Steve Austin, Superkicks, and Substances: The Chris Adams Story

Griffin Kaye

Today, Chris Adams is known as the pioneer of the superkick and trainer of Steve Austin but he is also notorious for his own personal demons. A talented in-ring worker, behind the scenes, he had a turbulent life, being described by a close friend as “the closest thing to Jekyll and Hyde I’d ever met.”  

Early Life 

Christopher Adams was born on February 10th 1955. Although born in Rugby in Warwickshire, he was commonly billed from the more famous town of Stratford-upon-Avon (birthplace of William Shakespeare), an hour’s drive away. 

A sporty child, he took up judo from a young age. Although a top-level performer, his own success in the sport was eclipsed by younger brother Neil, who was the first British male World Champion and a silver medallist in the 1980 and 1984 Olympic Games. 

In 1978, after 14 years of being a pro judoka, he turned to professional wrestling. In the documentary Gentleman’s Choice, he remarked: “I really consider it my background, my nucleus, and the basis for everything I have done athletically.” 

His parents, Cyril and Jean, have stated that the decision came out of the blue, especially since he was a trained architect and at the time working for local government. 

Within a couple of years, he was working in the top venues in Britain from the Royal Albert Hall to Wembley Arena. A featured star on World of Sport, which had viewership figures as high as 10 million, he shared the ring with top names such as Big Daddy, Mick McManus, and Mark “Rollerball” Rocco. 

In 1981, he won the WWF Light Heavyweight championship. At the time, the belt was not recognised by the company but rather Mexican Promotion Universal Wrestling Association.  

Adams would ultimately never make it to the WWF although friend and manager Gary Hart recalled that he sent pictures to the promotion, hoping to get a Beatles gimmick due to his physical similarities to Paul McCartney. 

World Class Championship Wrestling 

In 1983, Adams was invited to Texas, by World Class Championship Wrestling owner Fritz Von Erich. 

Adams debuted in WCCW as the British pen pal of Kevin Von Erich. The Von Erichs were the standout stars of the territory and Adams started to match the family in popularity with the fans. 

His superkick finisher also made him one of the most exciting and beloved wrestlers on the roster. 

After helping the Von Erichs to fight off The Fabulous Freebirds, Adams feuded with Jimmy Garvin. In one match, he disguised himself as a masked enhancement talent to score a victory over Garvin, later taking his NWA American Heavyweight title belt at January 1984’s Star Wars event. He would defeat him yet again in a Loser Leaves Town affair. 

The Most Hated Man in Texas 

Not long after, Adams took on Gary Hart as his new manager. Hart said of Adams, “he had everything that you would want in a main event wrestler. I mean there are guys that are good and there are guys that are great. Chris, he was truly one of the great ones.” 

Adams cemented his new attitude by attacking tag partner Kevin after a loss. Von Erich punched Hart, prompting Adams to hit him with a superkick before allowing heels Jake Roberts and Gino Hernandez to maul the helpless Texan. 

In a famous angle at the Cotton Bowl Extravaganza in 1984, Adams smashed his old partner with a chair shot from behind. Leaving Kevin bleeding buckets, the smash had caused a legitimate concussion, ruling him out of the main event match in which he, Hernandez, and Roberts beat The Von Erichs for their six-man tag title belts. 

At Thanksgiving’s Star Wars event in November, Adams defeated Kerry although little was settled after Kevin got retribution by bloodying “Gentleman” Chris. On Christmas Day, Kevin pinned Adams in a lumberjack match to get a further measure of revenge. 

The Dynamic Duo  

Throughout 1986, the feud between Adams and The Von Erichs rolled on. 

Collectively, Adams and Hernandez became known as The Dynamic Duo, a name previously used by Hernandez and Tully Blanchard. In suits and sunglasses, the cocky duo would walk out to “Bad To The Bone”, drive fast cars, and humiliate their fallen opponents by cutting their hair. 

In May 1986 in front of 50,000 fans, The Dynamic Duo destroyed a car won by The Von Erichs. In October at the Cotton Bowl, Kevin and brother Kerry defeated Hernandez and Adams in a hair versus hair match, subsequently shaving the two bald. 

