A wrestler who once gave monster Jimmy Savile a beating has died at the age of 82.
Adrian Street is a Welsh wrestling legend, known for his courage in the ring as well as his flamboyant outfits.
The wrestler’s death was announced today (Monday 31 July) after he passed away at the Grange University Hospital in Cwmbran, having recently undergone brain surgery.
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The son of a coal miner, Street shot from his humble beginnings to the big time, and has been credited by some with helping to inspire the style and fashion of glam rock.
Street was a big name during his heyday in the 1970s and 1980s, and took part in more than 12,000 wrestling bouts during his lifetime.
However, none have become more famous – or infamous – than his beating of Jimmy Savile, who he left battered up and missing some of his hair.
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Speaking about his encounter with the disgraced TV presenter – who is considered one of the most vile abusers ever – Street said: “The promoters were trying to put Savile across as a bit of a tough guy.
“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.”
He added: “Then when I looked down at my hands, I realised they were covered in hair – Savile’s.
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“I’d torn huge clumps out of his scalp.”
Of course, at the time of the fight, Street didn’t know anything about Savile’s horrendous crimes, but he did notice that Savile had a tendency to ‘boast about his conquests’.
“Savile used to go on and on about the young girls who’d wait in line for him outside his dressing room,” he explained.
“He’d pick the ones he wanted and say to the rest, ‘Unlucky, come back again tomorrow night.’
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“Had I known then what I know about him now, I’d have given him an even bigger hiding.”
Street’s wrestling role was that of the ‘heel’ or villain.
His nickname was the ‘sadist in sequins’ or ‘the man fans love to hate’.
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However, that wasn’t who he was in real life, and his wife, Linda, said that person behind the stage make-up and bright feathery outfits was ‘the kindest, most loving man you could ever meet’.
Street went to Canada and the United States during the 1980s, wrestling and living in Florida.
Then, in later years he moved back to his homeland in Wales.
He was so beloved that a feature-length documentary was made about his life in 2019, entitled You May Be Pretty, But I Am Beautiful: The Adrian Street Story.
Featured Image Credit: Michael Putland via Getty/BBCTopics: Celebrity, Jimmy Savile, UK News, Sport, TV and Film, Documentaries