What about wrestling here?
I find the wrestling here is...
a lot rougher.
You know, kicking, punching.
A lot more, I guess you call it 'dirtiness'. Yeah.
Adams with that superkick,
that caught him, that's his move.
[narrator] A judo champion who came to America
with the dream of becoming a star
of the squared circle,
Chris Adams captured lightning in a bottle.
The stardom that Chris Adams got at
World Class Championship Wrestling,
'cause you gotta realize on that level
that Chris Adams was here,
you were a big star everywhere.
The gentleman from England, Chris Adams.
Chris was the perfect gentleman over there.
With his athleticism, determination, and charm,
Chris had all the tools to become a megastar.
My dad, in Dallas, was an A-list celebrity
that it was impossible to go anywhere.
He had this thing with Steve Austin
where he trained Steve.
Steve was gonna make it in wrestling.
But behind the curtain, Chris' most challenging
opponent was himself.
Life got in his way a lot of times.
Sometimes Chris probably got in his own way.
When he'd get a drink, man,
Chris just turned into a different person, man.
He didn't give a damn about nobody or nothing.
Basically looking for you to say something that upsets him.
He was definitely a Jekyll and Hyde.
From Jekyll to Hyde.
I'm telling ya, it was Jekyll and Hyde.
Alcohol brought out
something that destroyed him.
One man with two personalities on a
downward spiral that can only end one way.
Chris got drunk, got belligerent...
he just started beating the hell out of him.
There was a gun.
We were friends.
I was best man at his wedding.
It was a bad situation...
it was a nightmare.
♪
Well you get at 233lbs from England,
welcome, Chris Adams!
[Cheering]
Okay, so these were in a storage unit
that my dad had, and this is just an example.
I know, I keep everything.
It was hard, it's still hard. I still miss him, you know,
I still think about my dad every day.
I'm Jade Adams, daughter of 'Gentleman' Chris Adams.
When he was traveling, he would always write me notes,
letters, always send me a birthday card...
pour his heart out in it.
"Dear Jade. Wow, how time flies.
I miss you so much, munchkin.
Yep, you're still my munchkin,
even though you're nearly 14 and
a beautiful young woman already.
It seems that I have always been struggling trying to
make it, and that before you knew it,
half of my life is over, and I've missed
out on so much.
I really want to see you more often,
family is so important. I feel so guilty now.
I think of all the things I have done in the past that
have hurt people and often grieve about them every day.
Anyway, I thought it was time that
I told you my true feelings,
and I hope that you will be able to forgive me.
Love, Daddy."
He didn't want these demons as much as none of us
wanted them for him, I just think they ended up
kind of catching up to him.
But he was a great person,
and a loving person, and, you know,
he's not here to defend himself,
so I want to do that for him.
Long before anyone could imagine that his story
would end in tragedy,
Chris Adams was a spectacular performer
who seemed destined for greatness.
The American heavyweight champion,
The 'Gentleman' from England, Chris Adams.
[Cheering]
I knew Chris Adams very well.
He wanted to be the best he could be,
and I had to admire that about him.
I'm Kevin Von Erich.
I've been in the wrestling business for
longer than I can count.
Chris was one of the toughest guys I've ever known.
He was really a master.
He knew what he was doing in the ring.
Chris had a special finishing move,
it was a 'superkick' and he kicked like a horse.
A superkick!
And Kevin Von Erich is on the floor.
He invented his finishing move 'cause when we discussed
the match, and how to get him over when he got here,
he said, "Well, my finish is a superkick,
you'll know it when you see it."
[Impact]
When he threw the superkick for the finish,
we were like, "Woah"!
Hi, my name is David Manning, and I was a promoter,
a booker and a referee for
World Class Championship Wrestling.
The last thing I do, I'm gonna take...
That costs $500! $500! You don't get in my face.
I'm the referee here. Get out!
When Chris did the superkick, as he would kick he would
also had a way where you really couldn't see it,
but he would slap his leg, and it literally sounded like
he just tore the opponent's head off.
And it came back with it...
Oh! The superkick!
A tremendous superkick by Chris Adams!
That was it.
From there on, he was just climbing
the mountain here at World Class.
When Chris Adams come here from England, you know,
he had them colours from over there in England
and shit, man. Oh, they loved him.
