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TVTranscript
00:00The accident occurred around 9.30 last night near Lewisport, Newfoundland.
00:12A van containing four professional wrestlers suddenly plunged into a shallow stream.
00:17Police in Newfoundland say they're continuing their investigation.
00:21Adrian Artunas!
00:24Good friend called me.
00:26He said, did you hear about Adrian?
00:28I said, no.
00:29I phoned my wife.
00:30I said, I'm coming home, and she said, OK, why?
00:34Did something happen?
00:35I said, yeah, I said, everybody's dead.
00:40On July 4, 1988, three professional wrestlers were killed in a tragic car accident on a
00:46remote highway in Newfoundland, Canada.
00:50The most famous name among the victims was World Wrestling Federation superstar, the adorable
00:56Adrian Artunas.
00:58The circumstances surrounding the crash have grown into an urban legend in the wrestling
01:02world, fueling decades of debate and speculation.
01:05From what I heard, they're drunk as hell.
01:10The driver saw a moose, and he dodged him, and he went down over a ravine and underneath
01:18a bridge.
01:19The ring truck was down after him, fixed their pockets.
01:26One of them lived.
01:28I don't know how his body wouldn't hit him.
01:33A tragedy that took the lives of three wrestlers, with one man left standing, haunted by what
01:41he saw that night.
01:44I'll never forget it.
01:49You're lucky to be alive.
01:52Yes, I am.
01:54I got it for that.
02:07I'm gonna slap him around in front of all you scumbags, you ignoramuses, and all you
02:12freeloaders, and all you armchair quarterbacks, and people you think that you know about the
02:17sport of wrestling, which you know nothing about.
02:19In the 1980s, Vince McMahon's World Wrestling Federation presented a larger-than-life world
02:25filled with heroes, villains, and a rotating cast of colorful tough guys.
02:30But few were more colorful than the adorable one himself, Adrian Adonis.
02:36Adrian Adonis was one of the best big man wrestlers in the game at the time.
02:42This is very deceptive.
02:43Adrian Adonis was a really unique wrestler because physically he had this body that didn't
02:50look like it would be acrobatic.
02:51And it was.
02:55Unbelievable performer.
02:56Unbelievable.
02:58His timing alone made him exceptional.
03:01Oh, a dancing bear.
03:04Tweedle toes, man.
03:05That guy could move like nothing.
03:07And regardless what these fans think, Adrian Adonis is a devastating individual in that
03:13Adrian's provocative ability to push buttons and boundaries catapults him to the top of
03:18the card, earning him a coveted weekly segment known as the Flower Shop.
03:23I feel the power.
03:24You know, straight people hating gays was certainly the idea behind the gimmick.
03:28The business of pro wrestling was very, very stereotypical.
03:32And very often it would be, you know, kind of fat guys that would bleach their hair blonde.
03:38And that was kind of like your stereotype.
03:39And I'm going to say something right now and admit it right now.
03:40Everybody wants to hear it.
03:41And I'm going to say it.
03:42Yes, I'm gay.
03:43Adrian knew the business well enough so he knew what he had to do to make people hate
03:56him.
03:57And he did that.
03:58There's not too much really that's adorable.
04:01However, the star's flamboyant in-ring persona could hardly be more different from the reality
04:07of the man behind the character.
04:09The black roots are showing in the hair.
04:11Is that-
04:12Unnatural.
04:13What are you talking about?
04:14He wasn't a bullshit wrestler.
04:15He was a bonafide, legitimate, tough guy that had had a fair number of street fights in
04:22his lifetime.
04:23I'm Bret the Hitman Hart, seven-time WWE World Champion, WCW Champion, and the WWE Hall of
04:30Famer.
04:31He's letting him use the fist.
04:32Oh, look at that.
04:33Bret Hitman.
04:34Bret is high.
04:35And I'm a very close, personal friend of the late Adrian Adonis.
04:39Born Keith Frankie, the future Adrian Adonis grew up in a working-class neighborhood in
04:44Buffalo, New York.
04:45He's bread-and-butter Buffalo, man, born and raised.
04:49We grew up on the west side of Buffalo, rough neighborhood, 90% Italian.
04:53I never seen him lose a fight in my life.
04:55As soon as you put that smirk on his face, you knew you better get the hell out of there
05:00or you're in trouble.
05:01My name is Anthony Gugino, and I'm a close friend of Keith Frankie, the wrestler, Adrian
05:07Adonis, as you would know him.
05:09You couldn't help love the guy, man.
05:12He had a heart of gold.
05:13I mean, he'd do anything for you.
05:15But if you crossed him, he'd pick you up and body slam you, like that, like nothing.
05:23Keith was my loco brazi.
05:25I'm 5'5", 120 pounds.
05:28He's 6'2", 240.
