X-Pac 1,2,360
Guest: Adrian Street
Release date: April 12, 2017
Recap by: Christopher Gaspare
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TOP NEWS ITEMS
-Street was told he was too small to wrestle by other British wrestlers and used the negativity to succeed.
-Street doesn’t think the stars of the ‘80s and after had enough background in actual catch wrestling.
-A biopic and documentary are being made about the life of “Exotic” Adrian Street.
-Street says that a young Dustin Rhodes was influenced by him for the Goldust character.
TIMESTAMPS
00:00: Show introduction and plugs
01:57: Introduction to weekly interview and brief story from X-Pac
08:19: Weekly new items
25:07: Sponsor Ads
25:56: “Exotic” Adrian Street Interview Part I
56:30: “Exotic” Adrian Street Interview Part II
1:09:53: “Exotic” Adrian Street Interview Part III
1:28:27: “Exotic” Adrian Street Interview Part IV
1:52:26: Sponsor Ads
1:52:43: Breakdown of Interview and Show End
SHOW RECAP
X-Pac and Jimbo talk about how their interview subject this week will be “Exotic” Adrian Street and how excited they are. X-Pac then tells a story about losing his fanny pack and seeing Pat Miletich on the plane ride after.
Weekly News Items
Jimbo goes over the results of the shakeup. X-Pac says he doesn’t get excited about wrestling items like the shake-up because it feels “like some silly scheme thought up,” which he acknowledges could be said about anything in the wrestling business, but he likes to hear the excitement in the co-hosts’ voices because he thought the split was a bad idea the first time around, but this must mean they are doing it “a lot better” this time. X-Pac reacts disappointedly for Finn Balor when he hears about his possible concussion after Jinder Mahal hit him hard with a forearm on RAW. He is asked if Mahal would have any heat on him for this incident. X-Pac says, no, as long as it is not a pattern of behavior.
Next, Jimbo mentions that Lio Rush might be leaving ROH and ending to NXT. X-Pac puts Rush over. He then tells a story about tagging with Rush in Maryland Championship Wrestling the night before Rush had an Evolve tryout. During the match, Rush dove to the floor, but his opponent didn’t catch him. X-Pac texted Gabe Sapolsky to let him know since Rush probably wouldn’t tell him he’s hurt at the tryout. Next up, they discuss Kane running for mayor of Knox County, Tennessee. X-Pac says he himself is a libertarian like Glenn Jacobs, but he doesn’t agree with him on everything. He says that he thinks Glenn will win because he’s so popular in that area. He says wrestlers getting into politics isn’t a “trend,” but because wrestlers are “smart.” Finally, the death of Larry Sharpe is mentioned due to liver cancer. X-Pac says he knew Larry and worked for him before. In reaction to the news item, X-Pac only says, “You hear different stories about people. Some people are gonna have good stories; some people aren’t. For the most part, man, I always got along good with Larry Sharpe. I feel bad for his family.”
“Exotic” Adrian Street Interview Part I
As they ease into the interview, X-Pac mistakenly thinks that Street trained at the Snake Pit, a famous catch wrestling school run by Billy Riley. This leads Street to tell a story about Karl Gotch believing he was the toughest wrestler in the world, so he went to challenge every student in the school, and lost to all of them. Then Gotch trained under Billy Riley for eight years before returning to North America. X-Pac asks age what age he started making ring gear, to which Street replies, “Three.” He tells a story about living in England during wartime and buying chocolates with his “ration book.” However, he was only concerned with the chocolates’ foil wrappers because he used them to make armor for his mannequin dolls. Street then reminisces on his childhood which involved a contentious relationship with his coal miner father, who also fought in World War II against on both the German and the Japanese fronts. He also states that nobody – not his father, co-workers, or other British wrestlers – believed he could become a successful wrestler because he was too small, but he says he “strive[s] off negative response” more than “positive feedback.”
