The Many Faces of Crush

[Guest The Mountie]

Sunday sees the return to pay-per-view of Brian ‘Crush’ Adams in the WWA Revolution event, but which of Brian’s characters was the best?

[Guest Drury37]

I thought that Hawain "Conna" Crush was the best, but I other than that I am not a big fan of Crush,mainly because he single handly destroyed Demolition.

Thanks.

[Guest oldschoolwrestling]

I liked the Demolition Crush but his other characters were so poor I had to vote that Crush sucks.

[Guest treble charged]

Obviously it's Kona Crush.  Awesome music, cool finisher.  I was a huge Crush mark back in the day.

[Guest dreamer420]

Kona Crush was sweet as was Demolition Crush.  Personally I liked him as Brian Adams when Kronik first formed in WCW.  They were pretty bad ass then.

 

Also didn't he appear once as Demon Crush before Dale Torborg took over.

[Guest Tony149]

I liked both Kona Crush & Demolition Crush. The others sucked, except for the early part of KroniK.

 

Adams was the original Demon before Dale took over.

[Guest DEEP THOUGHT]

Hawaiian Crush was my favourite. He was way over with the crowds & Adams seemed to really enjoy the role as he was always smiling ear-to-ear when portraying that character. I've always thought that it was a serious blunder to turn the character heel.

[Guest The Man in Blak]

Strangely, I voted for Japanese crush, just because he had comparatively better workrate and brought the evil goatee.  I just couldn't mark out for a hawaiian guy who was getting beat up by an evil clown.  

[Guest goodhelmet]

Dude, Brian Adams unemployed is the best Brian Adams. Keep him and his freind Clarke the hell off my tv. Please.

[Guest RepoMan]

I loved Hawian Crush. I have found memories of him and Savage at WM X.

[Guest Drury37]

Kona Crush just seemed like a cool dude and he also facially looked different than the other Crush's(I know I am gonna get it for that comment)and I don't know why,oh well.

Thanks.

[Guest SmarkySmark]

I think we have some confusion here...was Hawiian Crush the blonde babyface version of Crush or the Evil one with the goatee that teamed with Yokozuna?  Both times he was hailed as being from Hawaii...which I always thought made the Survivor Series '93 match rediculous...You had Luger and his All Americans vs. Yoko and his foreigners...but Crush was on Yoko's team...Hawaii is in America.

[Guest AM The Kid]

Convict Crush complete with fake forehead tatoo.

[Guest Nick the Pick]

Definitely Kona Crush. At this point, sure the big guy was on the roids, but he actually looked like he might be a good wrestler one day. He was also over with the crowds, and was at an alltime high size-wise (6'4'', 320lbs). Didn't do any harm that he was possibly the strongest wrestler in the world at the time, making Luger look like a dandelion when he lifted the 600lb Yokozuna with ease. He also had some nice moves, like the tilt-a-whirl backbreaker and could throw a dropkick.

 

Unfortunately, it was all downhill from here...

[Guest Black Lushus]

What exactly knocked him down during his Kona Crush days? politics?  was that around the time he got arrested?  or did Vince just give up on him?...i mean the guy would have been a better main eventer than freaking Lex Luger was at the time, i think we can all agree on that right?

[Guest Nick the Pick]

Agreed about Crush vs Luger, Lushus. I don't know what held him back - I think the Doink feud probably affected his popularity/credibility. Vince and Pat Patterson thought the Doink gimmick was terrific and there was a solid wrestler behind the make-up, so they believed he was worth the push. Also, Brian Adams has never come across as the nicest guy in interviews, and has never been particularly popular in the locker-room.

[Guest Drury37]

I think Hawaian Crush is the 1993 face who used to wear the yellow and purple outfit and feud with Doink.

Thanks.

[Guest Nick the Pick]

Agreed about Crush vs Luger, Lushus. I don't know what held him back - I think the Doink feud probably affected his popularity/credibility. Vince and Pat Patterson thought the Doink gimmick was terrific and there was a solid wrestler behind the make-up, so they believed he was worth the push. Also, Brian Adams has never come across as the nicest guy in interviews, and has never been particularly popular in the locker-room.

 

I think that he was fired as soon as he was arrested, so the arrest would've taken place during his Japanese Crush heel days.

[Guest Drury37]

This is just what I heard,but I have heard that Crush was arrested because he sold drugs to an elderly lady.Now I don't know if this is true,but it is what I have heard.

Thanks.

