Ex-wrestler Adrian Street dead at 82: Wife confirms flamboyant former star – who once ‘beat Jimmy Savile to a pulp’ – developed sepsis after suffering a bleed on the brain earlier this month
- Street died at 82 after a celebrated wrestling career in North America and the UK
- According to his wife, Street developed sepsis from a recent brain bleed
- DailyMail.com provides all the latest international sports news
The wrestling world is mourning the death of Adrian Street, the flamboyant former superstar who once boasted he ‘beat Jimmy Savile to a pulp’.
Street’s wife confirmed the news to the BBC, revealing that the 82-year-old Welshman developed sepsis after being hospitalized with a bleed on the brain.
‘He was recovering from that at home when he developed colitis – a chronic inflammatory bowel disease – which later turned into sepsis,’ Linda Street told BBC. ‘That’s what killed him.’
The son of a Welsh coalminer, Street’s half-century-long career began in 1950s London, where he first developed a persona that relied on extravagant, gender-bending outfits.
After retiring from the ring, Street opened a wrestling school in Florida and even created the ring outfit worn by WWE’s Mick Foley.
The wrestling world is mourning the death of Adrian Street, who died from a brain bleed
Adrian Street (left) pictured with his father, a coal miner, 2nd November 1974
He survived throat cancer in 2001, and retired altogether in 2014.
Many wrestling greats are sharing their grief online, including WWE CCO Triple H.
‘A genre-bending pioneer whose larger-than-life presence and ruthlessness between the ropes changed the wrestling world forever,’ Triple H tweeted. ‘Honored to have called Adrian Street a friend.’
In 2013, Street claimed to have ripped out clumps of disgraced British TV host Jimmy Savile’s hair during a 1971 bout.
Street was unaware at the time that Savile was a sexual predator accused of abusing hundreds of young girls.
Had Street known this about Savile, who died in 2011 at 84, the wrestler would have given the TV host a ‘bigger hiding,’ he said in 2013.
‘It was all part of some big stupid gimmick,’ Street told WalesOnline. ‘But I was having none of it. I kicked his legs from underneath him, then I picked him up by his hair, held him upside down and dropped him on his skull.
‘Then when I looked down at my hands, I realized they were covered in hair – Savile’s. I’d torn huge clumps out of his scalp.’
Many wrestling greats are sharing their grief online, including WWE CCO Triple H
Jimmy Savile, pictured in 1971, the same year Street claimed he ripped the TV host’s scalp
The wrestler added that when they met in 1971, Savile would frequently talk about how young girls would wait for him outside his dressing room.
He added: ‘All the fighters on the circuit used to boast about their conquests. But Savile used to go on and on about the young girls who’d wait in line for him outside his dressing room.
‘He’d pick the ones he wanted and say to the rest: ‘Unlucky, come back again tomorrow night.’
‘Had I known then what I know about him now, I’d have given him an even bigger hiding.’
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