newsletter's "Best Gimmick" Award.

He passed away on 24 July 2023 due to sepsis.

Not to be confused with similar wrestler Adrian Adonis.

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"Imagine what my tropes could do to you":

• Abhorrent Admirer: Sometimes Bill Dundee enjoyed Street's company, but never did he enjoy Street's advances.
• Ambiguously Gay: He was trying to imitate "The Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers, but the audience took it as a gay gimmick, so he ran with it. Ironically Roger's gimmick was supposed to be like George Wagner's minus the ambiguous sexuality.
• Agent Peacock: A sissy dancing, skip and prancing man in touch with his feminine side who could make all he needed out of raw materials with his bare hands, which could also easily put you to sleep but compressing your arteries or wind pipe.
• All Bikers are Hells Angels: Subverted in that he was in a biker gang gimmick Tag Team, but just as there are many "hells" so too were there many "angels" and these two wanted nothing to do with the rest. The terms "hell" and "angel" were more closely related to the UK's S&M culture than biker culture, which bore out in the Hell's Angel's ring gear.
• Arch-Enemy: (In England}: Chris Adams; Feuded with Randy Savage and Jimmy Valiant in Memphis.
• As Himself: In 1985's Grunt! The Wrestling Movie.
• Bad Boss: He wasn't afraid of smacking Miss Linda for costing him matches, or for lusting after men he was interested in.
• Badass Biker: As Hell's Angel #1. Notice the placement of the apostrophe, his team were not affiliated with THOSE Hells Angels. Later revisited when Adrian Street became a wannabe badass biker.
• Badass Boast: See the page quote. It's from his "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune.
• Badass Teacher: His most famous trainee was Jim Cornette.
• Bash Brothers: Miss Linda, Bill Dundee, Jimmy Valiant
• Battle Couple: With his valet, Miss Linda. They're married in Real Life.
• Bears Are Bad News: Inverted in "Imagine What I Could Do To You":
  "I can crush a grizzly till its bones begin to crack."
• Big Eater: From "Imagine What I Could Do To You":
  "I eat a dozen T-bones for an early morning snack."
• Carpet of Virility: The hair chest hair was to show that he was healthy and nubile. You silly Yanks just don't get it, but let him get close and you will!
• Chained by Fashion: Street went through a motorcycle gang infatuation phased and started wearing chains in imitation of them.
• Content Warnings: Parodied. The warning sticker on his album Shake, Wrestle N Roll reads, "WARNING: This album is for people with no taste whatsoever."
• Creepy Crossdresser: He'd inflict this on his opponents, putting makeup on them after beating them.
• Crystal Ball: Mentioned in "Imagine What I Could Do To You":
  "Now you know about me you won't need a crystal ball"
• Didn't See That Coming: "Mighty Big Girl" is about a woman asking him to dance...and beating the hell out of him since it turns out she was actually a wrestler.
• Distracted by My Own Sexy: Played for Laughs with "I'm In Love with Me":
  "I find it very difficult to get me off my mind
  But that's the price perfection has to pay."
• Documentary: Jeremy Deller's The Life and Times of Adrian Street.
• Expy: "Adorable" Adrian Adonis, Rico Constantino and Paredyse. Rico and Paredyse also had expies of miss Linda in Jackie Gayda and CJ Lane. Lane went further than Jackie by also dressing as mannishly as she could while valeting but cleaning up for her own matches.
• Facial Markings: The garish face paint was meant to be off putting, but he claims that it influenced artists in the emerging genre of "glam rock".
• Fairest of Them All: Mentioned by name in "I'm In Love With Me".
• Finishing Move: Sleeper, splash.
• Foreign Wrestling Heel: The first ever wrestling VHS release, 1985's Pro Wrestling Illustrated Presents Lords of the Ring: Superstars and Superbouts, featured a brief profile of Street which included a promo where he ran down sloppy burger eating, pickup truck driving American redneck girls.
• Gay Cowboy
  • "Something Very Strange About a Cowboy"
  • However, on Continental Wrestling he described cowboys as clumsy idiots and expressed English fox hunters as the superior horsemen.
• Genre Roulette: Fake Country Music on "Something Very Strange About a Cowboy," Doo Wop on "I'm in Love with Me" and whatever the rest of his songs were.