05:31And when someone owed me money, I just walked with Keith by my side, you got my money?
05:36And he'd just look and say, yeah.
05:38He was what they call very connected.
05:41He said, I'm with Adrian.
05:43It's like, it meant you had a gold card to go wherever you wanted.
05:49We started out as a high school fraternity, Kappa Beta.
05:52From there, we went to street gang.
05:55From street gang, we went to fighting with everybody.
06:00We were the baddest in Buffalo, so everybody had a target on us.
06:05Most of our guys became gangsters.
06:08But Keith had a purpose, and why waste your life fighting with these idiots when you could
06:14go and become something?
06:17He knew he had to make a move, and what he wanted was wrestling.
06:22You want something, Keith, you got to go for it.
06:25Dropping out of high school to focus on wrestling, Adrian brings his experience fighting in the
06:30streets to the squared circle.
06:33I watched Adrian when he first started in Amarillo, Texas.
06:36I was about 15 or 16 then.
06:38Adrian announced to the audience that he would take on anybody in the building.
06:44It was advertised as, if you could stay in the ring with Adrian Adonis for 10 minutes,
06:48you could win $10,000.
06:51And there'd be about four or five guys that would come down, and they'd interview them
06:54and talk to them while they're outside the ring, and then they would get in the ring.
06:59Adrian would knock them out cold.
07:03He gives you an idea of what Adrian was like.
07:05He was a fearless kind of guy.
07:07So you have to be a pretty tough guy to take on all comers, you know, fight fans for real.
07:12You don't know who the guy is.
07:14My name is Dave Meltzer.
07:15I'm the editor of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, and I've been covering pro wrestling since
07:191971.
07:20It wasn't enough to just out-wrestle the guy.
07:22You know, he'll go and tell his friends, hey, I hung with the guy.
07:24It's like, you have to leave marks.
07:27You have to pound his face in or break a bone or something.
07:30And when he goes around town, it's like, oh, God, those guys were killers, you know?
07:34And Adrian was one of those guys.
07:39In time, Adrian's size, look, and killer instinct lands him a spot in one of the most popular
07:44promotions in the business, Vern Gagne's American Wrestling Association.
07:49We all knew what he was.
07:51He was great.
07:53I'm Greg Gagne.
07:54I wrestled for 18 years in the AWA.
08:01My father was Vern Gagne, a legend in the sport of professional wrestling.
08:05And Adrian came in, and Vern liked him right away, liked his presence in the ring.
08:10And eventually, they teamed him up with Jesse Ventura.
08:15Well, somebody's going to pay for this.
08:18Somebody's going to pay dearly for this.
08:20Ain't that right, Adrian?
08:21Definitely so.
08:22Let me tell you something, Stanley Blackburn.
08:23Jesse was the better talker of the two, but Adrian was not a bad talker.
08:26He was a good talker, and they played off each other really well.
08:29He wore the leather jacket, the New York Yankees insignia, which, you know, in the Midwest,
08:34that's good for being a heel.
08:35You know, the New York biker-type guy going against your Midwest local heroes.
08:39The golden boy, Adrian Adonis.
08:43Seeing him live in the AWA with Greg Gagne and Jim Brunzel and get punched and do these
08:48pirouettes and being whipped into the corner and do that flip that Ric Flair would do and
08:52making little Greg Gagne, you know, thin guy, look like, you know, badass of all badasses.
09:00Taking the drop kicks from Jim Brunzel.
09:02And it was really there where he went from being what I would call a really good wrestler
09:06to being a real star.
09:08His bumps and his reaction and, you know, his facial expression.
09:12And he was sort of that bully on the microphone.
09:16And a couple weeks ago, I heard Ray Stevens and Pat Patterson out here giving us a so-called challenge.
09:21And he could back it up, so he was an exceptional talent.
09:25Jumping Jim Brunzel.
09:28I'm Jim Brunzel, otherwise known as Jumping Jim Brunzel.
09:33And I wrestled for 28 years.
09:36Adrian knew when to get heat, and then he knew when to give the baby face a comeback.
09:41We were so proud of him.
09:43One of our guys was actually making it be a star.
09:46On TV, we're watching one of our friends.
09:49We were up on the west side of Buffalo.
09:51None of us had nothing.
09:53You have no idea the parties we were throwing.
09:57After years of building a name for himself in the AWA and across the country,
10:02Adrian eventually signs with Vince McMahon's WWF.
10:06I got scars on my face.
10:08I've had baseball bats across my shoulder.
10:11By the time I got to the WME in 1984, I was nobody.
10:16I was a little fish in a big pond.
10:18Adrian was a pretty big fish.
10:21And look at confidence just oozing.
10:23He knew everything about everything in the business.
10:26I tried to bond with him and become friends with him.
