Chris Adams: The Gentleman and The Demon: Dark Side of the Ring Review

After a two-week hiatus, we are finally back with Dark Side of the Ring reviews!

This week’s episode is about “Gentleman” Chris Adams, whose career spanned before I was even born. Going into this episode I truly knew nothing about Adams so I was excited to learn all about his career and what was his Dark Side. So compared to the other episodes this season how did this one do? Let’s review!

Adams started doing judo with his brother first before he started wrestling. Once he saw that he may not be able to reach a potential in Olympic Judo he shifted his focus towards professional wrestling. He started in the British Wrestling scene as “Black Bel”t Chris Adams. As he was trying to do something different he recruited his then-girlfriend Jeanie Clark to be his manager as the two moved to Los Angeles for a fresh start. After Clark gave birth she started to notice that Adams was not coming home as often anymore. She realized that he was seeing other women and Clark broke up with Adams, but they both still raised their daughter.

Shortly after this Adams moved to Dallas and he started wrestling for World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW). Adams was able to stand out in WCCW due to his quick move set and his finishing move which was the super kick. One time when Adams was late to the building because the driver was lost he choked the driver nearly to death. This was the first sign that maybe other things were going on in Adams’ head that people did not know of.

Adams was teamed with Gino Hernandez they quickly became two of the biggest heels in WCCW at that time as they began to feud with the Von Erichs.  This made Adams make a lot more money and become more popular, but as stardom entered his life this is where problems started. Hernandez died at 29 years old due to an overdose. People around him began to worry that Adams would end up the same way Hernandez did. Adams started getting into bar fights and other issues including a time when he super-kicked a bartender in the face making his eye come out of his socket. Shortly after this, he fell in love with another girl named Toni and they had a son also named Chris. This did not stop his problems however as there was one time on a plane when the stewardess cut him off after three drinks and he started fighting her including slapping and almost choking her.

Adams was arrested after headbutting a pilot on the flight he also got jail time. This was not good publicity for Adams and WCCW as they told him that he had to change to come back to WCCW. He started a wrestling school in which he helped train Steve Austin as well as changed his gimmick to “General” Chris Adams who would teach life lessons on TV. As Austin came on WCCW Clark debuted with him and the two started dating shortly after. The angle between Adams, Austin, Clark, and Toni was an opportunity to put Adams back in the main event in WCCW. Adams was in charge of the whole angle and told everyone what to do throughout the entire thing. Adams then began becoming jealous of Austin and Clark for going to WCW and that they were making more money than him. With all of those frustrations and the fights that he began having with Toni, he began drinking again. He began beating Toni up and abusing her creating a toxic environment for their son Chris Adams Jr.

After this incident, Toni left Adams as he moved from WCCW to Global Wrestling Federation (GWF). From there he finally got the call to go to WCW as this was a fresh start for Adams. Unfortunately, he was not given the chance to shine and instead, he was a jobber as he was used to putting all of the younger talent over. He was getting frustrated as he knew he was more talented than some of the WCW roster. He was fired from WCW after he got a DUI and that he was doing GHB. Since Adams was broke and he was having trouble finding work he moved in with Booray who was a wrestling fan. Adams met a woman named Linda who he fell in love with as he was looking for a fresh start. Adams and Linda started using GHB and Booray yelled at him saying he did not want GHB in the house. As it was four in the morning both of them were not breathing and Booray was forced to call 911, even when he did not want to.

Linda died from the GHB intake as he was charged with manslaughter for giving her too much GHB. After this, he was depressed and became suicidal from all of the stress from the situation. Adams and Booray were at Booray’s mother’s house and the two were drinking. Something had set off Adams and he started going crazy. He bit Booray several times and he took a bat to his bedpost and broke it. Booray kept a gun by his bed at all times and he shot him in the shoulder to get him to stop. He jumped at the gun as the bullet hit his heart and he died. The grand jury had declared the incident as self-defense which did not make Adams’ family happy. 

Overall: Compared to the other episodes this season I thought this was the most dark side-worthy episode so far. I thought it did a great job going through all of the good parts of his career as well as the dark side parts as well. For someone like me who had no idea of what Chris Adams’s career looked like this was a good glimpse of it and sad as most of these dark side episodes are.

The Dark Side of the Ring episode on Chris Adams is now on demand and streaming on Vice.