[Guest Army Eye]

I thought he looked pretty intimidating as the convict Crush.., His membership in the NoD sure was a head-scratcher though

[Guest Drury37]

It looked weird when there was this scary dude who was a supposed to be an ex convict walking around with Clarence Mason!!!

Thanks.

[Guest LowSparkOfHighHeeledBoys]

I wen't with Demolition Crush...simply because when I was younger, he just seemed to always make me go "holy shit!"...plus the facepaint was kinda bad ass, and scared the crap out of me the first time I saw it....I also cop to being a big demolition mark...even had one of their tshirts.

 

IMHO, towards the end of the Demolition run, Crush basically WAS the team, being that Ax had the heart that only worked half the time, and Smash was...well, Barry Darsow.

[Guest Daredevil21]

Some people are saying that Crush single-handedly destroyed Demolition. I must disagree here. First of all, the Demos started losing momentum when they made the heel turn after winning their 3rd WWF Tag Team titles at Wrestlemania VI. I understand that with the intentions of putting the belts on the Harts and the LOD coming into the WWF, turning them was probably not an option.

 

Second of all, the Demos weren't very over as heels, since most of the fans still wanted to cheer for them, so as a result they seem to have a lot less heat in their matches from their last year as a team. The addition of Crush happened simply because of Ax's heart condition and it seemed that the WWF would have rather added a new member, rather than kill off the team entirely. Crush wasn't accepted as a member of Demolition by the fans, simply because he just looked bogus in the Demo fatiques and the fact that Crush was still very green at the time didn't help matters.

 

However, I wouldn't say that Crush was directly responsible for Demolition's demise. He may have hurt the team's heat a bit, but I think the real reason why Demolition died was because the bookers let it. They stopped trying to give the fans a reason to care about them after they lost the belts to the Harts at Summerslam '90. If they had opted to go with the Demos/LOD program like many wanted to see, I think that the Smash/Crush combo would have been accepted, but instead Smash became a quasi-singles wrestler and Demoltion was used to put everyone else over, before they axed the team once and for all.

 

But replying to the ACTUAL topic of the thread, I'd say my favorite Crush was the Kona one, simply because he just seemed more talented than he did in his other roles. Clearly he isn't better by leaps and bounds in the Kona gimmick, but he seemed a bit more motivated at times.

 

Crush/Doink could have worked, had they not add the multiple Doinks to the equation. Unfortunately, they did and soon enough we had a new face Doink with mini-me and Crush, well Crush's career went further and further down the wrestling crapper.

[Guest Drury37]

Interesting view on it Daredevil,I think you have a point there. My favorite Crush is still Kona Crush though.

Thanks.

[Guest Ace309]

Well, I voted for Japanese Crush for two reasons.

 

First of all, I loved the face paint.

 

Second, I was at a house show during the Japanese Crush days, and I was sitting next to a very little kid who was chanting "USA! USA! USA!" when Crush came out. I turned to the kid, and, being about 9 or 10, calmly explained to him that Crush was from Hawaii and Hawaii is part of the USA, so he was actually cheering for Crush.

 

In retrospect, it was mean, but it confused the crap out of the kid.

[Guest Some Guy]

The Japanese Crush was the best, because of the Savage feud, his last one in WWF.  Honorable mention to Kona Crush.

[Guest Drury37]

I also liked the Falls Count Anywhere match from WWF WrestleMania X with Savage and Crush,I thought Savage tying him up was awesome!!!

Thanks.

[Guest saturnmark4life]

Strangely, I voted for Japanese crush, just because he had comparatively better workrate and brought the evil goatee.  I just couldn't mark out for a hawaiian guy who was getting beat up by an evil clown.  

Looking back, Kona Crush was hands down my favourite wrestler as a kid. I was truly upset when Doink attacked him with the fake arm. God I was a dumb kid. Must have been about 9 or 10.

[Guest nWoScorpion]

Kona Crush. He shoulda gotten thje push instead of Luger. he was WAAAAY over, his theme rocked, and his finisher kicked fucking ass!!!!

 

Honurable Mention: Demolition Crush. No matter what, i liked Demolition.

[Guest areacode212]

I wonder why Kona Crush is so popular here. His heyday was during a point when my interest in wrestling was pretty low, so I only vaguely remember the gimmick, but still...from what I remember, he looked like a dork! Here was this blond guy with an orange outfit who always came out wearing a big grin. I guess I'll have to track down his theme music to help me understand it. Give me Demolition Crush or Evil Japanese Crush (his facepaint and outfit looked really badass to me) any day.