10:28I can remember going up to Adrian Adonis' room.
10:32Jim Nider called me to come up, and I can remember feeling kind of funny
10:36because I could tell I wasn't welcome.
10:40He doesn't trust being around me.
10:42I'm a promoter's kid. Probably going to tell on him.
10:45And I can remember Jim peeping through the peak hole,
10:48and I could hear Adrian, it's Brett, don't let him in.
10:51And then I could hear Jim go, no, no, he's cool.
10:53He's cool. He's totally cool. Let him in.
10:56I hear the chain come off, and Jim was like, come on in.
11:00Adrian, he's chopping up a bunch of cocaine on a mirror.
11:03You know, he's chopping it all up.
11:06A very telling kind of moment for me because that opened the door for me
11:11to sit in a room with Roddy Piper, Mr. Fuji, Iron Sheik.
11:17For me, it was like sitting under the learning tree.
11:20I know I was doing lines of cocaine with all these guys
11:24until four or five in the morning.
11:26They were all the most creative minds in wrestling at that time.
11:30This is so critical and important for me to be in this room
11:33with these guys listening and learning all these little secrets
11:37about the business, wrestling psychology.
11:40Whoa, yo, wow!
11:42And I never, ever looked back on those days as being wasted time.
11:46Cocaine was about as prevalent as marijuana was in the 60s.
11:51And, I mean, everybody had it.
11:53You meet somebody in the bar, you shake his hand,
11:55and as soon as you shake his hand, he'd squeeze an 8-ball of cocaine
11:59into your hand, and basically it was like a starter kit.
12:02Don't worry, it's on us. They give it to you and tell you,
12:05you know, we'll get you down the road sometime, you know, pay me back.
12:09Adrian went hard every night. Every night.
12:12If you looked up party animal in the dictionary,
12:14there'd be a picture of Adrian Adonis.
12:17The problem with cocaine was how it could turn around
12:21and become a monster in a short time.
12:24And then you're sitting at home watching soap operas
12:26in the middle of the afternoon, and you're going,
12:28it's all, it's all over.
12:32ADRIAN ADONIS
12:36252 pounds, Adrian Adonis!
12:43Joining the WWF roster during its 1980s golden age,
12:47Adrian Adonis seems destined for greatness.
12:50But behind the curtain, the trappings of success begin to take a toll.
12:56There was a lot of wrestlers that were strung out on cocaine.
13:01And we started to realize it wasn't the friendly drug that we all thought.
13:05We first started snorting it.
13:07It's a bad drug that you've got to wean yourself off of and stay away from.
13:13Me and Jim Neidhart, we had the white flag up.
13:15You have nothing left in the tank, like, you can't do any more drugs in late nights.
13:19We kind of stopped kind of partying with everyone,
13:22because it was just too, too much.
13:25They were all cokeheads. Don't let nothing fool you.
13:28They were all partiers.
13:31There wasn't nobody in that business, maybe a few,
13:35you could probably get one out of a hundred who wasn't a partier.
13:38I mean, it was nothing but a party.
13:41They entertained, had a good time, but they partied.
13:46I remember one night, I just had the rest of my beer in it.
13:49I was going to bed, and I heard this knock on the door.
13:52So I opened the door, here's Adrian.
13:55And he says, God damn it, Jimmy, I'm going to kill myself.
13:58Take this bag of cocaine and keep it for me.
14:01I said, okay, you know.
14:03About four and a half hours later, I hear, bam, bam, bam, at the door.
14:07And I thought, what the heck, you know, it's like five in the morning.
14:10So I opened the door, and Adrian's fit to be died.
14:12He says, Brunsey, where's the God damn coke?
14:15He said, you better not have taken any.
14:17And I gave it to him, and out he went.
14:20I just remember thinking, his wife has no idea.
14:23I doubt he ever does stuff like that at home.
14:26When he was with his wife, he was a completely different guy.
14:30Talk about Jekyll and Hyde, I don't know if there's anybody that I know of
14:33that was more of a devoted, loving, family man that loved his wife, loved his kids.
14:38The way he talked to his wife was like, she was like an angel.
14:41I remember he pulled his chair out and slid it back in when she sat down.
14:47Like, he was such a gentleman.
14:49I almost thought it was a put-on at first.
14:51I was 19 when we met.
14:53I knew what I was getting into with him.
14:55I think to have that strong bond with the rest of them, you have to really love each other.
15:00This was his dream, and I wanted it for him.
15:05My name is B. Frankie Hall, and I was married to Adrian Adonis.
15:09Home life, that was different.
15:12He was definitely not the same as you would see in the ring.
15:16No, he was a very gentle, kind, loving, flowers, jewelry, sweet, sweet man.
15:23I would wake up and he'd have breakfast made for me and bring it to me in bed.
