Adorable Adrian Adonis

[Lady Redfield]

Couldn't hate a bro from my hometown. Actually, that's a lie, I hate Marc Mero and Lex Luger. I liked his biker gimmick better. Anyway, had bigger tits than a lot of girls, but, what a talented wrestler. Plus, The Flower Shop =)

Sadly, Adrian Adonis (real name was Keith Franke) died at the age of 34 in July of 1988 in a car accident. He was in a vehicle with other wrestlers (everyone died but the driver, who suffered a leg injury) when the driver tried to avoid hitting a moose in Newfoundland, Canada, and drove in to a lake.


Adrian was an AWESOME heel. Truly underrated.

Original Adrian Adonis Biker Gimmick

Flamboyant Adorable Adrian Adonis Gimmick

Championships and Accomplishments

American Wrestling Association
AWA World Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Jesse Ventura

NWA Hollywood Wrestling
NWA Americas Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
NWA Americas Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Black Gordman (1 time) and Roddy Piper (1 time)

Pacific Northwest Wrestling
NWA Pacific Northwest Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Ron Starr

Pro Wrestling Illustrated
PWI Editor's Award (1988) PWI ranked him #128 of the 500 best singles wrestlers of the PWI Years in 2003.
PWI ranked him #35 of the 100 best tag teams with Dick Murdoch of the PWI Years in 2003.

Ring Around The Northwest Newsletter
Wrestler of the Year (1979)

Southwest Championship Wrestling
SCW Southwest Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
SCW World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

World Wrestling Federation
WWF World Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Dick Murdoch

Wrestling Observer Newsletter
Most Embarrassing Wrestler (1986)
Most Improved Wrestler (1981)
Most Underrated Wrestler (1982)
Worst Gimmick (1986, 1987)
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Here is the story about his death, if you are interested (this is his wife):

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Some matches/Piper's Pit/The Flower Shop:

RIP Adrian Adonis
September 15th, 1953 - July 4th, 1988​

 

[Apoho Creed]

Yeah Adrian Adonis highly underrated in my eyes. People look at him and think welp this guy can't work in the Ring and you be sadly mistaken because this guy could go all night long.

 

[Chris]

I wasn't really a fan of his "Adorable" gimmick, but I really fucked with his earlier tag team runs

 

[Deezy]

When he wasn't fat he could go.....still was a good bump machine after he blew up like the Michelin man.

 

[Buttermaker]

Some of the best Adrian Adonis moments are from early In his career when he worked with Jesse Ventura as the East - West connection. He didn’t have a biker gimmick at this time, but rather a pompous, arrogant New York attitude to mesh perfectly with the west coast, flamboyant style of Jesse Ventura.

Adonis job was to bump like crazy when the face teams of Gagne, Vachon or The High Flyers or The Crusher and The Baron we’re making their comebacks then work together with Jesse to cheat their way to victory.

 

[Chris]

Some of the best Adrian Adonis moments are from early In his career when he worked with Jesse Ventura as the East - West connection. He didn’t have a biker gimmick at this time, but rather a pompous, arrogant New York attitude to mesh perfectly with the west coast, flamboyant style of Jesse Ventura.

Adonis job was to bump like crazy when the face teams of Gagne, Vachon or The High Flyers or The Crusher and The Baron we’re making their comebacks then work together with Jesse to cheat their way to victory.

That era Adrian is definitely super underrated compared to the later years that most people remember. I'm happy some people remember him fondly after only seeing him from that time bc I do think he was a good worker...but man idk if I'd have that high of an opinion of him if I only saw him from like '86 onwards