Oh yeah. For sure.
I tell you what the situation is, brother.
Chris Adams then went goofy.
I'm Iceman, and I used to wrestle with Chris Adams.
[Cheering]
Chris didn't give a damn. He was just tough, man.
That dude brought the superkick, man,
was unbelievable.
[Audience shouting & screaming]
Now there's a superkick.
And he could do anything in that ring.
He was a performer.
I knew his brother had won judo in the Olympics.
My brother and I, we were both introduced into judo,
very early age, and it was very much our life.
I'm Neil Adams, Chris' younger brother,
two times Olympic silver medalist in judo.
Chris was a great fighter.
Whatever he did, he wanted to be the best, you know,
and I think he got to a stage where he knew he couldn't go
all the way to Olympics and world championships and so
he kind of changed direction.
World of Sport Wrestling, which was the
British Wrestling group, they approached him and
that's how it started.
Well, of course, it was 'Big Daddy',
'Giant Haystacks', Mick McManus,
and then 'Blackbelt' Chris Adams
came into the fold.
We ask you to welcome back, very popular young star,
'Blackbelt' Chris Adams!
[Cheering]
His good looks helped, but also he was a showman,
and he could charm anybody. [Laughing]
He could, he could really turn it on.
I was 19, and my friend and I was at the bar,
and he just walked straight up to me
and said, "My name is Chris Adams."
My name is Jeanie Clarke.
I was the girlfriend of Chris Adams.
I thought, a very good looking guy,
had really cute dimples. I said to my friend,
"He looks a little bit like Paul McCartney."
And gave me his phone number.
I think I'd moved in with him within a month.
Eager to glamorize and elevate his TV image,
Chris recruits Jeanie to join his act.
He came up with an idea that I would be his second.
I was the girl that would come in between the rounds,
and as in boxing.
I don't think that it had been done in wrestling before.
I did think he may make a good star,
but only up to a certain degree.
[Cheering]
Though his fame in England is growing,
Chris knows it has a ceiling.
Instead of staying frustrated,
he and Jeanie pack their bags for the City of Angels.
After arriving in Los Angeles,
about two or three months later,
I became pregnant.
I loved it, and I remember sunbathing a lot.
Chris and I just sitting on the beach,
just enjoying the sunshine.
And then I remember Chris' head turning a little bit.
Beautiful girls on the beach.
They were tanned in bikinis,
you didn't see that in the UK.
I knew he was looking at other women.
Probably my first red flags that something was
going wrong, but because I was pregnant, I felt...
not good enough.
As Chris and Jeanie settle into their new life,
a pregnant Jeanie is often left alone
in Redondo Beach.
I didn't see a lot of Chris.
It was very difficult. I was very pregnant,
and we didn't actually have a lot of money at that time,
so Chris, he went to Mexico for quite some time.
I went back alone to the UK
to give birth to Jade,
and then finally Chris came back to the UK.
He was happy,
but he said we were gonna go back, and...
that was the way it was.
With the family back together,
Chris is eager to return to the U.S.,
but for Jeanie, the thrill is gone.
He started to stop coming home.
♪
I think he was seeing a lot of different women.
But I do recall the last straw was
over a New Years,
because he said, "You can't come with me,
but if you cook and get champagne,
we'll have a meal together when I get back."
And I did do that, and...
♪
[Voice breaking] Give me a sec.
He came home three days later.
I did not want to share my boyfriend,
and the relationship was over.
But, remained amicable after the fact, as friends,
but I did not want a romantic relationship.
Yeah, he just said he wanted me to come to Dallas and
we both looked after Jade.
My mom and my dad were separated when I was a baby.
So when I lived in Dallas, I saw him every weekend.
Welcome to World Class Championship Wrestling.
You're going to meet the newcomer from England,
the former British Empire champion, Chris Adams.
I'm very glad to meet you, Chris.
-Welcome to Texas. -Thank you.
Well, at last I've made it to Texas.
Based out of Dallas, Texas,
World Class Championship Wrestling
was one of the hottest and most popular
wrestling companies in the world.
When Chris came to the market here in Dallas,
we had Iceman King Parsons here,
we had three Von Erichs.
We had The Fabulous Freebirds...
so you had to be exceptional to be able to draw the crowd
and everything else to take one of those slots.