After trading the tag belts with The Von Erichs, The Duo entered 1986 as champions but relations soon soured. 

In January, the two fought each other in a hair versus hair encounter, ending in disqualification when Hernandez blinded Adams with Freebird Hair Removal cream. 

The angle was heating up and shaping to be a major featured feud. However, the sudden death of Gino Hernandez in February 1986 put rest to those plans. 

The blindness angle came under fire, however. Former commentator Bill Mercer explained in The Triumph and Tragedy of World Class Championship Wrestling how he felt the angle crossed the line whilst the Wrestling Observer ranked its comparison with Gino Hernandez’s real-life death as 1986’s Most Disgusting Promotional Tactic. 

Incidentally, upon a return to the UK, Scotland Yard allegedly brought Chris in for questioning over Gino’s death, showing the intensity of the angle. 

Whilst still blind to WCCW audiences, Adams worked throughout March in New Japan Pro Wrestling, often in tag matches, wrestling the likes of Antonio Inoki and Tatsumi Fujinami. 

World Champion 

Now a babyface in the aftermath of his break-up with Hernandez, Adams returned to WCCW and soon became WCWA World Heavyweight champion. 

Due to a dispute between WCCW and the NWA, in early 1986, the promotion exited the organisation and recognised their own world titleholder, WCWA champion Rick Rude. 

After winning a number one contender’s battle royal, on Independence Day Adams defeated Rick Rude for the belt in a moment some regard as the greatest of his career. 

However, by September, he would have to give up the belt due to his out-of-ring exploits. WCCW announced that at a Los Angeles event, Adams lost the belt to Black Bart although the details of such match were entirely fictitious. 

Another Plane Ride From Hell 

The incident causing Adams’s title loss took place during a return flight from an overseas excursion to Puerto Rico. 

Due to an engine error, the plane was grounded for several hours. During the wait, the flight crew had an open bar for the customers. Adams, who was reportedly not wrestling as the other wrestlers, generously helped himself to a great quantity of booze. 

Eventually, the bar was shut, much to Adams’s enragement. Adams unleashed upon the American Airlines stewardess a torrent of profanity-laden comments, reportedly telling her “I make 25 times the money you do, and no one like you is going to tell me what to do!” 

With Adams boisterous and the scene rowdier, the co-pilot came to reaffirm the decision to stop serving drinks, leading the intoxicated Englishman to headbutt him three times, knocking him unconscious. 

It was not the first red flag for Adams. In Israel, he had previously “stomped a desk clerk’s face in”, leading him to need craniofacial reconstructive surgery according to Kevin Von Erich. Another famous story is that he superkicked a bartender, knocking the poor man’s eyeball out.

For his role in incapacitating the co-pilot mid-flight, he was sentenced to 90-days behind bars. 

In 1989, Chris Adams was arrested for domestic violence in Lufkin, Texas. During a drunken rage, he had assaulted his wife Toni. Adams would be sentenced for one year’s probation for the beating. 

In the early 90s, he was put on probation again, this time for two DUI (driving under the influence) charges. 

Training Steve Austin 

Upon release from prison in 1987 for the plane incident, he wrestled in the UWF, where he teamed with Terry Taylor and had a bout Mick Foley called “the highlight of my career until that point.” 

Despite never formally training to wrestle, Adams opened a wrestling school in 1989. 

At the time, Steve Williams – the man later known as Steve Austin – was working 40 hours a week at a loading dock for Watkins. After seeing Adams’s wrestling school advertised, he paid $45 for the first seminar, noting in his book The Stone Cold Truth that he had “nothing to lose but a little time and forty-five dollars.” He later paid $1,500 for the whole course.  

In 1990, the duo would have a big feud in the United States Wrestling Association (USWA), which was Jerry Lawler’s Memphis territory. In a student versus teacher feud, a personal touch was added by Jeanie Clarke, Adam’s old partner, now in a relationship with Austin.  

The two would most memorably have a steel cage match in September 1990. 

