Gentleman Chris Adams- A Reflection of a Fan (originally posted 10/12/10)

PART ONE:

In the Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract, the best book ever written about the history of baseball, the author recounts an anecdote of Paul Izzo asking an octogenarian he was sitting next to at Fenway Park, who had been watching baseball since the 1910's, who the greatest player he ever saw was and the man said, without hesitation, "Fred Lynn." 'Fred Lynn? Not Ruth? Not Speaker? Not Teddy?' "Fred Lynn. Don't think much of him now, but for a few years there he was the best." And so, too, it was with my all-time favorite professional wrestler, England's "Gentleman" Chris Adams. Although poor personal and career choices prevented him from exploiting his vast potential to its fullest, for a few years (1984-87), Adams was as good as anyone. Mickey Grant's Gentleman's Choice (2008), a straight-to-DVD documentary, does not even come close to reaching its potential by not adequately explaining why its subject ended up penniless and murdered by his so-called best friend at the age of 46 after a life that started so gloriously. 

Any issues involving a broken family were certainly not the reason for Chris' decline and fall. The DVD introduces us to loving, supportive parents still married, and to Chris' younger brother Neil, who appears as down-to-earth and sincere (Neil was given the nickname Happo Bigin in Japan, which means "everyone's friend"). Both Chris and Neil were very successful in the discipline of Judo (Chris was a British National judo champion), with Neil eventually winning a silver medal for England in both the 1980 and 1984 Summer Olympics. Chris was also a trained architect, but decided to use his judo skills and natural athletic ability to embark on a professional wrestling career. Chris' career started off promisingly in his native land. Ever ambitious, he accepted an offer to wrestle in the United States in the now-defunct Los Angeles territory, which worried his wrestling teacher, Tony Walsh, who said "I was very sad...Every one of my friends that has gone to America in our profession has either come back in a box, in a wheelchair, or they've come back drug addicts." He also wrestled in Mexico (where he won the WWF Light-Heavyweight Championship) and in Japan, where he may have been inspired to develop an awesome martial arts leg thrust that became his trademark, the Superkick (the antecedent of Sean Michaels' markedly inferior "Sweet Chin Music," for which Michaels, a native Texan and former World Class Championship Wrestling alum, never gave Chris proper credit- not the only time a WWF star failed to do so...). He moved to the Portland territory, grew a beard, and, in a little-known fact to even many hardcore Adams fans, lost a loser-leaves-town hair match to Rip Oliver. 

The Gentleman joined the rapidly growing World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW) promotion in Dallas in the spring of 1983 and his career skyrocketed. He feuded with Jimmy Garvin and, with his unique and entertaining ring style and handsome features, quickly moved into the fan favorite slot right below the Von Erichs, the homegrown babyfaces solidly entrenched in the top spot. Ever ambitious AND savvy, Adams (with the help of manager and booker Gary Hart) turned heel to garner a top spot on cards in the territory. He first feuded with Kevin Von Erich, then with Kerry Von Erich, and later formed a short-lived yet legendary tag team with Gorgeous Gino Hernandez called the Dynamic Duo. Chris and Gino's in-ring feud with the Von Erichs culminated in a loss in an infamous tag team Hair-vs-Hair match at the Cotton Bowl in October 1985. Chris left for an extended vacation in the beginning of 1986. While in England, Chris learned of the shocking death of his good friend Gino Hernandez of an apparent cocaine overdose shrouded in mystery. I believe this began Chris' decline and fall; although this was not even mentioned in the Grant DVD, the first chinks in Chris' armor began to appear at this time. He rejoined World Class in late April 1986, became a babyface again, and won the World Class Heavyweight Title from Rick Rude in Dallas in July 1986. However, earlier that summer, on a flight back from Puerto Rico, Chris was arrested after assaulting a pilot who tried to assist a stewardess verbally abused by a drunken Adams after trying to cut his alcohol off. Adams went to prison for a few months. 

At the end of 1986, Adams joined the UWF, a then-thriving promotion in the Louisiana-Oklahoma territory, and was popular with the fans there, feuding in-ring with Terry Taylor (they were friends in real life). The UWF had lots of talent, but this promotion suffered severe financial difficulties (as did WCCW) due to an economic crisis that hit the region during that time. The UWF was purchased by WCW, the second-most popular wrestling promotion, who was interested in three wrestlers from the UWF, promising youngsters named Sting and Rick Steiner, who would go on to become big stars in WCW, and Adams, whose style and persona, in both mine and Gary Hart's opinion, would have been perfect for the Mid-Atlantic territory in that era. Chris, however, made the disastrous decision to return to World Class, a choice that, while indirectly having an enormous impact on the wrestling industry, would begin a downward spiral for Chris that led to career obscurity and, ultimately, to his death. 