It was on par with the Dallas Cowboys,
and people loved it.
It was incredible in this area especially.
Hi, I'm James Beard, I've been in
the wrestling business about 40 years.
It's not an easy job, as you can tell.
It gets kind of rough in there sometimes.
Up and over!
[Cheering]
Chris was incredibly athletic and then can move like a cat.
All the kip ups and the dives and the superkick.
There's a superkick!
He was on par with the Von Erichs, really.
If you're on par with the Von Erichs,
you're pretty much godlike.
A tremendous roar for Chris Adams,
the Gentleman from England.
He had the charisma, he had the looks,
and he was a good worker.
But there was a way with Chris Adams that
he could be from Jekyll to Hyde.
Now when you people see this, I just want you to see
the fire and the wildness in my eyes.
Let me tell you, professional wrestlers
are usually ex-bullies from high school.
Chris was like that, too.
♪
In Dallas when he first got in the territory,
I would drive with him to the towns,
and the guy got lost once,
and we have a rule in World Class,
you're at the show an hour before the show.
If you're not there, then there's problems.
Well, Chris was late.
He blamed it on the guy that was driving him.
When you pissed Chris off,
his eyes would shine red.
[Growling]
Like a light was on in there.
And he choked them almost to death.
"Chris, you almost killed him." He goes,
"Well Kev, some people are hard learners.
Kev, I don't want him to do it again."
That's Chris without being drunk.
It was scared a lot of people.
Chris had- gave off an aura,
like this guy is out of control.
You know, he may hurt other people, too.
[Growling]
[Cheering] He is Chris Adams!
Now established in World Class,
Chris' ambition is to be the star of the show.
But in a company crowded with good guys,
the path to stardom is to become a villain.
Any territory you go in to where you got the
promoter's sons, they're always gonna be the top.
Usually every week the main event was always one of the
Von Erichs taking on whoever the heel was.
We tied Chris up with Gino Hernandez.
Gino and Chris actually had discussed it themselves.
This was a way to shift to be the main event.
Chris Adams and Kevin Von Erich ready to go against
Jake 'the Snake' Roberts and Gino Hernandez.
It was a tag team match and then Chris
turned on Kevin during the match.
-[Cheering] -Whoa!
A superkick on Kevin Von Erich!
A strange, strange turn of events.
And the next thing I know was he hit Billy and then
Chris hit him with a superkick, out of nowhere!
They turn Chris bad, got with Gino, you know,
it was a hell of a lit team together, man.
We're the dynamic duo.
1985 is gonna be our year.
They were good looking guys, great chemistry.
They both were great on the mic.
Yeah, well, we're real bad, right?
We're bad to the bone!
They'd come to the ring with a strut.
They had a way to antagonize the fans.
They were bad to the bone.
Chris and Gino, what a team that was.
We decided we want to make the best
wrestling show we can.
It was a feeling of let's beat what we did last time.
Let's, let's go.
[Cheering]
[Indistinct commentary]
One, two, three.
Kerry Von Erich pinned Chris Adams!
The business was booming.
The crowd, sell out.
Are you listening to me, man?
Everywhere they turned over 3,000 people away, man.
He was happier because, you know,
he was making more money.
He had a red Corvette. Nice condo.
Chris Adams and Gino Hernandez, see ya guys!
Well my dad lived on Lover's Lane,
and Gino Hernandez lived in the same apartment complex.
Everywhere they went,
there was always people following them,
you know, wanting to have a fun time.
Teaming with Gino Hernandez has elevated Chris Adams
to the main event scene in World Class.
But along with the money and the fame,
stardom introduces Chris to a new world of
dangers and temptations.
San Antonio.
After the matches we all went to the Best Western
up on the third floor, man.
They had three rooms, you had two tables in each room.
I'm talking about...
bricks of cocaine. And weed.
Then the next room they had pills and everything.
They had a pyramid built of
Jack Daniels for The Freebirds,
then they had my champagne over there,
you know what I'm saying?
And then they had a cop on each door.
I said, "How in the ---- are they doing all this dope
and then these police out here"?
They was given the police officers
a thousand bucks a piece, man.
The police just turned they ----in' heads, man.
And women un-----ing-believable.
You'd get more pussy on accident,
then you don't on purpose.