15:27They had such a close relationship.
15:29Even though he was gone a lot of the time, he would call several times a day.
15:33She's, you know, always, I remember her talking about the collect phone calls,
15:37the bills would be outrageous.
15:38They just had a really good relationship.
15:40I mean, their personalities meshed well.
15:44I'm Gina Vanta, and Adrian Adonis was my father.
15:47I thought I was the coolest kid ever.
15:49I had a Pee Wee Herman signed poster that he got for me.
15:53I am Angela Preetis, and I am the oldest daughter of Adrian Adonis.
15:57Watching Three Stooges, that was something that he loved to watch.
16:02It was always on when he was home.
16:04In his big bag that he would take on the road, there was always just presents, gifts.
16:09We were going to have fun.
16:11Dad was home.
16:13I think I was a good wife.
16:15He trusted me totally.
16:17I never screwed around.
16:19I never asked questions.
16:21I think we had an awesome relationship.
16:23I cannot get mad at that man.
16:26I cannot.
16:28Despite his stable home life, Adrian's cocaine addiction
16:32causes his in-ring style to become even more vicious,
16:35ultimately damaging his reputation backstage.
16:40He was edgy.
16:42I mean, he was edgy.
16:44He had a temper.
16:45You'll see the sadistic amount of Adrian now.
16:48If I know Adrian, he's going to get real nasty right now.
16:51Coked up Adrian Adonis would be very, very rough on guys,
16:54and if they complained, it's like, well, you're not tough enough for this business.
16:57Get out.
16:58Wow, a lot behind those days.
17:00The thing about all those kind of things is every dog has his day.
17:03There's always going to be somebody that can whip your butt sooner or later.
17:06Uh-oh. Uh-oh. My goodness.
17:08In 1985, Vince McMahon decides that Adrian's character needs a dramatic makeover
17:14from New York City tough guy to something completely different.
17:20You look a whole lot different.
17:22When Vince took over in 84, it was more and more about colorful characters.
17:27It was not as much about tough guys.
17:29You know, everybody had to have a gimmick,
17:31and that Adrian Adonis gimmick he didn't see as a main event gimmick,
17:35a New York tough guy thing.
17:37The leather jacket is going to be retired.
17:41Weighing 281 pounds,
17:45the adorable Adrian Adonis.
17:52Well, there are certain things that defy description.
17:56The idea of the gay character.
17:59That was not super common, but it was absolutely there,
18:03you know, starting with Gorgeous George.
18:05Of course, you know, when something is successful in wrestling,
18:08everybody copies it.
18:10So he went from, yeah, the Adrian Adonis,
18:12the black leather New York tough guy thing,
18:14and then they started doing vignettes
18:16where he was, you know, embracing his other side.
18:19May the Rockettes eat your heart out.
18:23I'll tell you, when he made him dress up with the perfume thing
18:27and is a homosexual,
18:29none of us liked it, but we understood it.
18:33He was too good to be doing what McMahon wanted him to do.
18:37But up there, that's the way he had to survive.
18:40They do not approve, apparently.
18:42If he had to do that, he had to have a gimmick,
18:45he had to be this big, like, Gorgeous George
18:48for Vince to give him any credit.
18:51Do they say when he's out on the town that he's a gay blade?
18:54I don't know. What are we saying here?
18:56I don't know that Adrian liked the idea at first,
18:58but I think he did a quick turnaround.
19:00You know what, I'm going to just prove to you that I can do it,
19:03that I'm not talented,
19:05that I can take something as stupid as that and make it work,
19:09and I'm going to prove that to you.
19:11In May of 1986,
19:13Adrian is set to rustle a relative newcomer to the business.
19:17I was scheduled to work with Adrian
19:19because Adrian was getting ready for a run with Hogan.
19:22Chicken champion Hulk Hogan.
19:24Let me tell you something, Adonis.
19:26So they're getting Adrian people to beat up
19:29and be impressive with.
19:31I was kind of looking forward to it
19:33because Adrian, you know, was one of the main guys.
19:38Hi, everyone. My name is Dan Spivey,
19:40formerly known as Dangerous Dan Spivey.
19:43Spivey looking absolutely fantastic.
19:46I was new into the wrestling business.
19:48I'd probably only been in there a little over a year.
19:50I guess Adrian thought I was just some young guy,
19:53easy, big guy.
19:55I was always quiet, didn't have much to say,
19:57and so I guess he took that as weakness,
19:59and he was wrong.
20:01Pitted against Spivey,
20:03Adrian will learn just how wrong he was
20:06in a match that will change his life forever.
20:09He just exploded.
20:11All of a sudden, he let off and he hit him in the head
20:14with a left hook.
20:16I said, I'm going to kill that son of a bitch.
