Exotic Adrian Street: The Welsh Miner’s Son Who Transformed Wrestling

Daniel Holland
Aug 25, 2024
8 min read

Updated: Nov 20

There is a moment near the end of Adrian Street’s life that captures his story better than any promotional poster or televised bout. A nurse in Cwmbran’s Grange University Hospital asked him where he was from. Street, even in frailty, raised an eyebrow and replied, “Brynmawr. And I did alright getting out of there, didn’t I.” It was a line soaked in a lifetime of rebellion, resilience and self invention. For more than sixty years, this Welsh miner’s son carved one of the most flamboyant paths in professional wrestling, defying every expectation placed upon a boy born into the coal seams of South Wales.

Street’s journey, from the dark tunnels of his father’s pit to the neon lights of wrestling rings across the world, remains one of the most unexpected and compelling stories in British sporting history. Standing in glitter, makeup, satin and confidence, he became a cultural phenomenon long before the word existed. Yet his story did not begin with sequins and spotlights. It began in Brynmawr, in a mining family defined by tradition, labour and survival.

A Childhood Set Against Coal Dust

Adrian Street was born on 5 December 1940 into a family where coal mining was not simply a job but a way of life. His father had worked underground for fifty one years, a staggering length of time that shaped the rhythms, expectations and unspoken rules of the household. For generations the Streets had descended into the pits. The idea that Adrian would choose anything else was nearly unthinkable.

He later joked that he “escaped the mines the way others escaped a burning building.” It was not a job that ever appealed to him. He saw the men coming home covered in soot, exhausted to the bone, and sensed that whatever future was carved into the rock below their feet was not the future he wanted.

Even as a child he gravitated towards strength and spectacle. He became fascinated with bodybuilding, poring over images of Lou Thesz, Buddy Rogers and Don Leo Jonathan. These men represented a different kind of masculinity, one shaped through showmanship as much as physical power. They were proof that the world stretched far beyond the valleys.

At sixteen, in 1957, he made the decision that changed everything. He ran away from Brynmawr, leaving behind school, family expectations and the promise of the pits, heading for London to pursue a career in wrestling. It was a bold, almost outrageous leap for a boy of his background. Yet boldness would become the defining feature of his existence.

Becoming Kid Tarzan Jonathan

Street trained under Chic Osmond and Mike Demitre, men who gave him discipline and ringcraft. His debut match came on 8 August 1957, wrestling as Kid Tarzan Jonathan, a name lifted from one of his American idols. He won that first bout, defeating Geoff Moran, and began the long climb through Britain’s wrestling circuit.

The early years were spent learning how crowds worked, how narratives unfolded in the ring, and how to provoke a reaction. Street was naturally charismatic and athletic, but he also understood something many wrestlers never grasped: identity mattered as much as ability. People remembered characters.

It was during one match, when a crowd taunted him, that Street improvised a slightly effeminate gesture in response. The audience erupted. As he later recalled,

“I was getting far more reaction than I had ever got just playing this poof. My costumes started getting wilder.”

What began as an off the cuff moment soon became a new direction.

Little by little he crafted the persona that would make him famous. Pastel colours. Glitter makeup. Bleached hair clipped into tiny pigtails. A coy smile. A strut that blended camp theatrics with raw athletic confidence. In a sport dominated by hard men and straight lines, Street introduced something deliberately provocative.

The Birth of Exotic Adrian Street

By the late 1960s and early 1970s Adrian Street had become Exotic Adrian Street, one of the most flamboyant and divisive characters in wrestling. In an era when British television wrestling was filled with bruisers, strongmen and brawlers, Street stood out like a sparkler in a coal shed.

His matches became theatrical displays. He would kiss opponents to escape pins, apply makeup to dazed rivals and tease crowds who were unsure whether to laugh, boo or stare. He recorded glam rock songs with titles like “Sweet Transvestite with a Broken Nose” and used “Imagine What I Could Do To You” as his entrance music. This was not just wrestling. It was performance art placed in front of people who had never seen anything like it.

His gimmick played with gender, sexuality and identity in ways that were far ahead of mainstream culture at the time. The persona was implied to be gay but never officially stated. Street created an ambiguity that toyed with audience expectations. For some it was comedy. For others it was unsettling. For many it was unforgettable.

Everywhere he went, he provoked a reaction. And in wrestling, reaction is everything.

The Infamous Jimmy Savile Match

One of the most talked about incidents in Street’s career came in 1971 when he was booked to wrestle television presenter Jimmy Savile. Even at the time, Street disliked Savile, later saying he bragged backstage about sleeping with underage girls. During the match, Street attacked him legitimately and ripped out a chunk of his hair.

