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The BBC reported this morning that legendary British wrestler Exotic Adrian Street has passed away at the age of 82.
According to their report, Street passed away today Cwmbran's Grange University Hospital, having recently undergone brain surgery.
Street first began training as a professional wrestler in the late 1950s, having been inspired by Buddy Rogers and Lou Thesz, among others. He began wrestling as Kid Tarzan Jonathan, a name that was inspired by Don Leo Jonathan.
While he was born Adrian Street, he will be forever known as "Exotic" Adrian, playing a glitter and make-up infused over the top character that was meant to grab the attention of the audience and add great pizzazz to a competitor who was renowned for being both a legitimate tough guy as well as a shooter inside the ring. In that era, the gimmick paid off immensely. He toured all over the world and in the early 1980s, he and his wife and valet Miss Linda made their way to the United States.
Street and Linda toured tons of territories in that era, including Stu Hart's Stampede Wrestling, Championship Wrestling from Florida, Memphis and Paul Boesch's Houston territory, but were most notably part of the Continental territory run by Ron Fuller, feuding with Wildcat Wendell Cooley and Austin Idol as a heel before shocking fans by making the save for The Bullet (Bob Armstrong under a mask) when he was being triple-teamed by Dr. Tom Prichard, Robert Fuller and Jimmy Golden and was in danger of being unmasked. He had a notable feud with Rip Rogers as well.
After Continental, Street wrestled for the Global Wrestling Federation in Texas, Gordon Scozzari's AWF and lots of independents but focused mostly on his Florida wrestling school, Skull Krushers in Florida. He also built a side business creating and selling ring gear for talents. When he finally retired from the ring in 2014, Street believed he had worked almost 15,000 matches.
Street had his life documented in a WWE Network documentary several years ago and also self-published an excellent seven part biography series.
PWInsider.com sends our deepest condolences to the family, friends and fans of Adrian Street.
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