20:19In the lead-up to his showdown
20:21against world champion Hulk Hogan,
20:24Adrian Adonis is set to wrestle and defeat Dan Spivey,
20:28solidifying his position
20:30as one of the top villains in the company.
20:32Of course, I had in the back of my mind
20:34that he was also a tough guy,
20:36and, you know, I heard that he would take advantage of guys,
20:39so I had mixed feelings about wrestling.
20:42I'm never going to do it again.
20:45I'm calling me a stupid son of a bitch, you know,
20:48and just abusing the shit out of me.
20:51Adrian Adonis wasting no time
20:54and taking advantage of the inexperience of an old boy.
20:58I was pissed after the match,
21:00and I was going to fight him right there,
21:02and Davey Boy and Dynamite and Scott McGee
21:05grabbed my stuff and told me,
21:07I'm going to fight you.
21:09I was going to take a lot of damage.
21:11Davey Boy and Dynamite and Scott McGee grabbed my stuff.
21:14They got us a cab, got me back to the place,
21:17and got me out of the Coliseum.
21:21So, next night, we were in Flint, Michigan.
21:24It was sold out, 10,000 people.
21:26Vince says, you guys are working together.
21:28I said, okay.
21:31Bob Orton and I had heard there was some bad blood,
21:35and it had been building between Adrian and Danny Spivey.
21:39We were hoping that the match would get by.
21:42He was supposed to win.
21:44He beat me with something, I don't remember what it was,
21:46but he was going over, which was expected,
21:49but he started his same shit with me again.
21:53I was on all fours.
21:54He knocked the air out of me,
21:56and then he got me in the sleeper hole,
21:58and he was really cinching down on it,
22:00and I just had enough of it.
22:04I kind of snapped.
22:05I came up swinging and knocked him out.
22:08The referee says, Dan, that's not the finish.
22:10I said, I changed the finish.
22:12He's not going over tonight.
22:16So, Bob and I run into the ring,
22:19because I didn't want, you know, Danny to kill him.
22:22Please, let's go back to the locker room.
22:26Everybody was going crazy right around the dressing room.
22:31I'm still pissed.
22:33And then, all of a sudden, the door opens up.
22:39And Adrian is coming.
22:45He starts talking to Danny,
22:48you know, like he was going to apologize or something,
22:51and then he goes to leg dive Danny.
22:56Spivey, you know, he's a quiet guy.
22:58If you poke a dog a number of times,
23:01he's going to bite your ass.
23:04You can imagine a guy, 6'7", you know, 280 pounds,
23:08throwing a punch from down by his knee, an uppercut.
23:13Lifted Adrian up in the air,
23:15and Adrian came down like a walrus.
23:18Boom!
23:19And he just rolled his eyes back,
23:22and you could see his cheekbone.
23:24The white part of the bone was sticking through the skin.
23:28They called an ambulance, and they took him to the hospital,
23:31and nobody saw Adrian again for, it had to be a couple weeks.
23:35I wished it would have been different,
23:37but I had to protect myself and protect my reputation.
23:42Anyway, I got fired about a month later.
23:45Let go.
23:47I kind of felt bad for him.
23:49I had a sting getting his ass whipped in front of everybody.
23:52All the wrestlers that watched him.
23:54When you're a guy that everybody fears and that happens to you,
23:57you kind of lose a little bit of face,
23:59and I don't want to say respect,
24:01but you kind of lose something when that happens, yeah.
24:06And it was horrible for Adrian
24:08because I don't think he ever really recovered from that.
24:14Humiliated after the confrontation with Spivey,
24:17Adrian spirals further into his cocaine addiction.
24:22Adrian was starting to show a lot of decline,
24:25and he was getting heavier,
24:27and he wasn't moving like he used to,
24:29and he wasn't the guy he used to be,
24:32and I think he knew that.
24:34The trouble with substance abuse is
24:37when you do find time to eat,
24:40you gorge yourself, and then you fall asleep.
24:43So you're eating tons of calories,
24:46and it's got no place to go except as tissue on your body.
24:52He told me,
24:53Damn, I'm reaching 300.
24:56I didn't see that.
24:58Maybe because I was his wife.
25:00I did not see that.
25:01I just saw him.
25:03He didn't know how to stop.
25:04I don't think he knew how to change it
25:06without changing his whole life.
25:10In May of 1987,
25:12Adrian suddenly leaves the WWF.
25:17Though the reasons are unclear,
25:19rumors backstage suggest he was fired for substance abuse.
25:25I just know that Adrian suddenly disappeared
25:27where he wasn't on the cards anymore.
25:30I think guys like me just assume he'll be back in a few weeks.
25:35I thought for a second he may have had enough.
25:37The next time we saw Adrian, he's 400 pounds.
25:39Him and I wrestled in Las Vegas.
