Adrian Adonis real name Keith Franke Born: 9-15-1953 Deceased: 7-4-1988 Buried: Greenlawn Memorial Park Bakersfield, CA Kern County USA Adonis was on wrestling tour of Newfoundland, driving with three other wrestlers; Pat Kelly (Victor Arko), Mike Kelly (William Arko) who was the driver and lone survivor, and the legendary “Canadian Wildman” Dave McKigney. The vehicle struck a moose when Mike Kelly was blinded by the sun and three wrestlers lost their life, with another never able to wrestle again. Adrian Adonis had different personas throughout his career, and left lasting impressions along the way everywhere he wrestled. Known as an outlaw biker, who had a leather jacket and hat, Adonis played off his tough New York City upbringing, causing trouble everywhere from the WWWF to Southwest Championship Wrestling. Utilized a fearsome sleeper hold, known as “Goodnight Irene”. Very capable interview skills and wrestled top talent everywhere he worked, which clearly is representative of his professionalism. Adonis formed quite a memorable tag-team, the “East-West Connection”, with a young Jesse “The Body” Ventura in the AWA. Upon examination of his work, specifically a late match in his final AWA stint, against Greg Gagne, it became apparent how good of a worker Adonis was, and this was probably as the heaviest he had ever been. Perhaps, it is somewhat indicative of his role that at Wrestlemania III, Adonis was given a high profile match, with a Hair-vs-Hair stipulation against the wildly popular “Hot Rod” Roddy Piper. It was not the show-stealing match, or most remembered or ballyhooed, yet Adonis and Piper (and Jimmy Hart for that matter) played that capacity crowd (and quite a few other viewers through the years) with a beautiful exhibition of two grapplers struggling to see who could lock on the dreaded sleeper hold finisher. Biography by Robert Murillo |
Adrian Adonis Wrestling History |
PPV Ring Record TV Ring Record Career Record Legends of Pro Wrestling |