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Seventies wrestling legend calls time on his professional career at 73

Posted: Oct 31st 2014 By: Katharine Skellon

Seventies wrestling legend Adrian Street says he has had his last fight.

The Brynmawr-born professional wrestler has finally called time on his 57-year career after his last wrestling match in Alabama in the US in June.

The 73-year-old who lives in Florida with his wife, Linda, also a retired wrestler, stepped out of the ring for the last time after 15,000 professional wrestling matches-most of which, he says, he won.

Known as ?Exotic? Adrian Street, he was born into a mining family and sent to work in Beynon?s Colliery in Blaina at 15 after leaving Brynmawr Grammar School, but said he hated it and always wanted to be a professional wrestler.

?I ran away from home at 16 and started boxing at a fairground booth in London.?

?My first professional wrestling match was in London in 1957 at the age of 16 under the name of Kid Tarzan Jonathan, after my wrestling idol Don Leo Jonathan.?

?I was so excited walking into the ring for the first time, I couldn?t feel my feet touching the ground.?

?I won the match in less than two minutes by dislocating my opponents shoulder.?

His professional career took off and he won the European Middleweight title in 1973, a title he went onto win five times, and the first of many which included the World Middleweight title. After winning his first title he wanted his photo for the national press to be taken in the coal mine with his father Emrys.

After becoming disillusioned with wrestling in Britain he and Linda moved to Canada in 1981 where continued to wrestle and he became a superstar.

?I?ve wrestled excellent wrestlers who probably tipped the scales at less than 120lbs right up to the behemoths that would break the scales with a bodyweight of 470ibs or more.?

?I?ve had various injuries over the years from breaking my nose, to cracking ribs, tearing my knee cap off and tearing my achillies tendon in half. After that I was told my career was over but I can never be told what to and I ignored the doctor?s advice and had a great career.?

After living and wrestling in states across America they settled in Gulf Breeze, Florida where the couple run their business ?Bizare Bazzar? designing and making professional wrestling costumes from a studio at their home.

?I design the costumes and Linda does the sewing. There is a special art in sewing spandex and we?ve made thousands. It has been absolutely insane. We get orders from around the world and not just from professional wrestlers we also make them for circus performers.?

The couple also designed all the costumes for the movie ?The Wrestler? starring Mickey Rourke, as well as stars such as Elton John and David Bowie.

During his career, the father-of-three has starred in ?Grunt? The Wrestling Movie? which featured three songs he wrote and performed himself, set up Skull Krushers Wrestling School which he was forced to close after severe damage from Hurricane Ivan.

He is currently writing the sixth of a series of autobiographical books, the first of which is called ? My Pink Gas Mask?and has plans to write a seventh.

The grandfather-of-four said he doesn?t miss life in the ring.

?The likes of ?Big Daddy? turned wrestling into a cartoon.

?The golden age of professional wrestling is over.

"I don't consider it wrestling anymore. They have taken the 'wrestling' out of wrestling."

"I've gone from the coal mines to become an author with 57 years in between."

?Retired life in Florida is good. I?ve been in the states for 35 years and have no plans to return to Britain.?