[Laughing] Hey.
I'm just keeping it real, man.
Chris and Gino outside of the ring,
it was always a dangerous situation.
It'd be like you lit a fuse.
The question is, when's it gonna explode?
I mean, we're into sports cars,
we're into fast cars, faster women and fast life.
I'm glad that they were good friends,
but obviously, you know, it's sad, isn't it?
You know, what, what...
what happened.
Hernandez, whose real name is Charles Wolfe,
was only 29 years old.
The popular wrestling star's badly decomposed body was
discovered late last night at his home in Highland Park.
He had apparently been dead for several days.
On February 2nd, 1986,
Gino Hernandez dies of
what was ruled as a cocaine overdose.
It blew me away, man.
That blew me the ---- away.
What has happened is a tragedy.
He was a great competitor.
One time American heavyweight champion,
several times Texas heavyweight champion.
When you talk about someone like Gino Hernandez,
a man who lived the life in the fast lane and
loved the life in the fast lane.
In the wake of Gino's death, Chris' use of drugs and
alcohol begins to worry those closest to him.
Sometimes he'd phone me,
and I'd know if he'd had too much to drink.
I really worried about that.
I said, "You need to calm down if you can, brother."
Chris was Chris until alcohol got involved,
and then it was Chris the demon, and he would
get mean, and he could get vicious.
In Israel it happened, and I'll never forget,
I get a call from the local promoter there and
he's like, "You gotta get over here.
You gotta get over here.
Chris got in an argument with the bartender and
he super-kicked him in the side of the head and
it knocked his eye out."
I mean his eye literally came out.
But Chris' drinking and bar fighting don't detract from
his appeal, as he strikes up a new relationship
with a woman named Toni Collins.
There was always a bar we would stop at in Fort Worth,
that gave us free alcohol- [Chuckling]
for the publicity if we'd all come by there
after the matches.
And that's actually where he met Toni.
One thing led to the other and
they end up getting married.
It was fast. He loved her, I know that for a fact.
Toni was my brother, Chris' mom.
I loved her. She was like a mother to me.
She was absolutely amazing.
-[Effort grunting] -Oh! Oh!
[Laughing]
Would you like a kick too? Here we go. Agh!
Oh, hey. [Laughing]
I think my dad met his match with her, for sure.
My name is Chris Adams Jr.
I am 'Gentleman' Chris Adams' son.
My dad always said that she was a 6'4,
400lb man trapped in the body of a
5'2, 100lb woman.
She was very strong willed, she was very fierce,
but also very kind and very loving.
Any hope that marriage might soften Chris' temper
is quickly lost.
We had had a show in the Caribbean,
and we were headed back, and there was some kind of
equipment malfunction on the plane,
and there was a delay for hours and hours.
But ain't no air conditioning or nothing,
it's just hot! People sweating and shit.
So they serving drinks.
Chris drank until they took off.
Now they're headed back, they're in the air,
and after about two more drinks they cut him off,
and they told him he couldn't have any more alcohol.
I'm in my seat asleep and the stewardess comes back and
shakes me awake and says, "Please get your friend."
He's pissed off.
And Chris Adams already lit now he said,
"Get out the way, bitch." And when he said bitch,
she said- Wop! And slapped him.
And he slapped her back.
[Impact]
And that airplane pilot reach in there and grabbed him,
and shook him, say, "What's your problem"?
Chris' eyes were that red light, goes on his eye.
Chris Adams had that co-pilot by the lapels of his coat,
and his feet weren't even touching the ground.
And Chris said, "Feel the power"!
And was pumpin' his head into his face.
And blood everywhere.
If he wouldn't have had the alcohol,
it would have never happened.
It's just that Chris was just not Chris Adams
anymore once he got intoxicated.
Sometimes something like that's a wakeup call,
but Chris just continued to have problems.
♪
Arrested for headbutting a pilot on a flight back
from Puerto Rico, Chris Adams has put
the future of his career in jeopardy.
It's one of those kind of situations that
when you start to sober up,
you realize the magnitude of your mistake
and what you've done wrong.
And that was bad publicity for World Class.
It didn't go away,
Chris ended up getting some prison time.
I think that hurt his reputation a lot,
once fans started finding out a little bit about that.
This made national news.