25:41We thought this would be a great match.
25:43And a twist.
25:44We were doing an international television champion.
25:47I think Adonis is just too big
25:50for the frame of Greg Gagnon.
25:52And we got in the ring.
25:54He was breathing so hard,
25:55we barely made 10 minutes.
25:57Horton is trying to drag Adonis back to the ring.
26:02We sat down in the locker room and we just talked.
26:05And I told him, I said,
26:07Jesus, Adrian, what have you done?
26:08God Almighty, once you get back to your regular weight,
26:12you're one of the great performers of all time.
26:14This isn't you.
26:16And you know from our philosophy,
26:18be yourself, be who you are.
26:22And maybe that night woke him up a little bit.
26:24Still only 34 years old,
26:27Adrian commits to getting back in shape,
26:29losing nearly 100 pounds over the next six months.
26:33Ditching the adorable one persona,
26:35he sets his sights on competing in Japan.
26:41Life was great.
26:42Everything was great.
26:45Just a happy family.
26:47It was over happy.
26:50I saw him in Tokyo.
26:52I ran across him at a popular place for the American guys,
26:56Gaijin Steakhouse.
26:58I saw him there.
26:59I had a beer with him, shook hands,
27:01and you know, sorry things happened the way it did.
27:05You know, so we had a beer.
27:10Yeah, pretty much.
27:12I remember having dinner with him and Bea.
27:14He really did seem like he was getting his life together again,
27:18getting ready for a big comeback.
27:21He was at that age where he could still turn things around,
27:24reinvent himself and come back.
27:26And I don't think anyone ever thought,
27:28oh, that's the last we'll hear of Adrian Adonis.
27:32The last time I saw Keith was in L.A. in a hotel room.
27:36He had flew in from Japan.
27:38I met him that night.
27:41That morning he was to fly out to Canada.
27:47He came back to the room to tell me goodbye a second time.
27:50He had never done that.
27:55That was our last goodbye, the last time I saw him alive.
28:10Leaving his wife in Los Angeles, Adrian departs for Canada,
28:14where his fate will intersect with a pair of veteran wrestlers
28:17known as the Kelly Twins.
28:20I was the only survivor at that time.
28:25Quite a tragedy.
28:27Adrian Adonis, he was a tough boy,
28:30and he loved being in the ring.
28:34He was a good boy.
28:36My name's Mike Kelly, and I've been a professional wrestler
28:39for 23 1⁄2 years with my twin brother, Pat.
28:43People have probably known me from the O. Henry commercial.
28:47When you consider how big it is.
28:49Back years ago, that big chunk of fudge.
28:52It's that big chunk of fudge.
28:57The Kelly Twins were veteran wrestlers that I remember from the 60s.
29:00They worked for my dad.
29:02Identical twins. You couldn't tell which one you were talking to.
29:05This is when we were in Japan,
29:07a bunch of us sitting around a sushi bar,
29:10drinking and eating.
29:12I think this was in Tokyo.
29:14AXA Higgins.
29:17I think my brother fell in love that night.
29:21Yes.
29:22We were inseparable.
29:24We enjoyed being together, doing things together.
29:27My mother always dressed us the same.
29:30If Pat had a black coat on, I'd wear a black coat.
29:34If he had brown shoes, I would wear brown shoes.
29:37We had identical diamond rings.
29:40Identical watches.
29:42Identical hats.
29:44We lived our life as twins.
29:46He got hurt one time, and I wasn't there,
29:49and I knew something was wrong.
29:51I says, my brother's hurt.
29:53I could feel it.
29:55We had that special bond, which was good for us.
29:59So how did you get the call to do the Newfoundland tour?
30:02We were working around Toronto.
30:05Dave McKigney, the promoter, he had called
30:08and asked us if we wanted to come down to Newfoundland.
30:12I says, yeah, we'll come down and wrestle for you.
30:16So we packed up our van and drove down with my brother and I.
30:22Adrian Adonis come in from Japan.
30:26The main event was Adrian Adonis with the Bear Man
30:30against my brother and I.
30:33Dave McKigney was a journeyman wrestler who promoted shows,
30:38and his gimmick was that he had a bunch of bears living at his house
30:41that he trained to wrestle.
30:43So that's where he got the name the Bear Man.
30:45Dave was a complete old-school guy.
30:48He was a good person and a good promoter
30:51and one of the best payoffs in the world.
30:54He was a good promoter and one of the best payoff men ever.
30:59My name is Ricky Soulman Johnson.
31:02I borrowed the name from my brother, Rocky Johnson, actually,
31:05because we were partners for a long time and he passed away,
31:09so I decided to honor him by using his nickname.
31:16Bear Man's tours were almost like a traveling circus.
31:19They had f***ing gadgets, bears.
31:22It was something for everyone.
