Keith "Adorable Adrian Adonis" Franke

20 years ago today three of the wrestling
worlds brothers were taken away from us
in a automobile accident in Newfoundland
claimed the lives of Adrian Adonis,
Dave "Canadian Wildman" McKigney and Pat Kelly.
All three men where internationally renown
wrestlers but one of them sticks out for me
as one of this businesses greatest performers
of all time.

It has been 20 years since I have seen a
new Adrian Adonis match. Adrian was in my
eyes one of the best workers in the business.
My interest in Adrian came from his AWA days
with Jesse The Body and there run as
the East West Connection.

It wasn't so much the actual team aspect
that they had, but Adrian's ability to
throw himself around with easy for
everyone that he worked with..

It is hard to explain why I liked him,
he had what I thought every heal should have.
The ability to bump, cheat when it is necessary,
and to take his temper to a level that
no one today can.

He was always fired up, and he never
backed down. Adrian was a prototype
of what today's heals want to be.
He was what I believe allot of heals
today cannot be. He got heat! Hot Hot heat,
and his last run in WWF/WWE Wrestlemania III
build up was far from what Adrian could
actually do.

I don't know and do not assume to know
why he was portrayed as a Homosexual,
cross dressing hermaphrodite in WWF.
But his WWF look, and his ability
far out weight his last run on the
national stage.

I remember a match between
The East West Connection and the
Road Warriors the Legion of Doom in a
live shot in Minneapolis at the Civic Center.
In the beginning of the match Ventura
takes a powder to the outside of the ring to
leave Adrian to do all the work.
Quickly it looks as if the odds
are against The East West Connection
to retain the AWA Tag Team titles.

Now, The Road Warriors where not
really my favorite tag teams, I was
more of British Bulldogs fan.
But Adrian was able to take all the
bumps and get so much heat that when
The East West Connection were ultimately
disqualified and able to retain the titles,
the fans went absolutely nuts.

The fans stand and are calling for
heads to roll in the Civic Centre
and Adonis and Jesse are escorted from
the ring by dozens of security personnel.

As a fan, I felt the Road Warriors
were cheated. But I also felt that
Adrian took everything that the Road Warriors
where able to dish out and in my
mind I thought "How can they beat that team?
Adrian just had his ass handed to him
and still walked away with the belts.
Now that is one tough mother".

Now, we didn't have the resources then
that we do now. I am able to watch
Adrian's matches over and over again,
and I am able to get my fill. But
you have to know that in my eyes
all of the heals that are around
today are nothing but a silhouette
of the Great Adrian Adonis. A great
talker, can take bumps, and work his
ass off to make everyone else around him
look good.

In life there are always ups and downs. Adrian
was working to get back into shape, and have
another run with WWF at the time. What would
have been in store for Adrian? Would he have
sky rocketed to the top with the right gimmick?
I think that if they would have let "Adrian be Adrian"
we would have seen a totally different man in the WWF.

I miss wrestlers like Adrian. Taking his
opponent and making him look like a million bucks.
It is a lost craft that I hope returns very soon.

So lets take a moment, and slow down,
look back to all the wrestlers like Adrian
that helped set a trend. I believe deep down
that Adrian would have been one of the
all time greats with the majority of the fans
and not just my mind if he would have made a
WWF return.

Rest in peace Kieth.

There is a great link to Slam Wrestling posted here,
that tells the story about all the members of the accident
that night in Newfoundland.

http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Wrestling/2008/07/04/6068001.html