A wrestler headbutts pilot.
We had a meeting at the office, and he told Chris,
you know, "I don't know what's going on with you,
but you got to straighten up."
He brought shame on us, no doubt.
That's... terrible.
And I know that everybody enjoys a drink.
Everybody likes that last drink.
But you see, that's where the problem begins.
I think he realized that you've got to change.
You know that um, I've gotta,
I've gotta get a hold of this, and I gotta change it.
With his dangerous reputation now hobbling his career,
Chris begins looking for new ways to
capitalize on his fame.
Chris was always kind of industrious and looking for
a way to make something outside the business.
He used, I guess that, that,
celebrity to kind of draw people into it.
Hello, everybody. This is 'Gentleman'
Chris Adams here again to give you another
update on my own personalized coaching class.
We'll put you on your own course that last
anything from nine months to two years.
Talked him into starting The Wrestling School
at the Sportatorium in the day.
Hello, I'm Tom Lance,
and I was very good friends with Chris Adams.
One of our first students was, you know,
Steve Williams who became 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin.
'Cause Stone Cold said so.
The name is not Steve Williams,
it's Austin. Steve Austin.
And don't forget it.
What Chris did with Steve, you know,
was to teach him some of the basics,
some of the fundamental principles of, of combat.
[Cheering]
You know the story on these two.
Steve Austin, an individual off the street who came
into the USWA Wrestling Academy.
Chris immediately recognized the promise in this young
blond, helping develop his body a little further.
I give Chris credit. He did train Steve.
While training the future Steve Austin,
Chris introduces his new friend to an old flame.
I wanna bring down the sexiest girl in America.
The gorgeous and lovely Jeanie.
What relationship does she have with you?
That's none of your business, Mark.
What ended up happening was my dad put my mom and
Steve together to do like, an angle.
And then they started dating.
With his ex-girlfriend now dating his top student,
Chris cooks up an angle designed to put him
back in the main event.
Jeanie comes in as the ex,
and she's teaming with Steve Austin.
And that turned into a pretty hot angle.
You're jealous of Steve because
he is a real man.
My mom, my dad,
my stepmom, and my stepdad
all did an angle together wrestling,
and it was... yeah, it was wild.
It was not your traditional job for your parents.
[Laughing]
But I'll tell you what, Austin,
there's not room enough in Texas for you and I.
Be honest, Chris directed
every single part of that for me.
He'd give me every line.
I was to watch Joan Collins on Dynasty.
Mourning the baby that she couldn't have,
that is it, isn't it?
Why you miserable bitch!
And that was the idea of the character.
Just remember he Is thinking about me.
Only in wrestling could you do something like that.
And when the women wrestled,
it was sometimes an all-out catfight.
Jeanie goes after Toni.
Pulling your hair, scratching eyes,
slapping each other across the face,
getting the kendo stick, slapping each other...
anything that they could do to hurt each other.
It was nasty sometimes.
Well, neither one of us knew how to wrestle.
The interviews were my favourite part.
I am far superior to you.
I have royal blood in my veins.
She was born on a shrimp boat,
but she's jealous of me.
She said, "I can't believe you said that about me."
And I said, "Chris told me to say it."
I'm sick and tired of you, girl.
If you both don't back off,
you're gonna end up getting hurt.
Even when you get along, you know there's gonna be
some kind of issues there that, that,
just don't jive together.
You were my number one student!
You even wear my boots to the ring.
There were some issues with Steve and Chris.
I think there was a little bit of Chris seeing this guy
is coming along, he is really gonna be a star.
And I think Steve felt like he was probably
being held back a little bit.
There were some real, real life drama
going on there, too.
He is accompanied by Lady Blossom.
The WCW World Television Champion
'Stunning' Steve Austin!
I think he was jealous that we went to WCW.
I suppose he was jealous of the money.
As Steve and Jeanie make the jump to the big time
with WCW, a frustrated Chris Adams
turns back to the bottle to nurse his bruised ego.
When he was sober, he was, you know, great.
He was Dad, he was awesome, he was there.
When he started drinking it just kind of changed.
I know my mom kind of told me that
that's what it was like for her.
When I was older my mom would tell me,
they had an up and down roller coaster relationship,
and I think towards the beginning it was very good,
and I think about halfway through it got pretty rocky.