“Exotic” Adrian Street Interview Part II
Street is asked if Randy Savage planned out his matches when the two worked together in the mid-1980s. Street says they didn’t. He grew to like Randy, but “like other wrestlers, if he were hung for being a wrestler, he’d die innocent.” He continued by discussing how Randy could only punch, stomp, and jump off the ring post, but he could turn Randy “inside out” with grappling holds when it was time to draw heat during their matches. From here, Street talks about ring psychology of pairing big men with smaller men. He also stresses the importance of building a match to a realistic payoff, saying that a feat needs to be made impossible earlier in the match in order for it to seem impressive later when it actually happens. Any wrestler, he says, needs to build their opponent up by making him look good so that when they win, it’s meaningful. Street doesn’t like squash matches either because there should be some drama in every match. X-Pac brings up his programs with Dusty Rhodes. He says that the Florida territory, where he worked with Dusty, was the best to work in because Eddie Graham liked “wrestlers,” so he especially liked Street.
“Exotic” Adrian Street Interview Part III
The interview moves onto talking about Street’s valet, Linda, and he gives her a lot of credit for his success. Street met Linda in 1969 when he was working for a promotion that had “lady wrestlers.” He trained Linda how to wrestle, and she was a quick learner. She became his valet and moved with him for the rest of his career after that. They were married in 2005 by a Catholic priest who used to wrestle under the name “the Wolfman” and his childhood wrestling idol, Don Leo Jonathan, was his best man. X-Pac asks about his constant changes in make-up and outfits and why he chose what he wore to certain shows. Street says that he simply liked change and always wanted to “make an impact.” He would even record the reaction of a crowd to the outfit in a diary. When he worked in a territory for an extended period, he would build up from velvet and lace with butterfly face paint to his skull make-up and outfits with chains and studs to show a seriousness.
“Exotic” Adrian Street Interview Part IV
X-Pac asks Street to talk about Grunt: The Movie, and he provides a few brief stories. He also says that a biopic and documentary, which will serve as a precursor to the biopic, about his life are in the making. The filmmakers are interviewing wrestlers who have known him. Recently, Jake “The Snake” Roberts and Mick Foley have completed their interviews for the documentary. Jimbo asks Street if he believes the Goldust character that Dustin Rhodes created was inspired by him, and Street replies that Dustin used to be in the arena when he was in a program with Dusty in Florida. Regarding Dustin’s androgynous character with a female valet, Street asks, “I wonder where he got that idea?” Next, X-Pac asks if Street was portraying a gay character. Street says he wasn’t, but he was “trying to draw attention to himself.” He says the gimmick would “suggest one thing” and be something different. The biggest difference between him and others that emulated him is that he would dress and act one way in the manner he did, but then he would be an animal when the bell rang, which he says is missing from performers nowadays. The show wraps up with a discussion about Street beating lung cancer, which he attributes to wrestling in smoke-filled arenas. He claims his contrary attitude allowed him to beat cancer and also recover from supposed career-ending injuries.
Breakdown of Interview and Show End
The hosts talk about how great the interview was and mention their favorite parts. Jimbo mentions that he heard Jim Cornette say that wrestlers that needed to be taught a lesson would be sent to Street to stretch them out. X-Pac says that he doesn’t like that type of culture in wrestling. They end by plugging X-Pac’s upcoming appearances to end the show.
SCORE AND REVIEW (7/10)
Street is a witty and engaging talker, for sure, but the interview meanders because the X-Pac and Jimbo found it hard to keep him focused on one topic for too long, especially early on. There are also some frustrating moments also as Street would frequently dodge questions and direct them to one of his many books. The interview did improve and become more focused as time passed, however. Anyone who is interested only in the modern product certainly will not gain much from this episode, and it’s nearly skippable as X-Pac did not offer too many opinions this week. However, for those that are interested in history or ring psychology, this episode will give them a handful of interesting tidbits, such as Street’s opinion on Savage and his ‘80s contemporaries, ring psychology about paying off a match, choosing ring attire, and his emulators.
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