This rivalry helped him be crowned the Rookie of the Year by both Pro Wrestling Illustrated and Wrestling Observer Newsletter. 

Legitimately Adams’s ex-girlfriend, Clarke would go on to manage Austin in WCW as Lady Blossom. The two married in 1992 with Clarke credited with creating Austin’s famous “Stone Cold” moniker. 

Despite being his breakthrough showcase, Austin has been less than complimentary of Adams, as demonstrated in his autobiography. 

WCW Run 

From the late 1980s to the late 1990s can be characterised as Adams’s wilderness years. Working for various minor companies, he failed to leave much of a commercial mark on the industry. 

However, in 1997, he rocked up in WCW, who were firing on all cylinders at the peak of their popularity. 

It was not his first appearance as in 1990, he had a one-off showing in Starrcade 1990’s international tag tournament. 

Adams was supposed to become a fully-fledged member of The Blue Bloods but had heat with William Regal and elsewhere got into a shouting match with Dave Taylor over Adams’s no-selling. 

His biggest moment was in January 1998 on the very first edition of WCW Thunder. He was tasked with the opening match, in which he wrestled Randy Savage. What seemed a run-of-the-mill squash match instead saw Adams pin the “Macho Man” after interference by Lex Luger.  

WCW President JJ Dillon later overturned the result. 

From there on, Adams became a fixture on B- and C-show programming. He would beat the likes of Buddy Lee Parker, Brad Armstrong, and The Renegade on the minor shows but only appear on Nitro to lose quickly to the top stars. 

In his final WCW match, televised in December 1999, he lost to Dean Malenko. 

Overdose & Linda’s Death 

In 2000, Chris Adams started a relationship with Linda Kaphengst, an insurance office secretary. After just four months, tragedy struck. 

Both were found unconscious after having mixed the drug GHB with alcohol. 

Although Adams pulled through, Linda did not.  

Reportedly, Adams was supposed to meet Linda’s family the next day. In the event, he met them at the hospital where her own family were forced to pull the life support on their own daughter. She was just 30. 

Afterwards, Adams’s life had spiralled further, including threatening a person on tape and attempting to hire a hitman to silence those suspicious of Linda’s death. 

He was hospitalised for depression and underwent counselling. 

A year later, Adams was indicted on charges of manslaughter as in Texas law, an individual can be convicted of manslaughter for recklessly causing a death. 

If found guilty, he could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison. Released on a $25,000 bond, Adams would not live to see his trial make it to court.  

The “Gentleman” Dies 

In October 2001, the 46-year-old Adams was murdered, shot dead by his best friend.  

On October 7th, he was at the house of William Brent Parnell, known by the nickname “Booray”. “Booray” had been Adams’s best man at his wedding. 

During the night, the final tape they watched was Frankie and Jesse, with one friend observing how Adams adored Doc Holliday: a gambler, alcoholic, and womaniser. 

Drinking heavily, Adams’s demeanour turned violent as he broke off a piece of the bedframe and began beating Parnell with it. 

Fearing for his life, he grabbed a .38-caliber handgun from his bedside table and shot Adams in the chest. 

Distressed, he called the police immediately and was arrested although later acquitted of any charges due to being in self-defense.  

As one commentator put it: “Chris used Booray as a chauffeur, as a confidant, and in the end the angel of death.” 

It is thought Adams owed the IRS $50,000 and a similar amount to ex Toni. 

Reaction 

The reaction from the wrestling world was not one of sorrow and grief. 

Trainee Steve Austin wrote: “I didn’t comment when Chris died and The Dallas Morning News called me. I wasn’t going to run him down in the paper because the guy was dead, but I didn’t think a whole lot of him.”  

Jim Ross was slightly more blunt: “Chris Adams, may he rest in peace, was a con man, pure and simple. He abused women, had a bad temper, and generally was not a very good person.” 

Just months before his death, Adams lamented “I thought [my success] would never end. I lost it all through divorces, ignorance, and mistakes.” 

As close friend Gary Hart reflected: “He was one of the greatest people, a true dear friend, but something about when he starts to drink…bad things happen.”