I mean, just, just the screaming and the yelling,
it was intense.
Especially if they both had been drinking
or something like that.
Chris had told me one time, they were headed home
from a show, they were in his Corvette.
Toni's driving, Chris in the passenger seat,
and the little boy Chris Junior was in the back,
and he said that some reason they were arguing,
and she had stopped on the interstate,
and a semi was coming.
Luckily it went around 'em and didn't hit 'em.
If it would have hit 'em,
none of them probably would have lived.
[Honking]
And it angered him so much that that's when he
got physical with her, and...
he beat her up.
You know, it messed her up.
She had to have some facial surgery.
I ain't cool with that shit.
But I remember
it wasn't until I was much older,
and she had shown me some of the pictures of
her where that abuse had happened,
and she was in the hospital for a while.
I couldn't believe it.
And I say all these good things about Chris,
but that's heinous. That's terrible.
It's disgusting.
I'm just now realizing how much stuff there was.
I didn't put it all together, I guess.
That's terrible.
♪
The horrific attack on Toni is a shocking
new low for Chris Adams.
But as the 'Gentleman' continues to struggle,
his descent to the bottom will only get worse.
She knew that it wasn't right for her,
that kind of lifestyle.
I think she knew she needed to get out.
She said, "I had everything that I had with your dad.
I had the big house, I had a Corvette,
everything that anybody could ever want...
but I just felt so empty inside."
Chris' bad reputation follows him to his next company,
the struggling Global Wrestling Federation.
After World Class and then Global came in,
and that was a pretty good run.
Chris Adams against Rod 'the Bod.'
Rod Price, he and Chris were battling for the GWF title.
Rod had long blond hair,
but it was starting to thin out,
so he ended up getting a weave put in.
Somehow they kind of sewed it in up there,
I don't know how it was all done,
but anyway, Chris knew about it,
we all knew about it, and it was kinda off limits,
you know, don't pull the hair.
Well, during this match, Chris,
because I think he probably thought it would just
come right off, and he jerked on it,
and instead of coming off, it ripped off.
And blood went everywhere.
I've never seen so much blood in the ring in my life.
He was just covered.
I mean, he didn't even finish the match,
he just left the ring,
and we had to take him to the emergency room.
I'm almost sure it was like 200 stitches
to come to get that all straightened out.
Yeah, he did it on purpose. Yeah.
In 1997, Chris finally gets the call from WCW-
At the time, the most popular
wrestling company in America.
I think when he got that opportunity to go to WCW,
it was, he was thinking, "Yeah,
this is gonna be the thing that restarts my career."
And, it didn't happen.
WCW was a second chance for Chris,
but the matches I saw, it almost looked like
they were using him to get their next star over.
-Watch out. -Uh oh.
Choke... slam city.
The 'Gentleman' Chris Adams,
was interrupting a cigarette break and he paid for it.
[Bell ringing]
He was unhappy that he'd gone to WCW and
was being used as a jobber.
One, two, three1
[Bell ringing]
I remember him saying that, like,
he was working harder. You know,
he worked hard, and he was getting tired.
And I think he was getting discouraged about the
whole thing, getting beat every night.
I don't see how it couldn't affect someone.
Being at the top like that, and then very quickly,
you know, if you don't stay on top of it,
you don't change your angles, things are changing...
it's gonna happen.
Your career is gonna dwindle.
I can remember him talking about,
"I know I'm better than this guy and that guy."
And in one light, he probably was.
But you know, wrestling is not always fair.
Other things were going on that were working against him.
[Siren wailing]
A few too many drinks and got a DWI and they let him go.
He was always struggling with finances.
His status had diminished to a point to where he wasn't...
he wasn't the guy you wanted to go to.
He was getting a little older,
harder to stay in shape, and people just
weren't coming to him like they used to.
He got into some other stuff besides alcohol,
got into GHB real bad.
Basically, when you do GHB,
if you do too much of it, you're just comatose.
I don't know why anybody would want to do it.
GHB was pretty popular in the day.
You know everybody kind of done it.
It started off for bodybuilders if you're sober
and stuff to help you work out,
but I know it would help you relax.
And some also would call it the love drug, too.
There's a fine line of how much you can take,
and it's a very dangerous drug.
