Demolition’s Barry Darsow addressed whether the late Brian Adams, who wrestled for years as Crush, could one day follow his former partners into the WWE Hall of Fame. Speaking on the Wrestling Life podcast with Ben Veal, Darsow said he honored Adams during Demolition’s induction speech at WrestleMania 42 weekend and hopes a singles induction is coming.
Adams was the third member of Demolition, but the WWE Hall of Fame induction covered the team of Ax and Smash, Bill Eadie and Darsow.
Asked whether Adams will eventually get his own WWE Hall of Fame spot, Darsow said:
“You know, I hope so. It’s the same thing I was saying earlier. There’s so many good singles wrestlers and tag team wrestlers, who do they pick next? Brian was such a good guy, and he was a good wrestler, and he had a lot of characters up there. I hope he gets in. He has a lot of friends up there, and him and The Undertaker were pretty tight. Who knows.”
Veal pointed out that WWE has recently put new Crush figures into production, including multiple variants, and said he took the new merchandise as a sign the company does not want Adams to be forgotten. “I loved Crush as a kid,” Veal said, calling Adams “such a versatile performer” who played many different characters across his career.
The many faces of Brian Adams
Adams joined Demolition as Crush in 1990, turning the tag team champions into a three-man unit as Eadie’s in-ring role wound down. After Demolition ended, WWE repackaged him in 1992 as Kona Crush, a smiling, brightly colored babyface billed from his real-life home of Kona, Hawaii.
The character took its biggest turn in 1993. After Crush was injured in an angle where Yokozuna flattened him with multiple Banzai Drops, he returned to television that October and attacked Randy Savage, his on-screen friend, claiming Savage had abandoned him during his recovery. Now managed by Mr. Fuji, the newly heel Crush feuded with Savage into 1994, and the two settled it in a Falls Count Anywhere match at WrestleMania X, which Savage won.
Adams was repackaged again in 1996 with a shaved head and a convict persona, and in early 1997 he became a founding member of Faarooq’s Nation of Domination. When the original Nation splintered later that year, Crush formed the Disciples of Apocalypse, the biker gang with Chainz, Skull, and 8-Ball that warred with the Nation and Los Boricuas during the WWF’s gang warfare period.
Adams jumped to WCW in 1998, joining the nWo under his real name, and in 2000 formed KroniK with Bryan Clark. The team won the WCW Tag Team Championship twice and made a brief WWF appearance in 2001, facing The Undertaker and Kane at Unforgiven. Adams died in August 2007 at the age of 43.
Darsow added: “Brian was such a good guy…”