Years later, after Savile’s crimes were fully exposed, Street reflected,

“Had I known then what I know now, I would have given him an even bigger hiding. I ripped his hair out of his head … I drop kicked him so hard he landed on his head. I beat the crap out of him. I kicked him and smashed him and stomped on him. I put a submission on him that nearly broke his back. They shovelled him out of the ring and that ended the contest and he never ever wrestled again.”

It is one of many examples of Street refusing to play along when something felt wrong.

Miss Linda, Wrestling’s First Female Valet

In 1969 he met Linda Gunthorpe Hawker, who would become not only his real life partner but the perfect foil to his persona. As Miss Linda she accompanied him to the ring, scheming, distracting referees and elevating Street’s theatrics. She wrestled in Britain as Blackfoot Sue before taking on the valet role, becoming one of the earliest women to take such a position in wrestling.

Their partnership crossed decades, continents and countless promotions. Together they created a visual and narrative double act unlike anything else on the circuit.

Street (left) and his valet Miss Linda (right)

Building an International Career

Street wrestled across the UK and Europe, appeared in Germany, Canada and Mexico, and eventually made the leap to North America. In 1981 he and Miss Linda landed in the American territories, moving through different regions before settling in Ron Fuller’s Continental Championship Wrestling in Alabama in 1985.

He arrived as a heel, feuding with names like Austin Idol and Rip Rogers, but eventually turned face in an angle so surprising that fans fell silent watching him save Bob Armstrong from an ambush.

Street estimated that he wrestled between 12,000 and 15,000 matches in his lifetime, an astonishing number that reflected his work ethic and adaptability. His final bout was held in Birmingham, Alabama, in June 2014.

The Coal Mine Photoshoot A Statement to the World

Although Street’s in-ring work earned him a place in wrestling history, one moment away from competition became perhaps his most iconic and culturally significant.

After years of travelling the world, Street returned to South Wales for a photoshoot in the same coal mine where his father had spent his life. It was not a nostalgia trip. It was a performance, a confrontation and a declaration.

Dressed in full Exotic Adrian Street attire, sequins glittering and makeup immaculate, he posed among miners covered in dust and sweat. The contrast could not have been sharper. These were men who had grown up with him, worked with his father, and knew the expectations of their valley. The sight of a local boy returning in high heels, pigtails and satin was bewildering, even shocking.

Photographer Dennis Hutchinson captured the now legendary image. The composition said everything. The miners stand stiff and stoic, some confused, some amused, some disapproving. In front of them, Adrian stands confidently, hands on hips, as if to say, “This is who I chose to be.”

It was an act of self invention so complete that it bordered on performance rebellion. Street was rejecting not the men themselves, but the life they represented. It was a tribute, a confrontation and a liberation all at the same time.

His father, still working at the mine, was present that day. Seeing his son in full regalia, he reportedly said, “What are you? You are a freak.”

Street replied, “That is the whole point.”

Ad for the album "Shake, Wrestle 'N' Roll", circa 1987

Designing the Future of Wrestling Gear

After retiring from full time in ring action, Street opened the Skull Krushers Wrestling School in Gulf Breeze, Florida. Hurricane Ivan devastated the building, forcing its closure, but Street and Linda remained active in the wrestling world by designing and selling gear.

Many wrestlers wore costumes crafted by Street, including Mick Foley’s Dude Love attire during his feud with Stone Cold Steve Austin. Foley later said Street understood better than most how ring gear could shape a character.

It was a second career defined by the same creativity that had shaped his persona.

Later Years, Love and Returning Home

In 2005 Street proposed to Miss Linda at a Cauliflower Alley Club reunion, with his early inspiration Don Leo Jonathan as best man. The couple shared decades of work, travel and reinvention. They survived cancer scares, natural disasters and industry changes, always moving forward as a pair.

In 2018 they returned to Wales, citing the Florida weather and the destruction of their academy. Street’s connection to his homeland remained intact despite the rebellious break of his youth.

On 24 July 2023, Adrian Street died at age eighty two from sepsis that developed from colitis. For fans, friends and fellow wrestlers, his passing marked the end of an era that he had defined almost single handedly.

A Legacy Built on Reinvention

Adrian Street’s life was about transformation. He refused to become what society assumed he would be. He constructed himself like a piece of art, layer by layer, costume by costume, match by match. He was proof that identity was not something inherited but something created.

He once said, “I am not who they expected me to be. I am who I decided to be.” That remains the essence of his story.

His influence can be seen everywhere in modern professional wrestling. Characters who blur gender lines, performers who merge theatricality with athleticism, wrestlers who understand persona as a tool of expression. All of them owe something to the miner’s son who walked into a ring covered in glitter and dared the world to look away.

Adrian Street did not just escape the mines. He reinvented the idea of what a man from the Welsh valleys could become.