As the 90s draw to a close,
Chris Adams' life is in shambles.
Broke, unable to find work,
and desperate for somewhere to live,
Chris moves in with a friend of Tom Lance,
a local wrestling fan known as Booray.
Chris was going through some tough times.
Booray had his place,
Chris was needing kind of somewhere to stay
and all that, so I introduced 'em.
If it wasn't for Booray I don't know
what Chris would have done.
Super good guy, cared about people,
went above and beyond.
That's why he was helping Chris.
Chris was lost.
But I love Chris, you know, he was my friend.
Chris was really a nice guy.
He was witty, he was fun, you know, to be around.
♪
I'm Booray, and Chris and I were good friends.
He was a good enough friend that
I trusted him in my house.
He was really a delightful guy.
We'd invite people over and cook out by the swimming pool
and we were having a good time.
I mean, they seemed to be getting along great,
him and Booray. Booray paid the bills.
He had no money.
He might work one little show here and there,
and it was hard for me to take money from somebody
that hadn't made money in
you know, three months.
I was happy to help him, but also inside
I was feeling I was being used.
While living with Booray,
Chris meets a young woman named Linda.
He was in love with Linda,
I know he was in love with her.
They didn't know each other all that long either,
but they were, oh God, they got along so good.
She was the angel, you know,
so witty and funny. She was just perfect.
She seemed, like, very mature, very stable.
I can see how Chris would find some solace in that,
because I think that's what he was seeking.
On the night of April 22nd, 2000,
after dating for just a few weeks,
Chris brings Linda back to Booray's house to
keep the party going into the early morning.
They'd been out all night.
They were having a good time dancing, you know?
And I said, "You know what?
Three's a crowd. I'm going to bed."
Chris told me this the next night,
that they went on and got that little bit of GHB,
and got two small glasses,
and just split it.
I had warned Chris way before this that
I did not want that GHB in the house.
You know, I didn't care what else he had.
That was his business.
The silence, I guess,
woke me up at about four in the morning.
I came in and they were both passed out.
Chris was slumped over a chair,
and Linda was on her back on the floor.
I was trying to wake 'em up and I couldn't wake 'em up.
Linda's lung started kind of...wheezing.
And that's when I called Tom.
And he was scared to call 911 because
he knew Chris would get pissed.
And I was like, "I don't give a ----, call 911.
They're not breathing."
♪
Booray wakes up in the middle of the night to find
Chris Adams and Chris' girlfriend Linda
unresponsive, passed out on GHB.
The paramedics got there, and I stayed
on the phone with them, me and my wife.
They're trying to wake Chris,
and then they're working on Linda,
and I hear them say 'flatline.' And I was like,
"Booray did I just hear 'flatline'?"
Because we know what that meant.
[Sustained tone]
It's not the easiest thing in the world to talk about this.
[Clearing throat] But she...
From seeing somebody that was just one of the
sweetest people in the world
die right in front of your arms, you know?
In my opinion, yes.
He was careless.
I never saw him use drugs.
He just told me the truth, that he gave Linda,
you know, too much of this GHB and she died,
and he was absolutely devastated.
Several months later,
they charged him with manslaughter.
I think he definitely felt responsible for it.
He was torn up about it.
I mean, he legitimately...
torn down about what happened.
After Linda died, he was going through
a lot of ups and downs.
You know, he had threatened suicide and
this and that and drinking a lot.
His drinking had spiralled really bad.
That would have been self-medicating.
I think he was just totally freaking out,
wondering if he was gonna get out of
the manslaughter charge.
And going from making money to no money, you know?
He was miserable inside.
I kinda got away from him.
Really didn't want to be involved that much.
And there's times when you wonder if maybe
if I'd... reached out,
maybe I could have talked to him.
I don't know.
I doubt it, really, to be honest with you.
I don't know how you can talk somebody out of that hole.
I really don't.
It's, you know, very obvious my dad had an issue with,
you know, drugs and alcohol.
And I just wish that someone had stepped in
and said, "Hey, Chris, you're doing too much."
I think if it had happened today,
I think he might still be alive.
♪
October the 7th.
I was at my mother's house, and
Chris had called me earlier that morning
and told me he was all bummed out.
I just said, "Why don't you come on over"?
Finally, about seven, he showed up.