31:25Dave, the Bear Man, he owned the wrestling bear, Terrible Ted.
31:29It's kind of a rib when the promoter tells you,
31:31you're wrestling the wrestling bear tonight.
31:33It's like, really? Are you kidding me?
31:39I wouldn't get near the bear.
31:41A bear has so much strength, you know,
31:44it could tear you apart in less than half a minute.
31:47Actually, there was an incident with Bear Man's girlfriend.
31:51Apparently, she was upstairs taking a shower
31:54and the bear had sensed it and Bear Man was working in the garden.
32:00And the bear actually came up into the bathroom
32:08and clawed her to death.
32:12The bear had tore her to pieces.
32:16It was a tragedy when I heard it.
32:19I just couldn't believe it.
32:23He was supposed to marry the show lady.
32:26Despite this tragedy, McKigney continues to work with bears on his next tour.
32:32An eight-week trek across Newfoundland with a troop of wrestlers
32:35that includes the Kelly Twins, Ricky Johnson and Adrian Adonis.
32:40It was great. Everybody was happy.
32:42Everybody was making money.
32:44And the people in Newfoundland were so very nice to us.
32:49We were in Gander, Newfoundland.
32:51The next night, we had to wrestle in Lewisport, Newfoundland.
32:55The mayor of Lewisport owned the hotel in Gander.
32:59Holiday Inn. It's hard to talk about.
33:05And he asked would any of the wrestlers come to Lewisport that night that we were off.
33:11Because he'd like to throw a party for us.
33:15July 4th, 1988, he had called me three times.
33:20And the last phone call he had made to me said,
33:22I'm getting ready to get on a ferry. I just want to tell you I love you.
33:26And he just said, call me later, honey, call me later.
33:30Adrian got in Pat's van.
33:32The Canadian wild man, he got in the van with the Kellys.
33:35And I was just getting ready to climb in and film Lewisport.
33:38He said, why don't you come with me?
33:40So I said, sure, that's cool.
33:42Adrian, the wild man, and the Kelly twins were 10, 15 minutes ahead of us, I guess.
33:48Me and Phil, Whipper Watson Jr. and Little T were just riding down the road, having a few laughs.
33:55Everything was all backed up and going like two miles an hour.
33:58So I said to Phil, must have been an accident.
34:02Traffic like this in Newfoundland, you know.
34:05Then I looked over into the water and I seen a red van in the water.
34:10It's an image that will never leave my mind.
34:21We were traveling to Lewisport, Newfoundland, so we could advertise and talk about wrestling.
34:26And there was a guy there with a camera. He was going to take some pictures of us.
34:31My brother and I, Adrian and the Bear Man.
34:35It was about 8 o'clock at night. It was as broad daylight as it is at noon.
34:40Pure daylight, I couldn't believe it. It was amazing. It freaked me right out.
34:45It looks like a desert out there, actually.
34:48We had to go around these big rocks. We just barely got through with our van.
34:53We were going down the highway and I saw a little bear cub.
34:56My brother, the reflection of the sun, caught the side of his eye and he had swerved to the left
35:03where the grass was, the van, and got down in a little gully and hit this huge rock dead on.
35:19And I fainted. And I woke up and I felt this water. It was ice cold.
35:25I just wondered what had happened. Like, why am I in this stream?
35:30Then finally, I saw my brother behind the wheel slouched on the steering wheel.
35:38He had passed away. I could tell right away. Yeah, it was horrifying.
35:49And, uh...
35:53Give me a minute, please.
36:00I seen the van in the water and I said, that looks like the Kelly's van.
36:06And I knew it well. I went down there with him in it, so...
36:10Adrian Adonis was in bad shape. He was in real bad shape.
36:18The bear man died instantly.
36:21Adrian, he was moaning, help me, help me, help me.
36:24I remember Adrian's elbow, all you could see was the bones sticking out of it.
36:29I remember thinking that we got to save them, but there was no saving them.
36:41It was Fourth of July, so, you know, we were celebrating with all my cousins in Bakersfield.
36:45And I do remember we had just like a little get-together.
36:48I have a cousin that's scared to death of fireworks, so my other cousin went in to check,
36:53answered the phone, they asked for Miss Frankie.
36:55But I just remember she came out screaming out of the house, he was passed, he was dead.
37:01They said, Keith has been killed. He was killed in an auto accident.
37:07I said, put Dave on the phone, Dave McKinney. They said, he's dead.
37:11I said, put one of the Kelly twins on. I don't know, you put someone on.
37:18And then the RCMP called me that night.
37:21And he was, she was gone.
37:25The first few days after his passing, I was still in shock.
37:29I did not want to believe it.
37:31Dead is former WWF star, adorable Adrian Adonis.
37:35Also killed was Pat Kelly on the left.