• Gorgeous George: One of the best ever. One day you see him kissing another man. Another day you see him going into a jealous rage over another man getting close to his...mannish valet Miss Linda. One day you see him posing with men in a magazine you're sure is read by gay men but in another you see him posing with big breasted models in a magazine for a decidedly opposite audience.
• Heel: His default role.
• Hell-Bent for Leather: He sometimes went with sadomasochistic biker look with leather and chains.
• "I Am" Song: "I'm In Love With Me"
• Improbable Hairstyle: Just look at the picture. He had Girlish Pigtails.
• It's All About Me: Linda was allowed to show interest in other men, unless Street claimed them first. Other men were not allowed to show interest in other women in his presence, unless they were beneath his notice. Blood, even on his manager Jim or valet Linda was an acceptable price to pay, unless it was Adrian's own. And he must be given time to make his FULL entrance, playing as much of his music as he wanted!
• Kiss of Distraction: He'd kiss his male opponents to get into their heads or just to break up pinfall attempts.
• Large Ham: Not just in the usual manner of a professional wrestler mouthing off to crowds or getting carried away on the microphone, but also in that he performed many over the top ballads to himself and released them as records.
• Non-Indicative Name: His song "Street Rap"...isn't rap.
• The One Thing I Don't Hate About You: From "Sweet Transvestite with a Broken Nose":
  "I hate Joan Collins
  But love her taste in clothes"
• Pay Evil unto Evil: In 1971 he was booked in a match against Jimmy Savile (who'd decided he wanted to try his hand at wrestling), being expected to wrestle the TV presenter to a draw. Due to Savile and the wrestler messing him around, as well as how it would make him look weak when he was going into a world title match of his own on his next show, Street was enraged at the idea of being presented as unable to beat the scumbag and instead beat the ever-loving shit out of him in the ring, including tearing clumps of his hair out, and sending Savile to the hospital, admitting to drawing it out to punish him. Savile, who'd wrestled over 100 bouts before this, never wrestled again. Street admitted that while he'd heard of Savile's boasting about the young girls he slept with, at the time most people weren't actually aware of HOW young they were and is very proud in hindsight of what he did to Savile. Many people retroactively consider this one of the greatest things Street ever did in his life.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: He was practically tiny by wrestler standards of the time at only about 5'7" (although he had a solid physique), but was a legit tough guy who those who were aware knew better than to take liberties with. Jake Roberts said that if you messed with Street "he would fuck you up".
• Power Stable:
  • The Royal Family (led by 'King' James Dillon in Florida and also including Terry Funk, Bruiser Brody and The Iron Sheik, among others.)
  • Cornette's Dynasty (in Memphis)
  • The Commonwealth Army (led by Lord Jonathan Boyd and featuring the Sheepherders and Eric Embry in Southwest Championship Wrestling in San Antonio, TX.)
• Pretty in Mink: It need not be mink, fox, otter, beaver, almost any fur of a lesser mammal so long as it shines and shimmers.
• Real Men Can Cook: and not just food. He and Miss Linda forged their own dishes and cooking utensils.
• Real Men Wear Pink: To Adrian Street, pink is nothing but a pale red, which is what he'll leave you if you keep bugging him about it.
• Red Baron: Initially "Nature Boy", but that didn't catch on like "Exotic".
• Ring Oldies: Started wrestling in 1957, stopped wrestling in 2019!
• Sadist

"I could kill a man, eventually."

• She Cleans Up Nicely: He was quite handsome when he properly shaved, both the top of his head and his face...and washed his face.
• Shout-Out:
  • "Sweet Transvestite with a Broken Nose"
  • "Merchant of Menace"
• Start My Own: The Skull Krushers Wrestling School in Gulf Breeze, Florida, until Hurricane Ivan hit and Street had to close down. He then moved back to the UK. He also designs and sells wrestling gear.
• Stock Footage: Some scenes from his "Imagine What I Could Do To You" video reappear in "Sweet Transvestite with a Broken Nose.".
• The Fighting Narcissist: If you were of the opinion that Street was really straight and or asexual, then this was about the only explanation for his behavior. Indeed he did spend a lot of time on his appearance, hated being made to look foolish, or perceived as such, and could get oddly obsessive about things he shouldn't have viewed as "his" but did anyway. Including other wrestlers.
• The Rival: If you were in the crowd that thought Street was gay, then Bill Dundee was his unwed husband. They may have been opponents but Street was just so eager to be in his company that he'd seemingly take any match that involve being opposite of Dundee.
• Talk Show with Fists: "The Street Corner," in Memphis.
• Verbal Tic: "Mmm", "nice."
• Wild Man: Adrian Street was simply his most famous and successful gimmick. He also worked as "Kid Tarzan". This was supposed to be toned down into a Nature Boy Buddy Rogers type gimmick, but audiences didn't buy it.
• Would Hit a Girl: He wasn't afraid of showing his displeasure with Miss Linda physically, however he'd usually end up making up with her. After his Mid-South Television Title defense against Chris Adams ended in a DQ after Terry Taylor, who Street defeated for the title, ran over and kissed her.
• Xtreme Kool Letterz: His song "The Krippler"

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