And I had brandy and of course we had beer,
and I'm still not sure what set him off.
I must have said, you know,
"Chris, could you hold it down a little bit?
My mother's trying to sleep."
Anyway, boy, that's when he went berserk.
I mean, just like, boom, light switch.
And he'd come at me with that post.
I had a four post bed,
and he broke the post off and come at me with it.
I grabbed the post which cracked my index finger,
and then he put me in a sleeper hold.
And then here we go across the room.
He pushed me on a bed,
and he just started gouging my eyes out,
and he started biting me.
He bit me on the face several times
and then on the neck.
He had me pinned down and was choking me.
He just kept getting stronger.
His eyes seemed to glow.
I thought I was gonna die.
I kept a gun on my end table.
I put the gun as quick as I could to his shoulder.
The only thing I could do was pull the trigger.
[Boom]
He went crazy. It was like he turned into an animal.
[Growling]
And when I pulled the trigger,
he jumped a little bit.
Enough to hit his heart.
♪
I just wanted to, maybe,
wound him to where he could,
you know, get some sense.
It's hard to make decisions like that when you
don't have much time to make 'em.
He would have killed me.
I called 911. Asked them,
"Please, get here quick." It was bad.
♪
I remember that day very vividly.
I was in school.
My mom came to pick me up.
We get home and I remember her getting
down on her knees in front of me.
"Honey, I'm so sorry to say, but
your dad's dead."
And, ah...
I didn't feel anything at the moment,
'cause I thought, no. No, no, no way.
I got a call from my wife, and she could hardly
draw a breath and then said, "He's gone."
Chris had been shot. And I was, just...
to say I was stunned is an understatement.
I just sat down on the floor, and I was in total shock.
I was 19 when my dad died.
It was, like, very surreal.
I mean, and that was the first experience
I'd ever really had with like a profound grief,
'cause it was my dad. So it was really tough.
Like it took me a really long time to cope with it.
The funeral, it was packed.
You had ex-wrestlers that were there.
You had family that came all the way from the UK.
And yeah, there was like people standing out the back,
'cause there were so many wrestling fans there.
It was a nice tribute.
He had affected so many people's lives,
and a lot of it was for the better.
And I just remember being very solemn when I was there,
but hearing a lot of the words that people said
were really cool.
A lot of people loved him.
I pulled the trigger.
I'm sad, but...
I wouldn't be sitting here right now had I not.
I had to go in front of the grand jury.
They said, "It's over.
What you did was an act of self-defence."
It was almost like, him or me.
I feel like Booray had no choice.
I don't think he wanted to roll the dice.
Something happened in there.
Do I believe him that it was self-defence?
No, I don't.
A very sad and tragic accident between
two very good friends.
Alcohol being the common denominator,
and in Booray being a victim as well,
because he has to live with it.
So forgiveness has to be
the best way forward.
When you're close to somebody like that,
and then something crazy like that happens,
whether he's trying to kill you or not, you know,
it's still taking another person's life away from him.
That's not a good feeling.
It's awful, it's awful.
The thing about Chris that I'll never forget is
just how incredibly talented he was.
And it's a shame that that talent didn't lead to a
longer and more fulfilled life.
To me it's just, just a sad story.
Agh!
I'll remember Chris Adams as a great wrestler in the ring,
a great performer, a great athlete.
But when it comes to outside of the ring,
when the alcohol would kick in,
it was almost like he was looking for that edge
of why he'd get mad at you.
And he was a person that once he realized
he had an alcohol problem,
he didn't choose to solve it.
What a dichotomy.
He had a great side, and he had a terrible,
ugly side, that really outweighed the good.
But I'll remember the good.
I want my dad to be remembered as an
amazing athlete who worked really hard,
and as a loving father to his kids,
because I think his kids were everything to him.
Just wish he could be here to see
how we all ended up.
I think he'd be proud of us.
I think he'd be proud of my brother, particularly.
One, two, three.
There was so much more to my dad than just
the wild, crazy, party side.
There is a reason why people
called him the 'Gentleman.'
There is a reason why my friends over in England would
always say, "He could sing the birds out of the trees."
You know? He was, he was very charming.
He was very loving. He was a kind father.
I want people to remember him as that person,
as not just 'Gentleman' Chris Adams, but as Chris Adams.