PART TWO:

In late 1987, Chris rejoined WCCW, the once-thriving promotion in the throes of an irreversible decline. Chris' in-ring work, though still solid and imbued with ring psychology, was becoming a bit stagnant. He opened up a professional wrestling school, saw the awesome potential in one of his students, Steve Austin (nee Steve Williams), and broke the future Texas Rattlesnake into the business. Professional and personal lives crossed as Chris and his wife Toni (who recently died) battled Steve and Chris' ex-fiancée Jeannie (Steve and Jeannie ultimately married) in an exciting feud. Adams and Austin had a falling out regarding a payoff on a card Chris promoted independently, an indefensible tendency confirmed by Kevin Von Erich in a story about Chris attempting to leave without paying the talent on a card he promoted in Africa. The Adams-Austin feud was the last real highlight in Chris' wrestling career. He floundered in the USWA, the promotion that bought WCCW, and also appeared in the AWF, a fly-by-night promotion that harkened back to Adams' early days of World of Sport wrestling in England by observing the rounds system ala boxing. A brief glimmer of hope surfaced when Chris was signed by WCW in 1997. However, Chris played a one-dimensional English good guy and did not catch on with the fans during the NWO era. He could still work in the ring. The one time I recall Chris playing the heel role in WCW was in a match with Booker T. As the heel, Adams called the match and showed flashes of his earlier brilliance. To contradict Chris' opinion, I always felt he was better as a heel. Meanwhile, his former student Steve Austin became the most popular wrestler in the world, which made Chris bitter. 

Chris left WCW in 1999, and his life continued to unravel. Unsuccessful business ventures (one idea was to sell wrestling rings), mounting debt and tax problems, failed relationships, and drug and alcohol abuse deflated him, as he associated with an ever-increasing array of dubious characters, even as family and true friends tried to help. He was wrongly indicted on manslaughter charges in 2001 in an unseemly incident a year earlier involving the overdose death of a girlfriend, and was murdered during a drunken fight by his nominal best friend on October 7, 2001. 

How good was Chris Adams? Jim Ross, on the short list of the greatest announcers in wrestling history, wrote that Chris was a "solid in-ring performer" in Steve Austin's autobiography The Stone Cold Truth (as opposed to the actual truth). Later, on his own jrsbarbq blog page, probably after realizing how embarrassing it was to have such a stupidly understated opinion preserved in print for posterity (also, I and other Adams fans sent e-mails to the blog page presenting a more realistic assessment of Adams' career), Ross admitted to being an admirer of Chris' work in WCCW. Gary Hart, longtime friend and wrestling legend, was closer to the truth in saying Chris' style was "very unique" and called the Gentleman "truly one of the greats." He could wrestle scientifically or as a convincing heel, and execute high-risk maneuvers such as a Tiger Mask dive between the first and second ropes onto the floor. Chris was an innovator, bringing an acrobatic style full of agility that had to be seen to be believed, and introduced the Superkick to American wrestling. He could sell in the ring, was good on the mic, and knew ring psychology very well (both Mick Foley, in his first book, and the Ultimate Warrior, in a shoot interview, put Chris over in talking about having learned a lot from wrestling in the ring with him). He was handsome and had a natural charisma and, along with Gino Hernandez, was really one of the first heels who remained popular with many female fans and broke the stereotype of the typical heel as a foreigner, platinum blonde, or brute. (Gino, to be accurate, was far ahead of Chris on this account). Chris knew the business very well, and always tried to increase the importance of the promotions he was in during in-ring promos (make it a point to notice how many times he refers to the thousands or millions of viewers watching). Chris should have made it much bigger than he did, but personal demons and poor career choices turned a promising future into a sad demise where he became better-known to the general public as Steve Austin's teacher, a fact that embittered him, rather than the accomplished wrestler he was in his own right. I thought he was amazing. I wish I had a chance to have met him, and would have loved to tell him how much he meant to me and to many other fans. After all, I nicknamed myself after him. (No part of this blog, especially my own opinions, may be reproduced or even quoted without first obtaining permission from me.)