‘Exotic’ Adrian Street, flamboyant pro wrestler, dead at 82

“Exotic” Adrian Street, a flamboyant professional wrestler who dressed like a glam rocker but exhibited the toughness of his Welsh roots as the son of a coal miner, died July 24, his family confirmed. He was 82.

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Street had recently undergone brain surgery, the BBC reported.

Born on Dec. 5, 1940, in Brynmawr, Wales, Street was known for his androgynous appearance and claimed to have wrestled in more than 12,000 bouts during his seven-decade career, according to The Guardian.

“His flamboyant style entertained audiences and reimagined what was possible in sports-entertainment,” WWE said in a statement.

Street would enter the ring with his longtime manager and future wife, Miss Linda, garbed in pastels and glitter, wearing lipstick and sporting brightly dyed hair while wearing a feather boa, The Guardian reported.

Street was “the kindest, most loving man you could ever meet,” his wife told the BBC on Sunday. “The total opposite to how he behaved on stage.”

He refused to follow in the footsteps of his father, who worked in the coal mines of Wales, according to the BBC.

“Too dark down there, I was born for the spotlight,” Street once confessed in an interview.

Former WWE wrestler Paul “Triple H” Levesque, who is currently an executive with the wrestling promotion, called Street “a genre-bending pioneer whose larger-than-life presence and ruthlessness between the ropes changed the wrestling world forever.”

As a teenager, Street ran away from home and began wrestling in London, billed as “Kid Tarzan Jonathan,” the BBC reported.

Later returning to his real name, Street became a wrestling “heel,” antagonizing fans with his appearance and rough tactics. He further infuriated fans with his flamboyant costumes that was a precursor to glam rockers like David Bowie, Marc Bolan and Gary Glitter, according to The Guardian.

Street ignored the catcalls, skipping around the ring and planting lipstick kisses on his opponents’ foreheads before smashing them into the canvas, the BBC reported.

Street later moved to Florida, where he and his wife started a costume-making business called The Bizarre Bizarre, the news outlet reported. He also founded a wrestling school, the Skull Krushers Academy.

Street was featured in a 2019 biopic, “You May Be Pretty, But I Am Beautiful,” The Guardian reported.

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