37:38His twin brother, Mike, on the right, was the only survivor of the crash.
37:42Your brother was your best friend?
37:43Oh yes, yes. We were half an hour apart and he was, he was very close to me.
37:49Where he went, I followed behind. Where I went, he followed behind.
37:54We were inseparable.
37:56The whole world changed, yeah.
37:58In more ways than one, because a couple of road guys that worked for Dave McKinney, the bear man,
38:05they jumped in the water also.
38:08And they robbed Adrian.
38:11They took his money, watch, whatever he, whatever valuables he had.
38:17They were arrested. Yes, I didn't want to press charges.
38:22Just to the fact that what, why, why rob a dead man?
38:31So, yeah, we went to a motel in Lewisport.
38:35We went to the bar.
38:37Some of the guys, just to relax, they wanted to shoot pool.
38:41They only had a couple of drinks.
38:43At somebody, it said, they're all f***ing dead.
38:47Like, it just hit them.
38:50Next thing I know, I just seen stuff flying and glasses were flying.
38:56Then all hell just broke loose.
39:02I remember seeing the manager of the motel.
39:04He was just standing off to the side against the wall with a pen and paper.
39:08He gave us a bill to the exporter.
39:10It was a bill to the exporter. I think it was 12,000 bucks for the damage.
39:15The next day, we drove by the scene of the accident.
39:19Some guys were praying, some were crying.
39:21And the CBC came.
39:24And they wanted to know if booze was involved and stuff.
39:27We told them to f*** off.
39:29Get away from us.
39:31Don't you realize what happened here?
39:40Though it's never been proven,
39:42some have suggested that the accident that killed wrestlers Adrian Adonis,
39:46Dave McKigney, and Pat Kelly resulted from drinking and driving.
39:51I don't like to think, keep dying like that.
39:54They probably were coming from a wrestling match party and having a good time.
39:58No, no drugs, no alcohol.
40:01The doctors had checked all that on me and there was no...
40:07And nobody was drinking in the room?
40:09Definitely not. No, definitely not.
40:13I keep a photo of him in my wallet at all times.
40:19I have photos of him in my bedroom.
40:25Yeah, he was my life.
40:31But...
40:34Things have to go on.
40:37By the grace of God, it could be you.
40:39Because you never know. We were on the road every night.
40:41Guys were drinking a 12-pack of beer, smoking joints and snorting coke
40:45and driving 100 miles an hour.
40:48And nobody got killed.
40:51Here's a guy doing the right thing
40:53and he ends up dying in a tragic accident.
40:56When all of us guys are out here doing the wrong shit,
40:59and we're still alive,
41:01how does that balance out?
41:03I guess God was right. The good die young.
41:07And Keith was one of the best.
41:10He was one of my closest friends, even though we were miles apart.
41:16I was in a federal prison in Texas.
41:18When he died, I was in custody, so I wasn't able to go to the funeral.
41:26I remember B telling me that he was so big that nothing could ever hurt him.
41:31I remember thinking the same thing, like he was indestructible.
41:35The whole funeral was blurred.
41:38It really didn't hit me until later.
41:42I went back to home while he was in Japan.
41:46And this closet in this new home had his jacket with the New York emblem.
41:54That was the only thing in that closet. I don't know who put it there.
41:58I could just smell him.
42:02Everything came flooding back, and that's when it really hit me.
42:11I took that damn jacket and I went to bed.
42:16And that was the finality of it.
42:21He was never coming home. Ever.
42:25Ever.
42:30I think your brother would be pretty proud of the man you turned out to be.
42:34Yes, he sure would.
42:36You gotta stay strong.
42:38And that's the way I've lived my life after my brother had passed.
42:43And I'll just keep going.
42:48We'll do the best we can. That's all we can do.
42:55Adrian Adonis was a very, very talented guy.
42:59And I don't think he ever got the due for his talent that he should have.
43:04Just because it was not an era where people really recognized that.
43:09Like if a guy with the talent of Adrian Adonis was around today,
43:12everybody would know how good he is, and he would be a big, big star.
43:16World Wrestling Federation Tag Team Champion, Adrian Adonis!
43:22He should be honored. He should be in the Hall of Fame.
43:25He's a Hall of Famer. Without a doubt.
43:30I think that if Adrian hadn't been in that accident,
43:34I don't think it's impossible to think that five years later,
43:39he'd be in WrestleMania, Fred Hart versus Adrian Adonis.
43:43Like, who knows?
43:45I would want him to know how much I appreciate all the little bits of advice
43:49and encouragement that he gave me all through my career.
43:52And just the friendship that I had.
43:55I learned so much from him, and I never take it for granted.
43:59I would have given anything to have an Adrian Adonis waiting for me in the ring.
44:05He was the real deal.